Seat Rant

I know some of you out in internet land work for garages and service departments so answer me this. Why is it that whenever I take my car in for service, I have to readjust my seat? I realize I'm taller than the guys that work on my car, but do you have to perfectly adjust my seat for your use for the 30 seconds or so you're going to driving my car? If it was just one place that I go to that did this, I wouldn't go back but it happens everywhere I go. At least they don't berkeley with my radio. Sorry if I seem like a shiny happy person, but this annoys the hell out of me.

^ Yeah, and why is it that the doofus at the oil change place, who's 6" SHORTER than I am has to move my seat BACK to drive it 30 feet?

As a shorty, I can attest to sliding the seat back when getting out of cars. When your legs are short, you have to slide the seat up to reach the pedals. If I try to get out with the seat that far forward, it is exceptionally akward, what with the steering wheel and you're basically using only half the door opening to exit. Then, you get used to just grabbing that lever and haulin' that bitch all the way back to the stops because it's quick, it becomes automatic, I never thought about it until someone mentioned while it was parked, "How the hell do you drive that thing with the seat all the way back like that?!" I bet he does the same thing.

Plus, it is almost impossible to guess where the seat was before you moved it, so it's going to be wrong no matter where you put it if you had to move it to get in the car.

Screwing with the radio is bad form though.

Having started in the trade before I was finished growing I can address this. Would you rather I adjust your seat or not be able to reach important controls like brakes and steering wheel and put your car against the tool box at the front of my lift?

Lets not even get into test driving on the streets when you have a noise, vibration, or running problem that I must drive your car to diagnose.

I would also turn your radio off. I cant diagnose a noise with Anthrax blaring. Hope thats O.K.

In reply to EastCoastMojo:

Nice try, but he slides it back when he gets in and drives it up over the pit gangsta-style, or whatever they call it these days.

In reply to porksboy:

If a tech is actually driving my car, I'm all for them making it fit. When they're moving it 30 feet or less, I'm sure they could adapt without smacking into anything. I do when I move my wife's car, and I'm a whole foot taller than she is.

I guess the difference is I'm more considerate of my wife than the oil change guy is of me. That makes a lot of sense when you think about it.

I used to work at a shop when I was in college. I have short legs. If you'd prefer I plow your precious car into a lift because I have a hard time reaching the brake pedal, then I guess I can leave your seat alone. Otherwise, quit whining, or get a better job so you can afford something with power seats with memory if it's reall such a horrible problem .

Well, maybe he is tall on the inside.

I've run into this problem a few times as a valet driver. Different things, because we're trying to make your life easier, but we NEVER adjust the seat. We have 3 people of varying sizes for that very reason. Well, when we got the woman who wasn't an inch over 5 feet, we had to move it.... But that was the exception.

Also, keep in mind the difference in height in proportions. My little brother is (only) 3 inches taller than me. When I get in the drivers seat after him, my head is crammed against the ceiling, and I can't reach the pedals. He, on the other hand, has his knees by his ears, and can't see over the steering wheel after me.

That was always a tell when the Old Man would borrow the Caprice: the tilt wheel would be jacked up to the wind sheild, big rig style. Maybe its an old trucker habit.

I can't get the wife (5' tall) to move the seat in my (6'2" tall) car back when she uses it. I really don't expect the auto technician to worry about it. As long as they do a good job on the repair for a fair price, they can move the seat where ever they want.

Eastcoast, Actually, I'm tall on the outside as well. If they'd do that, I'd never know because having the seat all the way back is the only way I'm comfortable in the car.

Porksboy, I never said anything about them taking it for a road test. If I'm bringing it in for something that requires that, I have no problem with that nor do I have a problem with the mechanic turning the radio off to listen for noises. What I have a problem with is when the technician/mechanic spends more time screwing with the seat than he actually spends in the car.

Josh, Since I don't have a girl or a dog, there's two things that I don't let people mess with, my gun and my car. If I bring my car in for work, shouldn't I have the expectation of getting it back just as I left it (with the exception of the specified repairs being done)? That means if you've got to sit a little forward in the seat to reach the pedals for 20-30 seconds, do it or at least attempt to put the seat back where you found it. Then again it's not your car, why should you care.

lewbud wrote: Josh, Since I don't have a girl or a dog, there's two things that I don't let people mess with, my gun and my car. If I bring my car in for work, shouldn't I have the expectation of getting it back just as I left it (with the exception of the specified repairs being done)? That means if you've got to sit a little forward in the seat to reach the pedals for 20-30 seconds, do it or at least attempt to put the seat back where you found it. Then again it's not your car, why should you care.

So do you expect to get it back with the steering wheel pointed in the same direction too? If someone needs to operate the vehicle, they should do so safely. And unless the car has seat memory, there is little chance someone will remember exactly what position it was in before, so guys like you will complain even when you try to put it back. BTW, I did care about the cars I worked on, that's why I made sure I was positioned so I was in full control of them, instead of just hoping I didn't accidentally slide back in the seat when I was pulling it in.

More to the point, if you don't let anyone "mess with your car", why the hell is someone ELSE doing your work for you?

I worked in a body shop once, and there was one DSM i had to move about 30 feet from the lot into the shop. the seat was all the way back, and the lever was non-functional. I'm 5'5", so i need my seat pretty far forward anyway, but I had to sit on the floor in front of the seat to be able to work the pedals.

I get comments about my weird seat mounting in my MR2 all the time. I have the seat mounted really high, because any other position which puts my legs where they belong leaves me staring at the bottom of my steering wheel.

In reply to Josh: To riff on Inspector Callahan, I'm man enough to recognize my limitations when it comes to things mechanical. Plus there are some things I just don't like doing. Actually if an effort was made to be close, I wouldn't mind as much. However, if you know you've got to move the seat all the way forward to get in, why not move it all the way back when you get out?

The real question is how long does it take you to put it back? Three seconds? Four?

I must be a freak of nature, I don't have a Sanctified Seating Position That Must Never Be Changed By Even a Millimeter. I tend to adjust my own seat every few days, or if I'm doing a long haul drive, every couple of hours or so.

I've memorized the exact seat position for my AE92 because of this. Seat in the 2nd click from the back, lean adjusted so that seat back lines up with B-pillar.

Too easy, buy a Mercedes with seat memory.

"Honey, you wouldn't believe the great advice I got".

I used to try to not adjust the seat when I worked at the dealer, but when a 4-foot-tall old lady brought her '95 Brougham in for service, sorry, I cannot drive whilst eating a steering wheel and my knees do NOT bend that way!

That said, if I did use the radio, I ALWAYS returned it to the station it was on, or turned it off. Because that bothers me, too.

i always tried to simply move the seat forward/back without adjusting the separate parts (unless it was just plain undrivable) and i'd count the time moving if power seats or glance at the location on the slider if manual seats.

I've ALMOST gotten used to the idea that when I take my vehicles to a garage to be serviced that I will have to re-adjust the seat when I get them back.

HOWEVER, the last time I took my car into my (no longer so ) favorite shop, I got the car back with the radio tuned to a different station and the volume HIGHER than "normal". If you need to take my car for a "test drive", PLEASE concentrate on your driving and not on re-tuning my radio to YOUR musical preferences. And if the volume is going to be so high, what do you expect to hear if something goes wrong?

you let other people work on your car?

If I'm driving a car onto a ramp or over a pit - seat gets moved. If I'm driving a stick shift - seat gets moved (especially if it is an aftermarket clutch). Driving an auto onto a standard lift - I shoehorn my self in.

If it's worth me paying somebody else to do the work it's worth the effort to readjust my seat afterward.

grimmelshanks wrote: you let other people work on your car?

That's what I was thinking.