Major safety concern: any way to lower the driver's seat even more?

2013SiSedan

Well-Known Member
54
11
Toronto
Vehicle Model
Civic Si
Body Style
Sedan
While I was quite impressed with the 9th Gen Civic's improvements over the 8th Gen, I was baffled at all of the ways they made it inferior to the 8th Gen.

My biggest concern at this point is that they made the interior smaller everywhere, most importantly reducing the head room. Now I've tried tilting my driver's seat back a little to avoid constantly hitting my head in the roof (I'm 6 foot 3 and a bit tall), and while it's better than having it straight up as I always preferred to drive my 8th Gen, my head still sometimes hits the roof while sitting up straight. I find this to be an issue not only because it forces me to slouch, but also because if I were to have a major accident, I see it easily cracking my head open. I do have the seat lowered all the way down with the knob if you will.

I am starting to consider getting rid of my 2013 Civic Si for fear of it killing me one day because of this issue. Does anyone have any suggestions on how the seat could be further lowered so I get sufficient clearance from the roof?
 
I'm over 6'3" and I don't have any issue with my head hitting the roof. I have the seat tilted back to a comfortable position for me. It def isn't straight up, I feel like i am right in top of the wheel if I have it that way. I think it just comes down to your personal preference. Having the seat that upright seems extreme for people our height though.
 
See for me, the more I tilt the back-rest of my seat, the sleepier I start to feel, so I try to have it as upright as I can.
 
Speaking of safety, my head rest isn't adjustable(other than up and down), so in order to have your head one to two fingers from the rest, the tilt of the seat is the only adjustment there is, and on these seats the more straight up the seat the closer the rest will be, which isn't where we want it.
As a long haul driver I found that the straighter up I sat the more alert I stayed(less likely to fall asleep). I personally like to sit with it reclined though, because it's more comfortable, and I'm not driving cross country any more.
Personally I haven't liked any car seat after my '68 Triumph, my favorite part was the seat was low to the floor and my legs were straight out, and the next was the way the back rest wrapped around me, the seat belts didn't have any slack like now, so once adjusted it held me in place.
This just brought up memories of a nice set-up. Which if I had the money I'd probably go for an aftermarket seat and lower rails, just my thoughts.
 
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In terms of affording it, I'm barely able to afford this car, so adding anything to it at this point is not ideal by any means. The more I think about it, the more the idea of down-grading back to an 8th Gen Civic seems like a good idea for me :-s
 
So I've calmed down a bit since my last post, and I've decided I love this car too much to get rid of it, even if it might pose a safety concern.

I did try tilting the back rest further back, but more than one level back is too far for me, so I'm back to having it only tilted one level back/down.

Anyone have any other cost-effective suggestions? :)
 
I'm 6'5" with a long torso and I just deal with it. I can tell I need a haircut when I feel my hair brushing on the roof.
 
How do you deal with it, nopslide? Do you slouch and/or tilt your back-rest back, or some other way? I find that I hit my head on the ceiling on bumps when I'm not slouching :-(

See, I would've thought that having more hair would've given me better padding on those bumps, but it does still hurt quite a bit. Maybe shaving all my hair off would help my case? ;-)
 
I do ride my seat reclined quite a bit but I've always driven like that even in larger sedans and whatnot. Do you lean at all when you're driving? I dont lean on my driver door or use the door armrest I just drive w/ the left hand centered on the wheel and keep the right arm on the middle armest (slide it forward if you have a 2013) it makes your body naturally lean to the right a bit which lets your head be in the gap provided by the sunroof. I do wish they offered an Si without the sunroof though, my wife's 8th w/out sunroof has plenty of headroom.
 
I keep my moonroof cover always open, whenever I can (which so far has been much more often than on my CSX).

As for the rest, unfortunately that doesn't work for me, as that'd create back problems for me, which I already have quite a bit of :-(
 
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