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headrest angle modification

14K views 18 replies 17 participants last post by  luddite  
#1 ·
Just bought white cvt base model and just had to modify the driver headrest angle. I know its active in a collision but it was intrusive to my comfort in driving this car. I simply removed the headrest and partially straightened the mounting posts at the bent area. I did this by mounting the bent area in a large vise and cranked it down until the factoory bend was significantly reduced. Remounted easily and now it is nearly vertical and doesn't push my head forward to an uncomfortable position. I suspect others have either adapted their driving position or done what I've done. Otherwise the slickest little car I've seen.
 
#5 ·
The headrest tilt is tailored to allow the automaker to excel at EuroNCAP, NCAP, NHTSA, and IIHS crash safety. It basically guarantees no single individual in the world will be comfortable sitting in the car; but it also mitigates the risk of the carmaker receiving a exceptionally horrible neck or head rating for a crash test.


NHTSA (USA National Highway Transportation Safety) uses a 6' 2" dummy that weighs over 220 lbs and crashes a second car with a 5' 9" 170lbs. These simulate men, and NHTSA doesn't even bother rating head-injury and opts simply to "raise a concern" if head trauma is too high during the test.


IIHS (USA Insurance Institute of highway Safety) uses the same dummy for frontal tests but switches to a 5-foot 110lbs petite woman/teen sized dummy for side tests. IIHS focuses on side-impact damage and use the very diminutive dummy because side impact tends to put smaller people at risk the most. I think the logic is that the driver is usually the larger person while kids and wives will likely be smaller than the driver. And the driver tends to protect themselves on instinct. Anyway, the seat/headrest need to position the dummy's head into an optimal spot for the side air bags on these tests. They don't test dummies crashing with a gangster lean. They test the normal rudder-diagram-seating-position.


I think EuroNCAP uses the same dummies as the USA; but there is a EuroSID-II weird dummy (it doesn't have forearms) that are used in some tests. I forget the seated height of this dummy, but I recall it was a different seated height (probably some feet-to-metric conversion wonkiness) than the previous dummies.
 
#10 ·
Yes, pix please!



Bumping - with the same question as Jakecrxsi. I find the headrest uncomfortable as well (partly due to a bad back, and the position it makes me adopt). Would rather bend the car than have it bend me!

I know that this is an old thread, but if you still hang around here, dixie, could you give us a shot of it installed, and maybe uninstalled showing the angle that your bracket is bent to? Please?
 
#14 ·
Ah... now this helps. Wish I'd have read this tread before spending the best part of an hour trying to find a way to adjust the headrest. That's time i'll never get back!!!:blush:
At least now I know you can"t do I can stop trying. Bit of a shame though - it's one of only two things I'd change about the car!!

:eek:fftopic:The other being that if you set the computer on board to automatically reset on refuel, even if you put a fairly decent amount of petrol in the car (but don't fill it) the petrol gauge still shows as empty.... so you haven't a clue how much fuel your actually carrying - or how many miles you've got left in the tank. Thought the reset only referred to MPG and tank mileage. Time to go back to manual reset me thinks!!! :rolleyes: