Front Seats

[Jimota]

Thought it was just my imagination but recently I felt the support on the left side of the drivers seat wasn’t quite as good as the right side.  When sitting down and driving forward, the right lateral cushion on the backrest seemed to cosset you very well when going round corners or bends in the road while the left side created a little bit of movement.  Tried to adjust the seating positions and configurations, including the lateral support, but still got got the same feeling.  However, on having a closer look at the seat, I discovered that the backrest was not symmetrical.  From the  end of the flat back to the right outer edge lateral cushion measured 6.5 inches while the opposite left side was only 5 inches.  The same measurements applied to the passengers seat as well.  I’ve never encountered this before and was wondering if the seat was actually designed this way or they ran out of foam when building the seat😀

It’s not a big deal but I regularly drive through East Kilbride which is Scotland’s biggest new town.  It’s a bit like a scaled down version of Milton Keynes and nearly has the same of amount of roundabouts.  Some people refer to it as polo mint city because of the similarity of the round shapes.  Please excuse my photo and editing skills but hopefully you’ll understand my description from the attached image.

[Jimota]

Funnily enough, It’s only me who experiences the slight movement.  My wife thinks the support on both sides are the same.  As I said, it’s not really a problem but I wonder what it would be like on a really long drive.  My good lady is an excellent problem solver and told me to get my back adjusted rather than mess about with seating configurations.😟

 

[APS]

It'll be a deliberate design choice. Perhaps something about getting in and out of the car, crash safety, air bag... ? I'd guess the seat is placed quite far from the door opening towards the centre of the car. This 'extension' might just be a way to bridge that gap to make it easy to get in and out.  

[forkingabout]

Yaris / Yaris cross have centre airbags mounted in the front seats - maybe that is the reason why, deployment space take precedent over occupant comfort & symmetrical seats. 

 

[Jimota]

Great Video Lee.  That puts things into perspective.  Cheers.

[TonyHSD]

Or perhaps a wear from getting in and out. If me I will quietly visit a dealer with same car on display at the showroom and check if it’s the same. If different then I will take it from there but if its a wear thing I won’t go back without new seats fitted 🫢

A member with the  same spec car can also help if take some pictures from the front seats and share with us. 👍

[Jimota]

Good point Tony.   It would be interesting to see if the measurements are similar throughout the Yaris Cross owners forum.

[TonyHSD]

3 hours ago, Jimota said:

Good point Tony.   It would be interesting to see if the measurements are similar throughout the Yaris Cross owners forum.

Nah, it seems this is how they are. I managed to get a screen shot from a video and here looks the same to me. 

 

[Jimota]

Maybe my wife is right, I’ll just have to get my back adjusted.  😉

[anchorman]

The seats in my Excel are flippin awful.  What is this obsession with over bolstering?  The only good point is the heaters are excellent, not warm but hot.

[Cyker]

It's to hold you in place when doing powerslides and handbrake tur-*looks at EPB* damnit!

 

[anchorman]

8 hours ago, Cyker said:

It's to hold you in place when doing powerslides and handbrake tur-*looks at EPB* damnit!

 

You can use the EPB on the hoof - it’s your emergency brake.  

[Ralph H]

2 hours ago, anchorman said:

You can use the EPB on the hoof - it’s your emergency brake.  

Yeah if you can find the tiny button while dealing with the emergency! 
On that note does the arm rest get in the way of the centre console buttons on the cross like it does in the normal Yaris? I have to keep it up out of the way as i like to turn brake hold on and off when required and can only easily do it with the rest out of the way. 

[Bernard Foy]

1 hour ago, Ralph H said:

Yeah if you can find the tiny button while dealing with the emergency! 
On that note does the arm rest get in the way of the centre console buttons on the cross like it does in the normal Yaris? I have to keep it up out of the way as i like to turn brake hold on and off when required and can only easily do it with the rest out of the way. 

Maybe I’m a little bit more flexible, I don’t have a problem using brake hold and arm rest in normal position 😆🤔.

[Guest]

20 hours ago, APS said:

It'll be a deliberate design choice. Perhaps something about getting in and out of the car, crash safety, air bag... ? I'd guess the seat is placed quite far from the door opening towards the centre of the car. This 'extension' might just be a way to bridge that gap to make it easy to get in and out.  

Would different dimensioned seats be manufactured depending on whether l.h.d. or r.h.d.?

r.h.d. being in the minority so not worth different tooling for those car seats. Or maybe they are all made for  l.h.d. and just chuck those seats in during build?

Location of airbag too, as APS writes Airbag located in the larger dimension in the seat pictured?

[TonyHSD]

I believe seats are the same for LHD and RHD cars.
Build in air bags can also be the reason but or simply designed for easy access in and out., although seat bases and back support should have somewhat symmetrical design and shape to accommodate the human body. There are so many owners of Cross Design cars, please take some pictures as it’s very interesting to all. 👌

[Ralph H]

Looks to me like the seats are made offset to line up with the steering wheel 

[forkingabout]

1 hour ago, olonas said:

Location of airbag too, as APS writes Airbag located in the larger dimension in the seat pictured?

Yaris / Yaris cross have 2 x airbag in each of the front seats, there is the normal outside airbag which fires towards the door.

Then there is the centre airbag which fires to stop the occupants from being throw across to the opposite site of the car or colliding with each other. 

The video link I posted earlier in this thread shows these airbags being crash tested. 

[APS]

1 hour ago, olonas said:

Would different dimensioned seats be manufactured depending on whether l.h.d. or r.h.d.?

r.h.d. being in the minority so not worth different tooling for those car seats. Or maybe they are all made for  l.h.d. and just chuck those seats in during build?

Location of airbag too, as APS writes Airbag located in the larger dimension in the seat pictured?

No, not generally. Most volume cars would use the same seats regardless of which side the driver sits on. The main difference would be adjustments, where some models will have additional adjustments for lumbar, seat cushion angle and reach. This may also be powered on the driver side. It's probably more down to the grade, where the base models have the least difference between left and right, and higher grades have more features and may also have deeper and stronger bolster.

Airbags are small and don't really add much to the size. I think the hypothesis by Lee above, giving more space for the centre airbag to inflate seems plausible.

In any case, as @Jimota said in his initial post, it's a bit of a non-issue and as intended. 

[APS]

4 minutes ago, forkingabout said:

Then there is the centre airbag which fires to stop the occupants from being throw across to the opposite site of the car or colliding with each other. 

That video really showed how violently the two front occupant's heads came together. The centre airbags definitely makes sense. Thanks for sharing.

[TonyHSD]

Seeing the picture from Ralph it looks like the base it’s also a non symmetrical., the fact that it could simply be a wear to the foam and misshaped seat cushions can’t get out of my mind because both outer sides up and down are somehow squished.  
We need to see a brand new model freshly delivered. And here we go my investigation what found 👍

[anchorman]

I think they’re both the same in mine.  They’re so blithering big they could fit airbags and paramedics in them.  

[anchorman]

8 hours ago, Ralph H said:

Yeah if you can find the tiny button while dealing with the emergency! 
On that note does the arm rest get in the way of the centre console buttons on the cross like it does in the normal Yaris? I have to keep it up out of the way as i like to turn brake hold on and off when required and can only easily do it with the rest out of the way. 

I’ve not noticed.  I rarely use the handbrake because it’s automatic.  I use the auto hold every journey but I put it on and leave it on.  They only time I ever take it off is iff I want to ease up close to something.  I also sit as far back as the seat will go so that might be a factor if you sit forward.  I’ll take a picture if I think on.  

[Cyker]

Maybe a seating position thing? I have a normal Yaris and don't have issues accessing the buttons; I often toggle off brake hold when doing e.g. tight parallel parks, as it's easier to fight the creep since I can't make it not creep. I also sometimes cycle through the power modes when on the motorway (I use Eco mode most of the time as it gives more low-speed control, but Power or Normal are definitely more suited at higher speeds if I'm not abusing the smeg out of the cruise control  )

The light-coloured armrest is looking a bit nasty now tho', it gets marked so easily!  

[Rhymes with Paris]

11 minutes ago, Cyker said:

The light-coloured armrest is looking a bit nasty now tho', it gets marked so easily!  

Yeah, I noticed that when I was down there,  those left hand kebabs do drip a bit, solved it by eating in at a pie and mash shop in Acton.

What the hell is green liquor btw?