I'm coming from a VW Jetta that had leather seats that felt like they came from a race car. They were firm and offered excellent support. I never drove a Grand Touring model with the leather seats until I picked mine up yesterday. The cloth Sport/Touring seats that were in the models that I tested seemed just fine and I didn't expect my current issue to be a problem. I'm hating my seats! I feel that I'm going to fall/slide out of them (even with the seatbelt secure), and they offer little support. I understand that I'm now driving more of a minivan, but still. What can be done if I HATE my seats? The last car I owned for 10 years, so this is going to be long negative relationship if I can't get this solved.

Any thoughts?

 

Recaros?
Naw, I can sympathize. While mine are pretty good for road worthy seats, I would never attempt to race the car with these seats.
Leather must make that 10X's worse.
As many here already know, I owned one car with leather interior and I would never, ever own another. They are hot in the summer months and cold in the winter. They require special care and are generally pretty slippery. And god forbid one should ever put a burn in one. Personally, I think leather interior is severely overrated for day-to-day use.

That said, I will revert back to my previous statement that these seats could be more supportive in the twisties. Then again, they could also be harder to ingress and egress too. The larger the bolstering, the harder they are to get in and out of. I understand Mazdas dilemma and why these are the compromise.

I put '85 Accord coupe seats in my '80 Civic way back when. They had some really great bolstering and looked like Recaro copies. Sadly, Honda only used these for 2 yrs. While they held me and my skinny butt in very well around the turns, and everywhere else, they were certainly harder to get in and out of. Plus I had friends, and a girlfriend, that were larger in girth (re: bigger butt) than I was/am and they didn't think too much of my new found junkyard cheap-seat replacements. But I LOVED 'EM!!

In other words, to each his/her own.

 

I've got the cloth seats and have the same feeling (but obviously the cloth has a bit more friction than leather so it's not quite as bad). So I think if you switched to cloth seats you may well feel like you've spent money on improving the situation, but haven't really fixed it.

If anyone knows an easy way to tilt the seat base backwards I'd be interested too.

 

Sure do!! I did that myself as well.
Remove the front seat bolts and get some that are 10mm longer. I forget now if I got 35 or 45mm. Buy 4-1/2" flat washers, the thicker the better, and 2-1/2" coarse thread nuts... per seat, of course. Put one washer on top of the nut and one below and slip them between the seat frame and floor. Install the new bolt and tighten.
There is your spacer.
I didn't have to loosen the rear bolts to install, but it was tight, so you may want to do that for ease of installation.

 

So, I'm not crazy after all (at least regarding the seat thing)....

Now the tilt mod is exactly the kinda help/ideas that I've been looking for! I'll take a gander and see what's under there. How much tilt did this offer you, and did it solve the problem?

I've never had this problem on any leather upholstered car. My Jetta had firm, supportive seats, though was probably tilted back a bit more for the 'sporty' nature of the car. That being said, our current car (Honda CR-V) isn't sporty and has bucket seats similar to the Jetta. What was Mazda thinking with the Grandma upright seating style? My last Mazda (1987 626) had a rock/tilt option to the manual seat. Rock/tilt it back, and it was awesome!

I am ready to talk to an aftermarket leather/seat company to do something, but that's on the extreme side.

I'm willing to hear other thoughts too. Let's not make this forum entry into a cloth vs. leather bitch-fest. That's not what my question is about, though everyone's entitled to their own opinion (just keep it to youself!).

Thanks again!

 

With the 1/2" nut and two oversized flat washers I used, I measure about 5/8" from the floor/carpet to the bottom of the seat rail. With the bolts I installed I could go higher, and I thought about it, but after living with it a while feel that to be enough for me. Too much more would be uncomfortable I think.

Did it solve the problem? Well, a little but it mostly just offers my long legs better thigh support.

 

Using the washer fix, I think I've finally got the seat to the correct angle. I've included a picture of everything that I used (purchased at HD for around $10, with some stuff left over...). When you raise the seat rail up, there's some kinda plug that gets removed. It's just behind where the bolt is, so I'm going to cover it with a piece of duct tape, or something. It's probably an access point into the frame rails, so I don't want anything getting into there.

Again, thanks for the idea, and beside it being a bit finicky getting the washers lined up, it was about 15 minutes total to do the install.

Completed Pic: http://infinityideas.com/dev/pics/washerfix.jpg

• BOLTS: 10mm x 1.25 x 40mm (width, threads, length) : You'll need TWO. Pic here: http://infinityideas.com/dev/pics/mainbolts.jpg
• Washers: 25 pack: 1/2" : I initally used 6, then went to 8. We'll see...
• Washers: 3/8" : 2, just for under the bolt head. Pic here: http://infinityideas.com/dev/pics/washers.jpg

I didn't add any thread locker yet, to see if it's too high/low yet. Hope this helps!

Take care!

 

To eliminate all the washers, I simply used the 1/2" nut as a spacer w/washers top and bottom for support, but that too will work.
Glad it helped you out.

 

Anyway that you could repost those pics? I'm looking to do the same thing to my 2014 CX-5.