Comfy Used Bucket Seats...What should I be looking in?

After much bitching about my Explorer being uncomfortable and being generally aghast at used SUV /truck prices, I think I've decided to swap the seats. The junkyards around here are getting $150-$300/ pair for seats depending on condition and type, which is less than some seat COVERS i've looked at. I'm looking for long distance comfort, not sport driving support. Surprisingly, I'm told Excursion seats and SuperDuty seats up to 2005 are a near-bolt in replacement, so I'm thinking chassis size isn't really the restriction I thought it was. Unfortunately, most of those are trashed to hell by now.

What vehicles should I be looking for in the yards? I've been told "yeah, go walk the yard if you want, there's stuff out there."

Needs: Comfort over long distance, preferably power, ideally heated, bucket seats. I'd like late model to get the more forward-leaning headrests that started being required in 05 or so.

Here's what's on my watch list so far: Expeditions

F150s, 250s, etc (but I doubt I'll see them in good shape)

Explorers - 2004+, upper trim levels

Ford Freestyle and 500 - looked a cloth seat freestyle in a yard at lunch - perfect type of seat, but his one was roached

S197 Mustang - hey, I like the seats in my pony, they'd work in the truck

I seem to see a lot of BMW seats on CL around 2000 year model being parted out. Which models had good seats? Are the brackets way weird or anything? What about Lexus cars? Any good? Any particular small SUV I should be OTL for?

Anybody in the south east got some nice ones they want to part with?

BMW E38 "Contour" seats are excellent, power backrest is two parts so you can adjust to the curvature of your spine. Best seats I've ever had. BMW sport seats of any era are pretty nice, but the base model "comfort" seats are anything but in my experience. Volvo and Saab seats have always been great as well. 80's/90's Recaros are simple and sublime.

We might also just be very different people (I'm 6'2", 34" inseam, 185lbs). I've sat in almost all of the truck seats you're looking at and they KILLED me for anything more than an hour.

Hmmm...also a good point. I've always found Ford truck seats were better than the same year Chevy seats. I like my Mustang seats a LOT. The seats in our '14 Mazda 6 are great on the driver's side, but the seat base on the passenger is nonadjustable and should be higher in the front to be comfortable - more thigh bolster. So, those are my experiences for comparison.

And I'm 6'1, 240, 56" chest, 38" waist for size comparison.

In reply to ultraclyde:

Yeah, we're similar on height but that's about it...I'm a 42" chest, 33" waist, so we probably occupy physical space in a vehicle quite differently!

SlickDizzy wrote: BMW E38 "Contour" seats are excellent, power backrest is two parts so you can adjust to the curvature of your spine. Best seats I've ever had. BMW sport seats of any era are pretty nice, but the base model "comfort" seats are anything but in my experience. Volvo and Saab seats have always been great as well. 80's/90's Recaros are simple and sublime. We might also just be very different people (I'm 6'2", 34" inseam, 185lbs). I've sat in almost all of the truck seats you're looking at and they KILLED me for anything more than an hour.

big huge thumbs up on e38 comfort seats, heated function built in too. to be clear the e38 "comfort seats" have the adjustable back, power up-down-adjustable lumbar, and power headrest. you're going to lose memory functions doing this, and you'll have to hack together a wiring system for the heated seats (put your own switch on the seat) but meh.

I'd be looking at Volvo and SAAB, followed by Mercedes (careful on the year, 93 seemed to be a sweet spot) followed by BMW.

What is it specifically about the Explder seats you don't like?

The best seats I ever put my butt in were W210 seats. Heated is kinda rare, but the leather is good for 300k+ miles and they are wonderful.

Volvo is the pinnacle of comfortable seats. My personal experience was with a '95 Volvo 850 wagon with black (charcoal leather.) If choosing Volvo leather just be aware that from '93-'01 the tan leather was significanly inferior to the darker colors. By inferior I mean that the tan leather was thinner and more prone to cracking/splitting. My charcoal seats still looked exceptional at 170k miles.

For a couple years now, I have DD'ing a Saturn Vue. I am often amazed at how comfortable the base, non-power seats are. I put 48k miles on it last year, so, I have tested the seats pretty good.
As an added bonus, these grey cloth seats have an fold up/down armrest built into the seat.
Junkyard Saturn Vues are a dime a dozen and have low mileage. The 4 cyl autos were a CVT that are known for failure as low as 60k miles.
The Saturn seats have little to no real bolstering but that makes entry/exit quite easy.

PS: My dimensions are nearly identical to yours.

mtn wrote: What is it specifically about the Explder seats you don't like?

The lumbar support has never been in the right place - it's the inflatable type, and it feels like it's too high up. Other than that they've always acceptable until lately. On long drives I get pain down my hip and in my knee on my gas-pedal foot. I'm trying an aftermarket mesh lumbar thing and that helps, but it still ain't great.

I think at 212K miles they're just getting worn out, although the cloth is still near pristine.

BMW E46 seats from a car with the Sport (ZSP) package are great. Very adjustable and very comfortable for distance driving, and the heaters will make your boys sweat on the coldest of days. When it's temperate out, I often drive with all the windows open and the seat heater on, because it feels so good on my aching back.

Volvo.

Duke wrote: BMW E46 seats from a car with the Sport (ZSP) package are great.

to be clear, the zhp seats are the ones with cloth inserts and alcantara bolsters right?

joekitch wrote:

Duke wrote: BMW E46 seats from a car with the Sport (ZSP) package are great.

to be clear, the zhp seats are the ones with cloth inserts and alcantara bolsters right?

ZHP is the highest package short of the M3, only available on the 330i. Yes, they have alacantara inserts. The ones I am talking about are the ZSP Sport package seats and they are available from either the 325i or the 330i. These have adjustable fore-and-aft, base height, back angle, lumbar, and a separate thigh bolster that extends the leading edge of the seat base. They should be available in leather or cloth, but not alcantara. Most are manual adjust but there may be a power version.

If they don't have that movable thigh support they are NOT the Sport seats, and are not anything special.

In reply to joekitch:

You speak of the "Contour" seats, the "comfort" was the base seat. Trust me, the two are quite different, and it was very hard to find a genuine set of the Contour seats! The two part backrest and power lumbar is a godsend...

I really liked the seas in my 85 RX7. I also liked the seats in my MK1 MR2. Don't know what the fabric was that they were made out of but it was indestructible.

THese are teh E38 seats with the adjustible back, headrests and lumbar, as seen in my old E38:

Very comfy for long trips, with so many adjustments. But, not that supportive for fun.

These are the Sport seats in my current E38, with the additional thigh supports and deeper bolstering. Just as comfy but with excellent support, too:

What about the '03 M3? Looks pretty sweet...haven't called them yet... http://atlanta.craigslist.org/atl/pts/5125259925.html

EDIT: $500 for "mint", gray, leather M3 seats. Hmmm...

and these look nice, but that's a long drive and I bet they want a mint.... http://atlanta.craigslist.org/atl/pts/5116264582.html

How about the X3? Any experience with them? http://atlanta.craigslist.org/eat/pts/5095474449.html

OH mercy. How about perfect leather seats out of a 2008 750 with 54K miles on them for $400? Any reason I shouldn't jump on these with both feet?

http://atlanta.craigslist.org/eat/ptd/5124251857.html

Good lord at the controls...mounted in the center console. Does anyone have experience with one of these?? I'm afraid that the seats run through the can bus.

Ideally, you should test drive several cars with known good seats. The best ones should "feel" just right for your body.

Once-upon-a-time I worked for a seating company. Our comfort engineer educated me on a "detail" of some import. Chrysler had come to us and wanted to basically copy BMW seats for their large sedans.We put some BMW seats in our simulator and duplicated the Chrysler vehicle dynamics. The results weren't nearly as comfortable as Chrysler expected, yet the comfort rating of the BMW seats was good when the simulator was set to BMW suspension behaviour. Seating design needs to be done in conjunction with the other vehicle parameters. What's my point ? I would at least look at seats from other SUVs or crossovers, not something from a sporting car with stiffer suspensions.

In reply to DeadSkunk:

See? That's good info. That's why I come to this bar. Thanks

I've got an old Recaro C seat that I keep intending to install in my Astro ,just for gits and shiggles. Astro seats are comfortable, but are like marshmallows.The Recaro, combined with the Astro's ride dynamics shouldn't be particularly comfortable.

In reply to Chris_V:

That's very strange. Apparently they did make comfort seats with the dual-adjustable backrest. Never knew that! I have seats from a late 750i sport that also has the dual-adjustable backrest, while also having the sport seat trimmings...I was under the impression that was the only way to get the dual-adjust backrest, but I guess not!

IMO the sport/contour seats are way more comfortable than the non-sports, the added bolstering is just icing on the cake.

Honda has some pretty comfortable seats. Maybe look for some out of a Pilot/CRV/Element.