Parking - in the new day an age - Rant

[MossRoad]

I've found most modern sedans are like that which is why I have no interest in ever having another one. Might be somewhat comfortable when you first get in, but there's no place to shift your legs even slightly, so after a half hour or so it feels very claustrophobic. Never occurred that it might have been a "safety feature" as ponytug pointed out, but if you can't get comfortable/move your legs easily it seems to me that it works against safety, not towards it. But what do I know...?

I have pretty nice leg room in our 2013 Impala. I even have to move the seat forward as well.
My kid's Malibu is a little tighter, but still pretty comfortable.
Other modern smaller cars are not so comfortable.
My work van is a Ford Transit Connect and it's pretty tight, too.

 

[LouNY]

I had to look for quite awhile to find a RAM 1500 with the power lumbar support on the passenger side with a "bench" seat.
It's more like a couple of large bucket seats with a small jump seat in the middle but it does not have the huge center console that the other trucks have.
The large console seemed to interfere with my right knee after an hour or so of driving. It does have enough foot room that my feet don't get tangled up with the pedals which was an issue with the so called compact trucks (big feet).

 

[deserteagle71]

Personally, I really dislike the huge consoles they put in most if not all vehicles today. Unless there's stuff that's concealed under it they don't really serve much of a purpose, and make the interior feel cramped.

^ Me also! I hate sitting in a "chute", with no room to the sides.

When I was shopping for a new pickup one of the reasons I chose my F150 was that the shift lever was still up on the steering column and not in a huge center console. On longer drives where I can set the cruise control I can move my right leg/foot over to the side where the console would be on a lot of vehicles. But vehicles without that center console are getting very hard to find........

 

[ovrszd]

^ Me also! I hate sitting in a "chute", with no room to the sides.

When I was shopping for a new pickup one of the reasons I chose my F150 was that the shift lever was still up on the steering column and not in a huge center console. On longer drives where I can set the cruise control I can move my right leg/foot over to the side where the console would be on a lot of vehicles. But vehicles without that center console are getting very hard to find........

Both my old F250s (00, 02) have matching bucket seats and a wide console in the middle. The console will hold a manila folder full of papers without folding them. Pen holders, small calculator holders, coin holders and the newer one two cup holders. Those consoles are my favorite part of the interior. Keeps the dash clear.

Not sure what year your F150 is, but the newer ones use the same cab as the F250s. Mega room in the cabs including the back seats of the 4 dr versions.

 

[Jstpssng]

I’m not a fan of the center consoles either, but I do like the floor shifter in my Colorado. I tend to use the transmission a lot on snow covered roads; running in 4wd I kick it down and utilize transmission braking a lot.
I don’t know how that will affect the longetivity on the tranny but expect to need a new one in a couple of years anyways; GM transmissions don’t have a good reputation and I’ve found they last about 120k miles.

 

[ponytug]

I've found most modern sedans are like that which is why I have no interest in ever having another one. Might be somewhat comfortable when you first get in, but there's no place to shift your legs even slightly, so after a half hour or so it feels very claustrophobic. Never occurred that it might have been a "safety feature" as ponytug pointed out, but if you can't get comfortable/move your legs easily it seems to me that it works against safety, not towards it. But what do I know...?

I look at it as daily comfort vs. reduced pain and suffering during/after a crash. There is definitely a marginal cost/marginal benefit.

I find it interesting to me that minor changes in the foam stiffness or location in seats has made an incredible difference in comfort for me. I have one vehicle that was giving/exacerbating a pelvic pain issue for me. Eventually, I traced it down to the drivers seat being designed to be not square with the steering wheel and pedals. I added a small cushion so that I could sit "off-axis", and the pain went away.

Having been a passenger in a number of accidents when I was younger, I'm all for safer cars, so I am willing to work with thicker "A" pillars and knee room. Then again, I don't have size thirteen winter boots on... If I did, I could certainly see driving F-450s and Freightliner... With my co-pilot being under five feet, we find a number of vehicles fail the "adjustment range test". Two of our cars are a couple feature levels up just to get tilt steering wheels and adjustable pedals. Personally, I really like having memory seats, but we don't have any vehicles with them anymore (deer collision...).

All the best,

Peter

 

[deserteagle71]

Both my old F250s (00, 02) have matching bucket seats and a wide console in the middle. The console will hold a manila folder full of papers without folding them. Pen holders, small calculator holders, coin holders and the newer one two cup holders. Those consoles are my favorite part of the interior. Keeps the dash clear.

Not sure what year your F150 is, but the newer ones use the same cab as the F250s. Mega room in the cabs including the back seats of the 4 dr versions.

This is the interior of my 2016 F150. 40/20/40 seats - all the small crap you're talking about goes in the back of the /20/ seatback that is always folded forward. But no console extending all the way to the dash.

 

[deserteagle71]

I’m not a fan of the center consoles either, but I do like the floor shifter in my Colorado. I tend to use the transmission a lot on snow covered roads; running in 4wd I kick it down and utilize transmission braking a lot.
I don’t know how that will affect the longetivity on the tranny but expect to need a new one in a couple of years anyways; GM transmissions don’t have a good reputation and I’ve found they last about 120k miles.

I do the same; as long as you are not overrevving the engine it should have no bad effect on the drivetrain. My F150 has a manual mode on the transmission so I can click it from gear to gear as needed.

 

[ning]

My first pet peeve about modern cars is the "entertainment system" screen being super bright and not being able to make it completely dark with a single button hit.
I understand that they're super useful for backing up, and I'm fine with them existing because of that, but in my wife's car I have to go into setup, then some other mode, and finally hit "turn screen off" (of course, it comes right back on in some circumstances, which is fine, but what's not fine is that I have to go through a multi-button hit to darken it back again - of course requiring looking at the damn thing in the process).

Second is not being able to do heater/ac stuff without looking. My truck has three dials, and I don't even think about what to do, I feel a certain way and without thinking my hands adjust the temperature just so, and I'm left going "oh right, i was hot". Yeah I know automatic temperature-tracking ac/heating is neat and fancy but the truth is when I get in the car, I'm either too cold or too hot so I want a big dose of the opposite, and then I end up correcting it to the "right" temperature at some point. I should be able to do all of this while driving without my thought and definitely without taking my eyes off of the road.

 

[MossRoad]

I miss bench seats where I could put my arm around my wife. Center consoles might as well be dance chaperones.