Seating Comfort (insurance, best, seats, buy)

[westcoastbound1]

2007 Acura TSX vs. 2006 TL

Hi guys. Hoping you can assist me. I have always been the driver when we test drove a few cars but the people sitting on the back seats tell me TL 2006 is more spacious than TSX 2007. Is that true? Where can I get some dimension comparisons?
Regards

[rosecitywanderer]

Go to MSN Autos. You can compare side-by-side with specs, dimensions and photos. But what they're saying makes sense because the TSX is a smaller car than the TL.

[westcoastbound1]

TL TSX
Front Headroom (in.) 38.70 37.80
Rear Headroom (in.) 37.20 37.30
Front Legroom (in.) 42.80 42.40
Rear Legroom (in.) 34.90 34.20
Front Shoulder Room (in.) 58.30 55.40
Rear Shoulder Room (in.) 55.70 53.50
Front Hip Room (in.) 55.60 54.40
Rear Hip Room (in.) 53.80 54.40

[westcoastbound1]

So what do you make out of this when it comes to seating comfort (rear)?

[M3 Mitch]

Seating comfort is not just about room, the shape and supportiveness of the seat matters too, and for that matter what's most comfortable for a small athletic guy may not be best for a tall curvy gal.

Best to have your most frequent rear seat passenger along for a test ride. In this case you can always remind them they had input if they complain later.

Westcoastbound's numbers show there is not a lot of difference between the dimensions of the rear seats of the two cars in question.

[westcoastbound1]

Thanks!
Fact is, more times than not it will be my wife and I in the car and every now and then it will be some guests. It's just that I took a friend of mine with me for a test drive. It was me and the dealer in the front and we had 3 at the back. Friend said he thought TL was bit more spacious. As I said, most of the time it would be wife and I. when I parents do visit, just rent a bigger thing!

[oberon_1]

Comfort is very subjective. Yes, the TL seems slightly more spacious, but that's only part of the picture. Sitting position, adjustment of seats, firmness, support, position relative to car controls - they all matter. In one of our cars, a bulky driver's door controls console, created a pressure point on my wife's knee when driving.
To evaluate it, a car needs to be driven, but many times that's not possible. 10 minutes are not enough to sense a car.

[westcoastbound1]

Totally understand. Not to mention other things like budget, insurance, loan etc that I am fighting given I am only few months old in this country.

[M3 Mitch]

Honestly I think either one of these would be fine in terms of back seat comfort, you will always get the occaisional "princess" or big lanky teen boy who will not be perfectly comfortable, but, whatever.

I would buy whichever of these I got the better deal on and not look back.

[NJGOAT]

Just based on the numbers you put up, the difference is most likely in the perceived feel. Both cars are roughly equal in hip room, but the TSX front and rear seating area tapers in and you lose about 2 1/2 inches of shoulder space. Look at your body and it's obvious that your shoulders are wider than your hips, so a car with less shoulder room feels smaller even if the other areas are just as big.

Generally I tell people that you want to look at head and shoulder room for adults and hip room for kids and car seats. However, as others have said, numbers aren't the whole story and there are a lot of other factors that go into how roomy the car "feels".