LONG POST WARNING
Hi everyone, I’ve had my 2013 Rapid for a few months now, and other than a couple of electrical glitches that are getting fixed under warranty, I have little to complain about. 
 

Except for one thing: The drivers seat comfort is god-awful. I don’t know if it’s just me that’s experiencing this or it’s my particular car, but after even a short journey, I’d find myself getting an ache in my right thigh, a stiff lower back, and shin splints. I have looked online and a couple of owners reviews and a long term review also mentioned that they found the seat hard and one said they always felt as though they were sitting on something. 
 

I’ve been trying to work out what the issue is, and from what I can see, it’s a perfect storm of a few things. Firstly, the pedals position is bizarre. They’re heavily offset to the right, and each one is at a very different height, most notably the accelerator is further back than the brake. This means that during normal driving, a lot of pressure is put on my right upper thigh, which is pressed into the seat. 
 

This leads to the next issue, which is that the seat is very firm, there isn’t much cushioning, and at the back of the seat, there’s a large drop from the aggressive bolster into the flat base. I’ve also looked under the fabric, and in the place where my backside is pressed into the seat by the awkward pedal placement there is a gap between the foam with long piece of plastic to create the shape in the fabric. Moreover, the seat doesn’t offer much under thigh support, and it probably doesn’t help that I have quite large thighs that mean I end up sitting slightly on the bolster.
 

Either way, it was unbearable, and a massive disappointment after the MK2 Fabia I had, where the seats and pedals were perfect for me. This gave me an idea, as when I looked at the seats in the Fabia compared to the Rapid, it was clear the Fabia had way more cushioning as the base was about 50% thicker, and it was also slightly less aggressively bolstered, flatter and had more under thigh support. 
 

To try and replicate this in the Rapid, I added an ordinary square house cushion, and a memory foam car seat topper to add some shape. This helped, but they would often move about leading to an uncomfortable position.

I decided to try my luck with some tailored seat covers from eBay to go over the cushions. I went with these: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TAILORED-SEAT-COVERS-for-SKODA-RAPID-2012-2018-full-set-/184279152716

 

I’ll be honest I wasn’t really expecting much of the ‘tailored’ claim given how cheap they were, (£60) but as you’ll see from my later pictures, the fitment is actually very good. 
I started with the drivers seat. The cover is one piece, and it just slides over the seat. It has a flap which can be pulled through the gap between the backrest and the base, and around the whole cover there are elastic loops, which can be secured using the included length of string or metal hooks. Luckily, the cover stretched over the cushions I had in place so I passed the loops for the cover base through the cushion’s buckles securing the cushion in place.

These then stretched under the seat and could be hooked to the metal structure. 
Once all hooks were in place, the cover was pulled nice and taut. I did the same for the passenger seat albeit without the extra cushions. I then did the rear, which did seem a bit like an afterthought compared to the surprising excellent fronts, with less precise holes and less well thought out securing locations. Regardless, after some questionable handiwork with the string, they were secured and in place. 
 

And here are the end results:

Rear Bench

 

As you can see, the drivers seat does look slightly strange with the large lump from the extra cushions, but once you sit on it, the sides of the seat cushion topper rise to give just enough bolstering and shape, while the house cushion beneath it makes the seat wonderfully soft and comfortable. Actually, it makes the seat feel more like the Fabia’s. A little bonus of these covers is that they say Elegance on them, matching the car’s trim name. 
 

Overall, I’m really happy with the results. Partly because the covers look great and they fit very well, (and I’d definitely recommend them) but mostly because I can now enjoy driving the car without getting pain from it. 
 

Sorry for the rant and the fact that this has been a long post, but the seat discomfort has been really winding me up for the whole time I’ve had the car so this seems like a massive win to me. 
Cheers

I completely agree - the mk1 seats are bloody awful and are the main thing I don’t like about the car (and the reason I nearly traded it in a month or so ago). But, as I don’t do that much driving, have decided to live with it a bit longer (have managed 6 years so far) and continue to save up a deposit for something fully electric. 

53 minutes ago, chrisgreen said:

I completely agree - the mk1 seats are bloody awful and are the main thing I don’t like about the car (and the reason I nearly traded it in a month or so ago). But, as I don’t do that much driving, have decided to live with it a bit longer (have managed 6 years so far) and continue to save up a deposit for something fully electric. 

Well it seems there’s lots of decent options emerging. Personally I find VAG’s (among others) EV strategy really odd in that they’re developing whole new models for their EV range which then need new marketing, branding etc rather than making electric versions of the nameplates people know and love. Everyone knows what a Golf is and what sort of thing to expect, whereas no one knows the ID3 yet, even though that is very similar to the Golf. I think the strategy Peugeot and Vauxhall are using makes more sense, but I guess time will tell. 
That being said, I do really like the ID3.

I’m probably going to get an MG (unless VAG electric prices comes down a lot in the next few years). £25K for an estate with 220mile range and a 1,500 litre boot (and all the toys). Crazy not to. 

20 minutes ago, chrisgreen said:

I’m probably going to get an MG (unless VAG electric prices comes down a lot in the next few years). £25K for an estate with 220mile range and a 1,500 litre boot (and all the toys). Crazy not to. 

Yeah I agree, and what I like about MG’s EVs is that they’re just cars that happen to be electric. Completely unpretentious and functional. MG seems to be the only brand that gets that EVs aren’t a novelty. Did they ever sort out the confusion about the roof rails on the 5?