Carmakers slow to recognise importance of seats

Heiko Haupt, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Ruesselsheim, Germany

Car seats are generally covered in leather and upholstered with the finest materials. New extras are constantly being built into them.

Yet car seats are are often less than ideal.

Detlef Detjen, of the Action Healthy Back (AGR) organisation, says that standard seats fail to fulfil 97 per cent of his organisation's yardsticks.

The AGR says that about 40 per cent of Germans spend more than one and a half hours a day in the car. And this group suffers from an above-average number of back problems.

The complaints do not come overnight, he explains. It is more a case of bad seating posture over a protracted time in a badly made seat. Yet from a technical point of view, constructing a seat which is correct for the back is not so difficult, he believes.

Manufacturers have other priorities in the making of a car. Even in car tests, seating comfort is seldom mentioned," he said.

AGR says that the seating surface itself should be large enough to accommodate almost the entire thigh length. Also important is the support in the hip region so that the person does not immediately slump with rounded back.

But some carmakers are taking more trouble to ensure that their seats are better adjusted for the spine. In 2001, Audi was the first manufacturer to receive the AGR seal of approval for a sportscar seat.

In December 2002, Volkswagen announced it had received the first seal of approval awarded to a maker for the seats in its four-seater version of the new luxury Phaeton model. This model has individual seats at the back as well as the front.

VW spokesman Hartmuth Hoffmann said in Wolfsburg that the demands for improved seats were easier to fulfil by using individual seats.