Hi all! I'm new to the forum as I just bought a 2010 Honda Fit Sport 2 weeks ago. I love everything about my car so far, but have noticed lower back pain when driving long distances-I'm only 30 years old and consider myself in good physical condition, so I find it odd to be experiencing back pain. I actually bought this car because I travel 3,000-4,000 miles/month for work and carry a lot of cargo and the fit was perfect.

I plan to look into replacing the seats with leather seats if the cost is not too outrageous, but would like to know if anyone else has experienced this and what your solution was.

 

It may not be the seats but your seating position. A lot of discomfort is due to the fact that the back of your thigh isn't actually resting on the seat. Try sliding the seat back one or two clicks and then lowering and pulling out the steering wheel. It'll feel wierd for a little bit but I found the seats a bit more comfortable. Krimson Cardinal (KC) added washers under the front part of the seat rail to raise the front the seat providing more support.

What is your seating position currently? Clicks back on the seat rail & clicks back on the angle? Also, what's the positioning of your steeing wheel?

Others have discussed this as well so see if you can dig up the seat thread from the search (I haven't seen a recent post on it so it might be a buried deep.)

Welcome to the forum.

~SB

 

Driving is part of my work and so far I have no complaints on my back with the seats.
The most uncomfortable seats I have ever been on to was with the 08 crv (which I, thank god, traded in for a crosstour). My back just kills on that crv.

 

Lean back, grab the headrest, pull it forward.

Simultaneously lean into the seatback as hard as you can.

If you do it right, you'll lock the active headrest in the forward position, and get the pressure-plate that activates it to stop pressing on your mid-lower back.

As a bonus, it brings the headrest and top part of the seat forward where they're actually somewhat near the back of your head.

 

Bluesensation - I had the SAME problem! I, too, am too young to have that kind of back pain. I tried Occam's suggestion, but it didn't work for me (although, I may try it again.) I ended up adding washers to both the front and rear bolts (per Krimson Cardinal's idea) so i have a better driving position. The only thing that worked for me was to roll up a towel and put it behind my lower back to move my hips forward. Ah...much nicer. Looks a little funny with a random towel just jammed in that crease, but made a huge difference in comfort. Give it a try.

and Welcome to the Forum!

 

my back was a little uncomfortable when i first got the fit, but my lower back seemed to adjust to it pretty quickly and the issue went away after about a month of driving.

you could buy a lower back support cushion at any medical supply store.
i did, but i never really ended up needing it.

 

my back never hurt but i did need to adjust to the seat. it takes some time.

 

If you put seat covers on there, you can supplement the padding as you see "Fit."

Clazzios (I have these) and CoverKings are highly praised on here.

 

Placing three washers under the front of the seat rails is the best thing I've done to improve driving comfort, and I believe it was OCCAM who originally came up with it. He literally needs to shoe-horn himself to fit in his Fit.

It does work like a charm and is easy to do. Pull the front bolt on the seat rail, insert 3ea 3/8" washers under the front of the seat rail then bolt through w/ original seat bolt is all it takes.

What it does is give a bit of positive support to the backs of your legs and holds your butt in the seat way better.

The other part is adjusting the seat back. I've raised the head rest to get it off the back of the neck and then have found the proper rake angle for the seat back to work best for me. It takes a bit of trying to find the sweat spot, but you can get it, play around with the fore/aft position as well to make the two comfortable.

I was running the seat all the way aft and it was not working till I came forward a bit with it. Some one here was wanting memory seats when I first come on and I was thinking that's silly on a Fit, but if you share driving with another, seat readjustment can be a pain in the back.

I just completed 6k miles of driving up and down the east coast which included two 11hr driving days and I've suffered absolutely no back/leg/neck discomfort and I'm a 63yo 6' 200# guy who came off 9yrs of driving Cadillac Deville's. My FIT is not nearly as plush, but it is more comfortable, if you can believe that.

K_C_

 

I bought a Temperfoam seat cushion, which raises me up about 1" so that the curve of my back better matches the curve of the seatback. No more back aches.

An added plus is that I can drive all day without my butt getting sore because the cushion conforms to my contours.

Only drawback is that in cold weather, the Temperfoam gets as hard as a plank, and it takes a few minutes for the car heat to soften it up again.

Other than that, pretty much a win-win!

HTH

 

When I test drove the 2010 Fit, I thought the seat sat way too high, but after driving it for a couple of days I'm use to it now. Still wish the seat sat lower tho. My old 2007 Fit seating was more comfy.

 

I had to roll up a towel for thigh support on long trips

 

An interesting side-note to this trick: The more you raise it, the further off-kilter it will be: The inside front seat-bolt is verticle, while the outside one is drilled at an angle. I had to add an extra one to the outside bolt to keep the seat level... it became very noticable with the center armrest!

 

I'm considering buying a 2011 Fit and test drove one today. I love everything about it except that the drivers seat seemed very firm and a bit too high for me. I felt like I was sitting on top of the seat and not "in the seat", not a very secure position for driving.

My question is, has anyone else had this experience and if so, do the seats break in after a while or do you indeed, just get used to it?

 

Yes... yes... and yes, the washer trick works wonders.

 

I hoped I would get used to it, and didn't. The seat/seating position was my Biggest qualm over 18 mos of ownership. The foam does mash down and become noticeably softer over time, but it's rather thin over parts of the seat frame. I used extra layers of padding (I.e. Terrycloth) to give me extra insulation between my body and the frame. There's one part of the seat frame that put pressure directly on my sciatic nerve, and was causing me problems. Everyone is built differently and has different posture, as well as preferred driving positions, so take my experience with a grain of salt. Otherwise, the car is terrific.

 

Fit seats are uncomfortable. One of the drawbacks of the car.

 

Thanks everybody. I have heard this complaint before, although I know that a lot of people probably don't mind, but for me it is a fatal flaw. If I am not comfortable, no matter how great the rest of the car is, it's not worth it Honda, please take heed. We shouldn't have to make home made modifications in order to be comfortable. I have owned two Honda Civics in the course of twenty years, seats were great, as were the cars. What's so difficult about designing comfortable contemporary seats?
I remain a Honda Fit fan, but will not own one until they fix the seats, although I may give it another test drive in case I was just having a bad day.

 

Would this part of the seat frame be on the outside of your right leg maybe 1/2-3/4 of the way back? This just started with me after maybe 2 months and 4800 miles on the clock.......you can feel that hard metal piece of the frame by pushing down on the cushion and yeah.....not much padding there at all.


I am getting pretty bummed about it as I love the car but not at the expense of chronic leg pain. Might try one of those 10 dollar gel seats from Walmart to see if that helps

 

Bingo. I pulled the cushions off and used a hammer to bend down the metal flange that sticks out right there, but it didn't have much effect. Adding the Clazzios helps due to the extra padding.