[IshaanIan]

Originally Posted by Alterlife

It is also very specific to this car. Ertiga, Venue, Celerio are all cars that I've driven for fairly long distance with no issues.

The cars you have mentioned are taller where you tend to sit upright so basically yours is an issue not with the City but with any low-slung car. In such a case it must be bad posture induced possibly by work habits and not at all helped by the lack of physical exercise that is causing your back to be so weak. At this rate, in a couple of years you might start to wake up with back pain just from sleeping on a bed with a different mattress or with the wrong pillows or on the wrong side. You must not let this go unnoticed please visit a physiotherapist to gain more perspective on this matter and make sure to do all the movements and recommend exercises without fail as feeling exhausted or tired by the end of the day may not necessarily mean that you have done much physical exercise.

Please don’t take any offence to what I have said but it is the truth and I am saying this from my own personal experience where I am now almost 30 and am realising that not playing sports any more is having an unforeseen detrimental effect to me physically not just visually

[Alterlife]

Originally Posted by IshaanIan

Please don’t take any offence to what I have said but it is the truth and I am saying this from my own personal experience

FWIW I agree . Take care of your health.

[deehunk]

The Chevy BEAT and a used fluidic Hyundai Verna which I bought last year were a nightmare to drive due to poor seats and insufficient cushioning, the seating position is very important to avoid back pains. Similarly, Maruti cars for me are strict no due to awkward pedal position. These are purely my experiences, opinion can vary from person to person.

[Mr.Independent]

Originally Posted by Dead_Pedal

For me, the Civic seems more taxing on my back than the Jazz. The slouching, bending down, holding onto the steering wheel for support is all adding up to the pain. I'm about 174cm tall and I can see the sunroof of the car while standing right next to it which explains how low slung the car is.

I'm also keeping the seat at the highest possible setting of late and planning to add a cushion to further increase the seating height.

Originally Posted by Alterlife

I've had my Honda City for near two years now. I dread getting into it every time because it causes me a significant amount of back pain.

I've tried adjusting the car seat to various positions following Youtube, I've raised and lowered the seat tried various levels of recline... Nothing helps. More than 30 minutes in the car and I start feeling pain that will need a day's recovery.

It is also very specific to this car. Ertiga, Venue, Celerio are all cars that I've driven for fairly long distance with no issues.

I really like the car otherwise . Does anyone have recomendations for getting the seat of their vehicle replaced in Bangalore?

I alternatively use my two cars- Verna & Compass. While compass has a high seating position with loads of possible adjustment available, verna on the other hand is a low slung car with limited/manual seat position adjustment. I can drive my compass for straight 15 hours without fretting much about my back, whereas a continuous driving of 3/4 hours in Verna gets too uncomfortable and quite taxing on my lower back. Same was the case with my earlier ride (Rapid).
But after i added a seat cushion to my the driver seat in very like these - https://www.amazon.in/s?k=car+seat+c...f=nb_sb_noss_2 , it made quite a big difference. Not only did it increase the seat height, but also the egress and ingress were much easier and I can now drive verna for longer hours without much of issues.

[alpha1]

Surprised that no one has talked about the following point:
1) When you mention a "low-slung" car, you should mean "low-slung" seat. Its the seat that causes the problem, not the car.

2) Most of the 'low-slung' cars indeed have low-slung seat (this means that the height between the floor and seat is very less compared to your tibia (shin bone) (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...teral_view.png).

3) Seating on this setup compels you to keep your knees straight(er) most of the times, more so when you depress a pedal.

4) Keeping knees straight(er) stretches your hamstring muscles. https://embed.widencdn.net/img/verit...&use=d502n&k=c.

5) This produces a pull on the pelvis, rotating it backwards (you can imagine this well if you refer the diagram above)

6) This rotation of pelvis is technically called posterior pelvic tilt (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...4f4519125a.jpg)

7) This posterior pelvic tilt causes the rounding of the lower back, deviating from the natural curve of the spine, causing high stress on the individual vertebrates in the lumbar area: https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/c...ic+sitting.jpg

8) Incidentally, if you ever do squats, the same issue causes "butt wink"

9) The only way to resolve this issue is to bring the seat closer to the pedal area so that your knees are bent sufficiently which un-stretches and relaxes the hamstrings. Also, you must consciously try to "pout your butt" by forcibly pressing your butt (but not your back) into the seat, this causes the spine muscles (erector spinae) to contract and maintain ergonomic positions (https://i.pinimg.com/736x/fc/09/ab/f...945456695d.jpg).


10) However, the issue with this position is that it will require you to keep the right leg tibialis anterior muscle constantly contracted, because of the angle between the base of the foot and the tibia ("shin bone") needs to be held to hover your foot on accelerator, fatiguing it fast, and thus will require regular stretching (https://www.yoganatomy.com/wp-conten...r-muscle-1.png)

11) Also, regular operations of the accelerator, brake and clutch will require more movement of the thighs (since the leg in this position will usually no longer be supported by the seat, unless you prop up using some pillows or steep under thigh angle). This will cause your ilipsoas (https://i.pinimg.com/474x/e0/2d/95/e...5b8ac32f9a.jpg) and hip adductors (https://www.rehabmypatient.com/media...tor_strain.jpg) of both legs to fatigue.


So then, what is the real long-term solution? Get a seat that allows you as much height as possible, get your ABC pedals adjusted so that the start position is as close to the ground as possible.

Unfortunately, most car OEMs appear to be ergonomically illiterate. You may check the heights of A/B/C pedals of your car. A and B pedals spend most of their times hardly depressed and thus should be at same elevation and as close to the floor - does your car have that? (most of the times the brake pedals is raised quite high compared to the accelerator pedal)