luder888

I took my S5 with S Sport seats for a 400 mile trip and I had to stop and stretch every 2 hours. When I took trips in my old Nissan Versa I didn't have that problem. Is it because the seat is too low? It's too hard? How do you guys feel about the S5 seats for long road trips and what do you do to make them more comfortable?

farmerjones

Have the same seat in my TT....find it to be very good on long trips, but still not as comfortable as my previous Volvo seats. They are probably firmer than they have to be, but seat comfort is highly subjective. I'm 5'4", so that could be part of the reason.

luder888

I'm not super tall 5'11. If I move the seat back I get more headroom. I feel like if the seats were in a more upright position it'd be better for long road trips. However if I make them upright my head would be hitting the ceiling.

mplsbrian

I do a 3-week, 4000 road trip every January and was very comfortable when I took my B9 S4 (which as I'm sure you know, has the exact same diamond-stitched S sport seats as the S5) last year.

Not to be rude OP but do you have abnormal body proportions? Are you overweight, underweight, suffer from swaback/scoliosis, wide hips etc?

If I had to think critically for a second, I can think of just 3 complaints:

• Sure wish the headrests were adjustable, as they are in the A4...however I will take the S seats' extra bolstering and hugginess over the A4 Sport or Regular seats any day
• If you have wide hips, the outer seat cushion bolsters (circled below) which are raised can start to cause sore spots on your hips after the 6th or 7th hour of driving. It's perfectly fine for shorter drives and does provide some wanted support but for all-day drives it does devolve into a pressure point. At a 34" waist and a rather athletic build, this affects me but only slightly, however if I was larger I could see it being a problem. With seats like this one size will never fit all and it would be nice if these bolsters' were power-adjustable (or even manual with a **** like cheap cars sometimes do for lumbar).
• Plastic seat backs...really? And what is that joke of a cargo net all about? Come on Audi you can do better. On the S4 at least, rear seat passengers are a regular thing. If they weren't I wouldn't have spent $65K on a 4 door.
  
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rccoleman

I had a lot of lower-back pain when I first got my car, and I think it was mostly due to the angle of the seat bottom (tilted too far back) and the angle of the seat back (tilted too far forward). It felt okay when I was just sitting in the car, but my back would kill me after a long drive. I finally looked up some instructions on how to optimally adjust a car seat, made some adjustments, and haven't had a problem since. The key points were adjusting the seat bottom so that my hips and knees were roughly at the same height (fix seat height and tilt), and tiling the seat back a bit.

luder888

No know medical issues. 5'11" 180 lbs.

I think you hit it on the nail with the knee and hip height. I also think the angle of your upper body vs. thigh also matters. In my Nissan the seat is situated higher up, the knee and hip height is about the same, and also the seat back and bottom angle is closer to 90 degrees, whereas in the S5 it's < 90. I agree comfort is highly subjective. I'm just trying to get the seat comfort of my S5 to more closely match my Nissan Versa because I never run into back issues in my Versa. However given there's less headroom and the seat being closer to the floor there's only so much adjustment I can make.

rccoleman

Since the pedals are the only part that's not adjustable, the knees and hips come first, and everything else follows. I came from a Lexus IS350 with a much higher seat height, and I think that's what initially threw me off.

Trade_it_all_4_more

I make a lot of 4-5 hours trips with my S5 for work. Just got back in the office from back-back 4 1/2 hours long drives. (Yesterday and today). I don't make any stops during these trips and have no complaints about the comfort of sitting in the seat for that long of a drive. Everyone is different, but since you asked for opinions of the S5 seats, that's what I have to offer. I'm 5'-6"...

AgMaple

I made a five-hour, each way, beach trip a month and a half after I got the car. No issues with the seat comfort at all. 6'1", 205.

superswiss

I'm guessing you need to work on how you have the seat adjusted. Everything from the angle of the seat cushion to the back and height is essentially adjustable. Extending to seat cushion also makes a big difference for me. I'm 5'11", I have the seat usually all the way down in most cars and the back pretty straight. No issue hitting my head on the ceiling. I have only done 250 miles at a time in the new S Sport seats, but I have done 12+ hours/800 miles in one day with the old S Sport seats and I don't find the new ones any less comfortable, so don't think they would be a problem on a 12 hour trip. Seat position needs fine tuning over time. My preferred adjustment generally changes over the live of the car. I used to sit higher with the back further back, but I've gradually moved to moving the seat all the way to the bottom and straighten the back. Also I have lumbar support all the way retracted as the the shape of the back pretty much fits my natural shape of my spine. It might take a while for you to find the ideal adjustment.