The seats in my '94 Honda Civic hurt my back.  After about an hour of
driving it, my lower back starts to ache.  Unfortunately I didn't discover
this until after I'd bought it, because I didn't test drive it long enough.
(I'd guess the dealership would have gotten pretty nervous if I'd
disappeared for an hour and a half with it.)  Reclining the seatback a
couple notches helps, but not enough.

This isn't a new problem, but it's been bothering me more and more lately.
I've had the car about a year and a half.

So, anyone have any suggestions on what to do about this?  It's enough of a
problem that I'm thinking of selling the car.  (Have to finish paying for it
first, though. :P )

21 responses total.

Does the dealer have any suggestions? 

I don't like the seats in any cars I've driven long distances with bucket
seats. I prefer a flatter, harder, seat that doesn't press in on my hips.
You might try adding a folded towel or such to fill in a raise the
"bucket". 

My wife uses a pad that is against her lower back in her car (also
with bucket type seats). 

I think car seats are now designed only to be most comfortable only for
the duration of a test drive.

I haven't asked the dealer.  I doubt they'd have anything to offer, though.

I've thought about trying to add padding, but I don't know where to add it. 
I'm not sure if the lumbar bulge is too small, too large, or too low.

For me, one of the fairly inexpensive seat pads works well.  The ones I use
are coiled wire covered with a loosely woven, coarse fabric.  They're
basically flat (with a joint between the seat & the back).

I know that at one point (at least) my brother in law used something that had
a thicker cushion at one end (I think at the lower end); this was a back only.
I tried it; for me it was much worse than nothing at all.

More important than any of those are probably back exercises.  If you get your
back to the point where it's strong enough to hold its own preferred position
regardless of what the seat does, the shape of the seat becomes a lot less
of an issue.

As far as figuring out where to add padding goes, where does the back hurt,
and what does your back feel like is wrong?  I find with my back and
uncomfortable chairs, I can generally feel what position my back wants to be
in, even if the chair is designed such that it would take a lot of strength
to comfortably hold my back in that position.  If you can figure out what
shape your back wants to be, you can probably figure out where to insert
padding to accomplish that.

I'm just not sure.  It's my lower back that gets sore.  It always feels to
me like the lumbar bulge on the seat is trying to press itself into my back,
which makes me wonder if my back is flatter than the seat designers
envisioned.  I certainly don't get a sore back sitting on my futon, which
has essentially flat cushions, but it also has softer padding, which may be
a factor.  Another data point: My dad has a Ford Explorer with adjustable
lumbar support.  One day I got in it and the lumbar cushion was fully
inflated.  I got a terrible backache within 45 minutes.

Thinking back, the cars that have been easiest on my back have had sort of
cushy seats that let my back assume the position it wanted to, instead of
forcing it into some 'ideal' posture.  The Honda's seats are pretty hard and
have a definate contour to them.

I think before turning the car in I would definitely investigate all of
these extra padding options.  If you have any sort of history of back
problems, crooked spine, etc., it's also worth checking that out,
independently.  If the padding option works, but you think it's ugly and
don't mind paying a bit to get a "nicer" option, you might want to
investigate having the seat redone.  There should be all sorts of
options, including those with softer cushier cushioning, and probably
expensive custom jobs that are custom fitted to your particular back and
posterior.

May well be some third-party seats available, like "racing" seats from
Recaro.

I've wedged a folded towel into the deep hollow where the seatback meets the
bottom cushion, as a way of making the seat a little "flatter".  This seems
to have helped, though I haven't taken a long enough trip to know how much,
yet.  I actually don't have any history at all of back problems, other than
a sore back for a few weeks after getting thrown on my head in gym class in
6th grade.  I'm just tall and skinny enough to be outside of whatever
percentile seat designers look to, I suspect.

This won't solve my other gripe, which is that the bottom cushion is just
too darn thin.  That's less of an issue, though, since it takes several
hours before my ass starts to get sore.  It's an understandable
problem...the car has a low roofline, and a thicker cushion would have put
my head into the sunroof.  This is what happens when you buy an economy car,
especially one designed by short Japanese people. ;)

Recaro seats would exceed the marginal cost of selling this car and buying
something else, I suspect.  I like the car, but I'm not that dedicated to
it.  I haven't priced Recaros specifically, but seats seem to be shockingly
expensive items, even used.

Go to a junk yard, and buy a seat out of the same model car.  Take it home,
and rip off all the padding.  From there, add whatever padding you think
appropriate/comfortable.  Use it to watch TV or use your computer.  When it's
right, find an upholsterer to put fabric over it.

Re #6: in my experience, "softer cushier cushioning" makes back and
leg-cramp problems *worse*. I can sit longer and more comfortably in wood
chairs than in padded chairs. This does seem rather contrary to
expectations, but it does fit with our evolution, during most of which
we sat on rocks, logs, etc. 

I think shape is actually more important - but softness makes shape less
important.  Evolution never really designed us for hours and hours of
immobility.  People who are truely immobile due to medical problem (ie,
comatose, etc.) are prone to bed sores.  For the rest of us, discomfort
caused by lack of blood to some unduly compacted area of skin is what
causes us to avoid bed sores.  Completely even pressure, and
consequently reduced opportunity for bed sores, is one of the reasons
water beds were designed.  Rane is right, however, in that firm
mattresses are generally better for the back.  I could also see a "too
soft" seat that forces you to use muscular tension to maintain position,
leading to leg cramps.  I think that's probably as much a function of
"wrong shape" as "too soft" though.

I'm also not sure a wooden kitchen chair is a good analogy.  Those chairs
are generally designed to encourage you to sit in an upright posture where
you're not really leaning against the seatback.  By contrast most car seats
are built so you sit somewhat reclined.

The upright posture is certainly easier to get right -- my back generally
doesn't get sore driving my VW van, even though it has fairly cheap seats,
simply because the seating position is very upright.  The shape of the seat
matters a whole lot less when your back isn't all in firm contact with it
and supporting weight.

I generally like harder seats.  I also set my car seats at a rather upright
position, usually even more upright after several hours of driving.

See, that's usually my preference, but in the Honda putting the seat fully
upright makes my back sore very quickly.  Reclining it two notches seems to
help.

I've got a VW Jetta - I originally wanted a Neon, but it just didn't feel
right in the seats.  The Jetta has a much flatter seat back.

You were probably wise not to get the Neon.  The seats in the one my mom
used to have were terrible.

I have a Jetta and I have to add a cushion to the seat to make it 
comfortable for my butt. 

If you have a Neon with lousey seats, just go to a junkyard and pick up a set
of Jetta seats.  Leave the Neon seats there while you are..  I've heard for
other people that VW seats are pretty comfortable in general.

I don't have a Neon -- that was my mom's.  I have a Honda.

That's not a bad idea except a seriously doubt the VW seats would fit
Honda seat tracks, and I don't have the equipment to fabricate new
brackets for them.

Well, they're both metric.  It's not impossible, if not likely.

Experiment with small pillows and if one works, tie it in place.  You can get
pillows of various sizes and shapes at Kiwanis for about $1 each.  I don't
have back problems but got a sore back sitting in the seat of Jim's former
Jeep.  Ended up using a pillow to fill in the depression that had developed
because the springs were worn out, which changed the relative position of the
lumbar support and my back.  But I am short so did not hit the roof when I
raised the seat.   Try tying a pillow above the lumber support to flatten out
the back of the seat.  You can also tie on a piece of foam (we have some
somewhere if you do not).

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