Toyota RAV4 Legroom

jorgeorge

Does anyone know if the driver's seat tracks could be replaced to extend for more leg room? And would this modification in anyway be regarded by Toyota as a safety or warranty issue ?
I would love to get more leg room.
I posted this elsewhere but feel it may need its own section to see if there are others who agree and if others know of a solution.
Is there anyway to extend the seat tracks for a few more inches ?

stever

If your dealer doesn't want to move the seat track a conversion van company or a body shop should be able to do this. There are safety concerns though:

smith1, "Best Vehicles for Taller/Larger Drivers" #657, 25 Mar 2006 12:54 pm

jorgeorge

I guess you're right about that, that a body shop could do it.
As for safety concerns, very often I like to recline back and stretch while driving. I'm not sure if the extra inchs would make it any less safe.
Recently I have used both the Outback and Forester as loaners and find them to have better driver legroom at the expense of the rear seated passenger.
I'm switching over to the Rav because I think it better to have stability and traction control and the Subru's do not, except for the B9 and top-o-line Outback.

andrelaplume

I think the Subarus rate just as safe if not safer even w/out that equipment. They do offer more more front passenger legroom but waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay les in the rear, not to mention hip and shoulder room. Thats why we're in a new RAV too.

bikejack

At 6ft 1inch I found the leg room a little tight at first. I noticed on my 2006 Limited the drivers seat was on the high side so I put in it's lowest position. By having the power seat all the way down helped considerably and provided more overall leg room.

wsheepdog

Today I went to Honda, Subaru, and Toyota and carefully measured leg room. I made 3 measurements.

Measurement 1: gas pedal to the front edge of the seat
Measurement 2: gas pedal to seat back
Measurement 3: Seat length
The numbers don't add together exactly since the determination of the edge of seat is a bit of judgement call. Measurement 2 was the most important for me.

I discovered that the Limited with the power seat has about 1.5 inches less that the Sport manual seats. The published Toyota numbers are clearly wrong. Consumer Reports does show a difference between the Base and the Limited.

Rav4 Limited: 23, 41.5, 19"
Rav4 Sport: 24, 43, 20"
Honda CRV: 24, 41.8, 19"
Highlander Sport: 24, 43, 20"
Subaru Limited Outback 2.5i: 24, 42.5, 19"

I also found that the seat could be lowered more on the Sport which aligned me much better with the steering wheel. This has proven to be most unfortunate because I get no thigh support on the Limited. I am 6' 0" with fairly long legs. The Limited over long trips would be uncomfortable.

The Subaru had the most comfortable seats with the Highlander pretty close.

rglass

My issue is not with the drivers seat, but with the passenger seat. My 15 yo son is now 6'-2" and he cannot sit in the passeneger seat anymore without his knees hitting the dash. The seat has the telescoping slides underneath, but they have a block built in. Even though there is plenty of room behind the passenegr seat, it won't back any further. Anyone have any suggestions on how to adjust the seat or slides to get a few more inches of legroom in fornt?
Thanks

stever

You might find a mechanic or body shop or RV/conversion shop willing to move the tracks back, but there's liability and crash concerns with drilling new holes in the floor pan. And if your '07 has side air bags in the seat or sensors, that could be an issue too.

Could even have an auto upholstery shop rebuild the seat to remove some foam or see if a thin aftermarket seat would fit (Recaro is one brand I know of). Could have the same sensor/air bag issues.