These are seats from an Octavia model which fit in a Felicia?

Their base frame will fit in Felicia's chassis holes?

Those are seats from Felicia with side airbags. Backrest frames come from Octavia, but they have modified mounting so they could be bolted to Felicia base.

13 hours ago, Papez said:

Backrest frames come from Octavia, but they have modified mounting so they could be bolted to Felicia base.

I have seen many US videos of modifying the frame, here in GR we call that procedure as "tailoring" but there is no guarantee that it will work properly because you rely on the technicians experience, if something goes wrong the ''fixing'' it's expensive and it will take time.

Sometimes the technicians take that uncertainty as an excuse for extra charge: ''Hm i don't know if it will works, let's see, i will try, i will see what i can do, it will take time since i am busy" etc.

Back in the good-old days there were aftermarket armrests for the Felicia seats, i bought and installed one, the only drawback was while putting the Reverse in City traffic in a hurry (parking) so i remove it.

Good for the National Highway though.

As for the record: Universal seat rails for bases with diameter 345mm / 405mm

99 euro here without the fitting work from the mechanic.

Any modifications means the customer will hear ''No'' till ''i can do it with extra charge".

7 hours ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

I have seen many US videos of modifying the frame, here in GR we call that procedure as "tailoring" but there is no guarantee that it will work properly because you rely on the technicians experience, if something goes wrong the ''fixing'' it's expensive and it will take time.

It's a factory part, not modification. The only modification on those photos is custom upholstery with red Sportline fabric in the centre.

29 minutes ago, Papez said:

The only modification on those photos is custom upholstery with red Sportline fabric in the centre.

The good thing is that we can nowadays find replica fabrics!

Is this one?

Yes. They were pretty rare, with exception of cars made after 2000 for Austrian market (I wonder if there was a regulation) - I have personally seen an Austrian felicia in most basic spec available, but it had 4 airbags.

3 hours ago, Papez said:

I have personally seen an Austrian felicia in most basic spec available, but it had 4 airbags.

Very very interesting, honestly. Of course not my cup of tea, as if you get side impact on the Felicia. Well, airbags aren't gonna do much when b B-pillar is about halfway through the vehicle. Don't get me wrong extra safety is always welcome but Felicia's side impact structure is not that good. You have bars in the doors but the b pilar is very weak

Edited 27 November, 202527 Nov by Thefeliciahacker

When you go to the other side (exaggeration)

17 hours ago, Thefeliciahacker said:

Don't get me wrong extra safety is always welcome but Felicia's side impact structure is not that good. You have bars in the doors but the b pilar is very weak

It's not that bad. Felicia has some extra reinforcements around B-pillar aswel, compared to Favorit, not just door bars. I found a 1999 article where Felicia passed crashtest under ADAC methodology (however I didn't find other cars tested under the same methodology to compare)

https://archiv.hn.cz/c1-793307-v-crash-testu-ziskala-skodovka-vybornou-znamku

This is how it looked afterwards. The test used a 950kg deformable barrier moving at 50km/h.

A family friend went through this exact type of crash, with no injuries apart from bruised shoulder (no side airbags). They are just for that - to provide some extra padding.

Its Spanish cousin from the same era for comparison (ncap also used 950kg trolley at 50km/h at that time)

Tbh, MK1 Fabia doesn't look much better

1 hour ago, Papez said:

This is how it looked afterwards. The test used a 950kg deformable barrier moving at 50km/h.

A family friend went through this exact type of crash, with no injuries apart from bruised shoulder (no side airbags). They are just for that - to provide some extra padding.

Yeah that's reassuring to know, although I am a big dude as you've seen and I dont know how well im protected in fact my torso lies behind the b pillar as this is where it ends up with the seat fully pushed back. I hope I never have to find out.

The rescue card shows three major reinforcement zones, but I'm not really sure what classifies as such.

1 hour ago, Papez said:

The test used a 950kg deformable barrier moving at 50km/h

This is where the problem lies: modern vehicles are double the mass of the Felicia and have their main crash structure very high up compared to Felicia's. A crash with an SUV will result with their crashbar striking just below the door handle, way above the door bar...

Ofcourse, modern cars are safe, I went through some NCAP records to check their methodology and it seems it changed the side crash from 950 to 1300kg sometimes between 2012 and 2016. But at least it means that Felicia is not as unsafe as it's often said.

7 hours ago, Papez said:

I found a 1999 article where Felicia passed crashtest under ADAC methodology

In my pc i have this article in German language,if i remember correctly the Feliia took 67% in the crash test (with the standards of that era) when other cars had less, a French one had scored 32%.

I will search for it when i get home and i will post tomorrow.

Bad resolution but it's all i had back then.

A ''torture'' road test including a moment of crash test.

Surprisingly, not many videos have survived from the crash tests of the Favorit's successor, the popular Felicia. This is actually the only video capturing the durability tests and several more tests with the first airbags, which, however, were only available in very few Felicias on our market. Most of them were exported.

This doesn't look so appetising

Also, this shows huge deformation of the floor board. I guess @Papez was right when he said the centre tunnel didn't provide enough rigidity for the airbag sensor to operate reliably, and that is why they fitted the strut brace.

Well, my suspicions are proven correct, medium overlap on the Felicia is a deathwish even at moderate speeds, only full frontal is survivable!

Edited 30 November, 202530 Nov by Thefeliciahacker

Fiat Cinquecento if i remember correct had 27% back then.

2019: Zero (0) stars for an electric Chinese car Jac ES-1

14 hours ago, Thefeliciahacker said:

This doesn't look so appetising

I think this is the place where the additional sill brace ends.

The A-pillar deformed, but didn't fail entirely.. there's an infamous crashtest of Škoda Estelle that was much worse. And many 90's cars didn't look much better.

By comparison, even Fabia had some deformation (for some reason, the videos above got swapped. So here's a screenshot.)

14 hours ago, Thefeliciahacker said:

Also, this shows huge deformation of the floor board. I guess @Papez was right when he said the centre tunnel didn't provide enough rigidity for the airbag sensor to operate reliably, and that is why they fitted the strut brace.

On 29/11/2025 at 13:19, D.FYLAKTOS said:

The description here says, that this deformation actually reduces load on the ribcage, but the movement causes impact of knees to the dashboard.

14 hours ago, Thefeliciahacker said:

Well, my suspicions are proven correct, medium overlap on the Felicia is a deathwish even at moderate speeds, only full frontal is survivable!

It's not really obvious, but the test above is moderate overlap, not full front.

I think it's shown successful transmission of forces from one front beam to the center tunnel, so full frontal wouldn't be much better.

It's not great from the modern point of view, but at least provides bare minimum, which is more than lot of cars in that era..

Unfortunately that only applies to cars with airbag. The strut brace, deformable steering pillar and belt pretensions on both front seats are pretty crucial additions, but unfortunately, these were limited to certain markets or limited editions and most people buying new car didn't pay extra for that feature.

Edited 1 December, 20251 Dec by Papez

17 hours ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

Fiat Cinquecento if i remember correct had 27% back then.

You either are very concerned about such things or you recognise it and act accordingly, avoid getting into accidents as much as you can by driving appropriately, if you don't have a safer car be a safer driver which includes being aware of the unsafe drivers in their safer vehicles around you. Imagine how much worse things could be if/when you are a pedestrian, horse-rider, cyclist, road-worker, etc..

Fiat Cinquecento Sporting, 1107 cc (7 cc over the UK "road tax" threshold at the time) 53 hp, full of FIAT faults but great fun to drive without the need of impressive or made up acceleration or top speed figures. - And red seatbelts so it must have been a sportscar. 😁

4 hours ago, nta16 said:

Fiat Cinquecento Sporting, 1107 cc

I've rolled over with one of these hahaha, I wasn't driving, I was a passenger, but still

Actually, I've been involved in many accidents 2 of them being rollovers, the other was with a Lada Niva while off-roading.

In one of those, we were with a VW Golf MK4, brakes got cooked, faded so damn hard and the driver couldn't stop, we went off the road and onto an embankment. So hard that the front part of the car twisted upwards by 15cm, I almost flew through the sunroof. Good times.

Also, one was with an Opel Vectra B with the same driver as the golf, and we understeered so hard onto a hill, but no major damage occurred.

One other time with a Peugeot 206 fully laden with 5 people were doing J turns, and we snapped the damn rear stub axle.

But I'm still kicking so I guess we're good?

Edited 1 December, 20251 Dec by Thefeliciahacker

9 hours ago, Papez said:

It's not really obvious, but the test above is moderate overlap, not full front.

Yeah I know

9 hours ago, Papez said:

I think it's shown successful transmission of forces from one front beam to the center tunnel, so full frontal wouldn't be much better.

It's not great from the modern point of view, but at least provides bare minimum, which is more than lot of cars in that era..

Unfortunately that only applies to cars with airbag. The strut brace, deformable steering pillar and belt pretensions on both front seats are pretty crucial additions, but unfortunately, these were limited to certain markets or limited editions and most people buying new car didn't pay extra for that feature.

Very interesting, to be honest I don't fancy overlap crashes, especially in older vehicles, on that note I dont want ever to test the aforementioned safety equipment although I of course made the airbag work again back in 2021!

I wonder if a technician in a upholstery-shop can make a modifications to our factory head rests and make them with more inclination like this:

I have sat in 2 buckets seats (actually chairs) and i realise that there was a big gap between the back of my head and the head rest

Almost 4-5 fingers and i found this very dangerous, yes i know this gap is for helmet (racing) but if an every day driver uses it with standard seat belts then the bouncing back would be fatal.