I need find a way to make my Fit seats usable or the damn thing is gone.
These seats are the worst seats I have ever experianced in a car. I've never owned a Honda before but was told they are they the best in almost every regard, but this situation has become intolerable. My endurance in this car is about 20 minutes.
Does anybody have an idea or two? I'd spend the $2,000 to put Recaros in it, but then I'd lose the airbags AND my insurance agent said if I was hurt in a crash with non-stock seats I might not be covered.

 

Did you not test-drive the car before you bought it?

I would understand your predicament if your endurance was something in the region of four hours with the stock seats (the whole reason why I made my DIY Recaro seat swap), but twenty minutes? It sounds like you bought the car sight unseen.

 

that's odd. i had issues with my 08, but my '12 MT is pretty good. i drove 150+miles one way non-stop and it was fine. no soreness or anything.

i pulled the steering wheel all the way toward me, pulled seat back some what, and tilted the recline a tad more than usual. i also added 3 spacers on the front rail mounts per black3sr's recommendation to tilt the seat bottom just a little bit.

works great. i think i can do cross country in this car no problem.

 

oh yah, also added the return spring on the gas pedal so that it take a tad more effort to throttle. this allows me to rest my foot on the gas pedal without the car accelerating.

 

500 mile road trips no pain. Not in our 2008 though.

 

Exactly what I was thinking.

 

try the washers maybe they be helpful

 

lol Ive done 30hrs with a 5hr break in my fit. Just recline the set and stop being a grandma.

 

Weird you are having so much issues with the seat. If you have no problem spending $2k for Recaros then maybe look into 06+ Si seats. You will need to have custom rails made to fit them in the car but other then that it should be plug and play. At least it is for the 07-08 Fits from what I remember

 

I added the 06+ SI RECAROS with the side air bags. The driver side is pretty cake...the pass side is a little trickier to wire up because the SI rails are thicker than the Fits so the weight sensor has to be remounted.

It's do able or at least I would imagine they are wired similarly to the 07-08s...

It's kind of a gray area though because these aren't "stock" seats..OEM Honda, yes but not stock. Not sure how they would insure that.

 

6 hour trips often in mine. I don't seem to mind other than actually sitting there for 6 hours, granted I'm in the 09 but I wouldn't think they'd be too different.

Put some cushions down, relax, be mindful of your posture.
Retrofit some other seat from some other car in there. RSX seats? Who knows?
Could be an interesting/new project to take on.

Did you buy it without sitting in it for awhile? Hindsight and shit.
If you end up replacing seats, take photos and post them! hang around the forum!

 

Body type has something to do with it. If you're long of leg or thigh, and your Fit has a manual gearbox, the stock seats don't work so well. I'm just 5'8" and I had to slide the stock seat almost as far back as it'd go on four-hour drives just so my unsupported left knee would stop aching.

The GE didn't fare any better. I drove a friend's GE6 and it had a similar lack of knee support, although I wouldn't know if it's more agreeable for me after a four-hour stint.

 

I don't know of any reason why they don't make the seats longer, except to try and incent an upgrade to another model for people who are uncomfortable. Many Honda seats are too short; it's almost as if they can't believe that people grow as large as Americans do. However, the Accord, Odyssey etc all have fine seats.

There's also the lumbar support issue. If you like sitting up straight and having some, then they're great. If you curve forward and thrust your lower back to the ground when you sit down (lots of people do) then you find them intolerable. The latter group of people are the type who sit in airline seats and have no problem; I find those seats massively painful without a huge pillow behind me.

Adjustable lumbar would be a benefit. They don't offer this for the same reason - it's not expected in the class and they want you to buy something more expensive if it's important to you.

 

...Or maybe it was deliberately done in order to reinforce the whole "city car" vibe of the Fit. Who knows, really.

I'd be satisfied with a slightly longer seat squab - that's it.

The stock seats on my old 1999 SX8 Honda City (essentially a re-released EF Civic for the ASEAN market) were actually a tad smaller than the Fit's, but the driving position was much lower and it meant your legs were more horizontal. Even pushing a hair-trigger clutch pedal, that tiny seat was really good apart from the lack of lumbar support.

In this sense maybe siting the fuel tank underneath the front seats, as in the Fit, may not give a flawless driving position for everyone.

 

well i was amazed how fat some folks are and say it's 'natural' ... wtf
i dont think taffy apple dimension fit very well in any car ...

it's not honda's fault. the seat and driving position in my '12 GE with MT is fine for a box.

 

The Fit isn't made for normal Americans:

 

I bought a countour memory foam pillow to put under my (long) legs. It's a 200% improvement over the unbearable stock seat bottoms wich are WAY too short, too tilted forward, and are about as comfortable as 3/4" plywood.

Other than that, you'll just have to sell the car if you want to stay insurance kosher. If not for the pillow, I would have sold this car months ago.

 

Doing a long trip (2000 miles) I thought there might be problems so I increased the stops and shortened the days drive. My A$$ felt like I had been sitting on a board, so I knew I had to do something more. I might have fixed my seats, first 1 inch of foam under the new seat covers, then a trip to Ace and get a couple of longer bolts, loosened the rear bolts replaced the front with the longer bolt after placing a large nut under track, raising the track about .5 inch, didn't think 3 washers would do enough. Even short trips are better as the angle the foot rests on the gas pedal is better.

 

I think the Fit seats are fine and dandy comfy, maybe they were made for small Japanese men like myself lol, im 5'9 175lbs. These seats are so comfy i find myself falling asleep in traffic.

 

175lbs is a small Japanese man?

Agree though, I like the seats