Hello,

Went to look at a Roomster today. I thought it was great, but unfortunately my girlfriend didn't. The problem is that when her foot is resting on the unpressed clutch pedal, her knee is banging against the steering column. She does a lot of stop-start driving so I can understand that it would get very annoying after a while, and she's not willing to move her leg outwards all the time as it's not comfortable (she does 20,000km in a year and it would become painful).

We had tried all combinations of steering column and seat positions, but just nothing worked for her. The only way that we stop it from happening entirely was when the seat was at it's lowest position, but then she couldn't see out the window properly (she has quite long legs but a short upper body ). She tried sitting in another Roomster and also a Fabia to compare, but both were the same.

Apart from this, we were quite happy with the car, so I'm trying to think of a solution. The clutch pedal sits very high when it's unpressed, so if this could be adjusted so that it sits lower then that would fix the problem. Another thing we could try is to change the pedal to make it wider (so she could put her foot more to the left), but I can't find any pre-made solutions that I could buy, so that would probably be a DIY job (which would make buying the car risky if I then discovered it wasn't going to work). The dealer didn't have any clues.

Anyone got any other ideas? If it makes any difference, it's a left-hand drive car.

Thanks,

Dave

Edited 9 November, 201213 yr by BagpussDave

buy a Audi A8 she should be ok with that.or you could buy the auto??i have had the roomster as a courtesy car i thought it was awful to drive

Funnily enough I did suggest an auto to her as a joke, but she was not impressed In any case, we're after a second hand LPG car, and there aren't any automatic LPG Roomsters for sale in NL at all.

Have you tried any different Skoda's ? Maybe the Octavia will be a better solution ?

I had a Dutch girl friend for 3 years, from traveling around NL seems many Dutch woman have long legs !

I'd love a Yeti but it's a bit out our price range, and there also aren't any newer Octavias with LPG in our budget either - personally I'm not keen on the older type.

My advice is only put your foot on the clutch pedal when you depress it. If you rest a foot on it you will possibly wear the release bearing prematurely. There is a footrest alongside the clutch pedal.

Edit. Sorry only just read it's LHD so not sure about the footrest.. But the advice is still appropriate

Edited 10 November, 201213 yr by bryanb

You're right - the problem is not that she rests her foot on the clutch all the time, it's that when she goes to put her foot on the pedal, her knee was hitting the steering column LHD cars also have the footrest, btw.

In any case, we decided to go and have another look today, to see if there was a 'magic setting' that we missed or if there was any way I could modify the clutch pedal to make it wider. This time she did find a combination of seat position and steering wheel height that meant that her knee only brushes against the column rather than full-on whack it, and she's happy with that. As it happens we decided not to buy the one we have been looking at (a little too many scratches both inside and out for my liking) but now I know that we both can live with the Roomster, I don't mind travelling a little further from home to find a decent one.

This has intrigued me, I will ask my wife, and observe her driving, because although we have a DSG, it is RHD and therefore she should have a similiar interference fit when using the accelerator, she has a 36" inside leg, as do I, (unfortunateley we cannot share jeans, as her waist is considerably less than mine) and I have no problems. What I do find is if I use the left foot footrest, my knee hits the centre section of the dashboard, so if I had a clutch I would grow weary of banging my left knee.

This has intrigued me, I will ask my wife, and observe her driving, because although we have a DSG, it is RHD and therefore she should have a similiar interference fit when using the accelerator, she has a 36" inside leg, as do I, (unfortunateley we cannot share jeans, as her waist is considerably less than mine) and I have no problems. What I do find is if I use the left foot footrest, my knee hits the centre section of the dashboard, so if I had a clutch I would grow weary of banging my left knee.

I'm always cracking my left knee getting in and out of Fabia II and Roomsters. Used to do the same on new Beetles too. Gets painful after a while.

So she's not alone

I asked her to sit in a Yeti which was, in a way, worse. This time it was the handle to adjust the steering that her knee was rubbing against, and went she got out, she knocked her kneecap hard against it >_<

Maybe you just need more space for the driver, if you like MPVs try Meriva, C-Max, or better (bigger) VW Touran etc.

If you have long legs I would forget the Meriva, I tried it when it was launched and found there was ample space behind a fully back drivers seat, but there was not a hope of getting my 6'5" behind the wheel. I enquired about any modifications to the seat mounts like the old Octy had, but Vauxhall were useless at finding out, the dealership has since been taken over.....