It took a while to engineer a comfy seating position as I settled into the Mini this weekend. The problem concerned the location of the seat-adjustment lever. I wanted to tweak the angle of the seatback. The lever that manages this task is located not to the left of the seat, but to its right, buried in a deep, dark abyss next to the parking brake; I felt like I needed a searchlight and an anchor sling to access it. Making things worse is the fact that it's hard to fine-tune the seatback's slope, since the lever's adjustments are made in fairly large increments...Of course, once that fiasco was behind me, the Mini was fun to pilot. Pile in, turn it on and go.
Warren Clarke, Automotive Content Editor @ 16,945 miles
Anonymous says:
03:34 PM, 06/16/08
Sounds like you're making a good case for upgrading to seat memory.
Anonymous says:
07:12 PM, 06/16/08
This is indicative of a design philosophy that assumes you'll like how the engineers measured out the interior for you. Don't like the seat position? Suck it up.
I guess it's less of an issue when the car is driven by but one driver who sets the thing, then leaves it for good.
dougtheeng says:
11:27 AM, 06/17/08
The worst part about this level position is explaining it to new people in your car. They can never seem to find it, and you really have to slow them down to explain.
altimadude00 says:
01:16 PM, 06/17/08
This is similar to the Nissan Versa's seat adjustment levers. There just isn't room between the seat and the door to put it on the other side. However, the Versa's levers seem to be more accessible than the Mini's.
oberg says:
03:36 AM, 06/19/08
This is one thing I can't stand about my Mini. It is truly a pain in the behind to adjust the seat angle.
One more thing. Memory seat = additional weight. Is it any wonder modern cars are so heavy?