Hi, welcome to the board.

I'm 6ft 3in and actually find the 9-3 seat fantastic. However there are several solutions in the seat department.

Seats which were found in the 9-3 Viggen. Leather, Electrically adjustable etc.. are very well bolstered and comfortable. You can get a set of seats (2nd hand - but in perfect condition) from Abbott Motorsport. ( http://www.abbottracing.com/ )

Or.. you can fit the Recaro orthapaedic seat.

http://www.recaro.com/englisch/index_frames.html

Choose Car seats, then Orthopaed.

Recaro offer seating rails etc to fit these seats in a 9-3. I woman at work has one fitted to her 9-3 LPT, it's electrically controlled etc, she suffers from a bad back normally, and when she changes car, she gets her dealer to remove the seat and place it into her next car. Fabric can be matched to your car's interior.

 

Penport, my partner has back and leg problems and for some strange reason likes soft French seats. The typical squidy efforts you get in Renaults / Peugeots.

However, she hated the velour seats in 9-3's that I test drove, but loves the leather clad ones in my 9-3 Cabrio. For some odd reason, I agreed. I think that the leather offers slightly better support than velour, even though the seats them selves are ostensibly the same shape.

 

Mark - very interesting regarding the Recaro
I can get hold of a Recaro seat, but when I checked their website for the correct adapter there was no listing for the 9-3.
Obviously it can be done.
Perhaps the adapter listed as for the NG 900 would fit the 9-3?
Would you be able to check for me with your woman at work ?

 

Best course is to contact Recaro, they can inform you on which rails, contact details are on the website.

(but I wouldn't think theres any difference between a new generation 900 (which is listed) and a 9-3 seat rail wise btw)

I'm sure my collegue wouldn't know - she just get's the dealer to 'deal with it', but i've saw the seat fitted in her 9-3.. looks quite space age.

 

Mark, there may not be any difference between the design of the rails in the 900 / 9-3, but they are in different positions.

Saab moved the seat mounts in order to increase safety, and to allow space for the side-airbags to inflate.

 

If you had a pair of plain black leather seats, I'd swap as I hate my Aero seats.

But that's because I'm tallish (6'2") and they're mounted high because of the electrics, so I get neckache through having to crane down to see out under the top of the screen. They're good otherwise. Lateral supprt is good, they're firmer than velour (also firmer than standard leather). The thigh support is much better than the standard seats due to the fact that the base inclines, but IMHO still not as good as old 9000 seats which had adjustable front thigh pads.

 

Fawlty - why not go one further any swap the whole car ??

No seriously you wouldn't want charcoal grey velour seats in an Aero, surely ?

 

Hi

Although I found the 9-3 SE velour seat comfortable my wife allways complained that it was not as good as her Fiat Punto but since I have changed from a 9-3 SE to an Aero I have found the Aero (for the driver) is significantly better.

One of the problems I noticed with the SE seats was that the velour finish seemed to work like velcro. It was very difficult to change position a little and get more comfortable. I never worked out whether this was intentional or just a feature of the material used.

Peter Lloyd