Extracted from the March issue of Which? magazine

We’ve found a serious safety problem with the Seat Altea and new Skoda Octavia.

When you raise the front seats with the manual height adjusters, the feet of rear passengers can easily push on the bar that allows the front seats to be moved forward.

The danger is that, if the seats are released in a crash, they’d thrust the driver or front passenger into the dashboard. Also, the seat-belt buckle is attached to the seat, so it wouldn’t restrain the driver or passenger from moving forward. If they’re too near the airbag when it goes off, it could hit them too hard. Models that have electronic seat adjustment aren’t affected.

We’ve demanded that Seat and Skoda issue recalls. As we went to press, VW, which owns Seat and Skoda, agreed to change the design. It hasn’t agreed to a recall, but we’ll be meeting VW to press our demand. We’ll keep you informed of our progress.

how does this not affect touran and mk V golf and new toledo all using the same platform?

They are classy

;)

If you don't notice that your seat has been realesed by your rear passengers, i don't really see any need to save you from the dashboard quite frankly.

I thinkthat it has been raised on this forum before, (and not just by me), about the so called "expert" findings of Which? reports - I personally don't take much notice of what they say.

Quote from Which article "We

I guess when the rear passengers press the imaginary brake pedal in a crash they will release the seat , not good but the Inertia reel should stop the seat sliding to a large extent, in effect the seat belt hits you rather than you hit the seat belt , the forces are the same just less controled , as for the Golf and Touran they probably have a different design of seat runner

If it is a safety issue it should be resolved. That said, Which indeed has a tendency to claim they know it all, which they do NOT imho.

Often the best way to find out what people really think is on forums. Unless heavily moderated you will find some opinions regarding negative points or points to look out for in a particular model/series car.

Which! is a pinko comic that preys on peoples fears and has been defeated in the courts many times...

surely one of the many new octavia owners on here would be able to confirm if this is true or not..

ref the golf / touran.. golf/A3 defo uses same sub frames so it must affect that as well and given the floor is the same on touran and golf plus and A3 its seemingly inevitable that a problem would exist there too....

Who drives with passengers anyway I bought that car for me. And my GF sometimes :-)

Who drives with passengers anyway I bought that car for me. And my GF sometimes :-)

you could've got a nice 2 seater for the same money then

Yeah, but I just loved the looks of the new octavia And it had to be a sort of "multi-purpose" vehicle, to buy it on the company's name (reduced taxes).

Can always get the GF to put her handbag on the back seat :D

I thinkthat it has been raised on this forum before, (and not just by me), about the so called "expert" findings of Which? reports - I personally don't take much notice of what they say.

Quote from Which article "We

Heaven help us when Which? find out that you can release the seatbelt and open the door while the car is moving - thus creating a real risk of falling out of the car and injuring yourself. They'll be demanding Skoda recall all the cars to have the doors welded shut!

:iagree:

not good but the Inertia reel should[/b'] stop the seat sliding to a large extent

Not when the buckle is itself fixed to the seat, which it is on the Ocky2.

Not when the buckle is itself fixed to the seat, which it is on the Ocky2.

The other two ends are fixed to teh car though, so you should still move very little. The extra inertia from the seat wouldn't be too pleasant though.

The fundamental bit of this you have all missed... if your legs are short enough to require the seat high enought for a passenger to kick the release bar... what position will the seat sliders be in....... how many short people have the seat all the way back? so the seat would not slide forwards cos it will already be forwards....... thus surely more of a problem under acceleration which could take feet away from pedals - which would cease accelration thus it really is a non problem if it even exists at all.....

If Which are convinced of this - all they need to do is to pass there findings to the department of transport - they CAN force a recall.

I cleaned the inside of my car yesterday and while I was doing so I had a look at the underside of the seats to see if I could see the problem.

On my Elegance the underside of the seat is fully enclosed and I could not see how a rear seat passenger

The other two ends are fixed to teh car though, so you should still move very little. The extra inertia from the seat wouldn't be too pleasant though.

Like I say the overal force would be the same though . lets just all agree not to crash.....ok ?