I'm pretty depressed.

I was all smiles when I picked up my 2004 XJ8 today. After shopping for over a month and looking at over a dozen used Jaguars, not to mention all the other cars I considered, and narrowly avoiding a few disaster-purchases, I finally had a beautiful car in good condition.

But I realized something on the 25-mile drive home that had never been apparent in my test drives: These seats hurt me.

First problem is the head rest. It sticks forward and prevents me from holding my head straight in line with my body. I need to bend my neck forward, and while this wasn't a problem on a 5-mile test drive, I'm now sitting at home stretching my neck, trying to get the horrible cricks out of it. I couldn't move the head-rest high enough or low enough to get it out of the way.

Second is the upper seat back. The seat back support curves forward just above the center of the back, forcing me to slouch forward. I tried leaning the seat back and extending the steering wheel, and that was better, but still the pain from driving hunched over, with no back support in the center of my back (lumbar support ends below the center of the back), is bad. I had to drive the last ten miles sitting sideways, alternating sides. Now I have a bad pain between (and a little lower than) my shoulder blades.

Does nobody else have this problem? No one mentioned this in any of the dozens of reviews I read before buying. I've driven many different cars and never had problems anything like this.

Any suggestions? Can I buy aftermarket front seats for the XJ?

Odd, I find that the head rest doesn't come forward enough to support my head whilst driving ( guess it would help with whiplash in an crash). Have you tryed to tip it back? It doesn't just go up and down but can be angled just by pushing it up or down with your hand.


As for the backrest it sounds to me that the lumba support is not set up for you. These cars have 16way seat adjustment so you have lots to play with to get a happy position. Try playing with lumba as if that's set wrong it can cause a lot of discomfort.
I would make a small tweak each time I drove it for the first few weeks, and now it's perfect.

I have heared of people complaining that the foam is too hard on early cars but not that the seat was unusable!

Make sure you haven't got the seat going into the PO's memory positions instead of your preference.

Have you tried all the seat adjustment options?



And don't forget to factor in Steering Wheel adjustment.

Graham

I did not know that. Will try.

I have tried that, but it only goes maybe halfway up the seat. It's the valley between where the lumbar support ends, and where the seat angles forward almost a foot from the top, that's causing me trouble.

Maybe I can hire somebody on Etsy to make a cushion just the right shape to fit there?

I had to remind myself of how the lumbar support is located and adjusted:


The lumbar support assembly is fixed to the seat backrest and adjustment is by inflation of an air filled bladder to give the required support.

Instead of looking for an alternative seat, perhaps repositioning the lumbar support assembly by modifying the brackets could be an option for you. I'm thinking of that as a better approach than changing the seat because the seat electronics are part of the complex Supplementary Restraint System.

Graham

There have been a few posts on here concerning seat comfort. Usually it is the Sport seat that causes the trouble with its side bolsters. FWIW, I can drive from here in Crewe to the Rheintal in Germany, (Bacharach actually), in one day without discomfort. That's about 600 miles, although I do get a rest on the ferry boat to Dunkirk.

All I can say is that with 16-way adjust seats, plus the steering and pedal adjsut, you should be able to find a comfortable setting, which you can then enter to memory.

Bought a seat cushion at an auto parts world for $20. Might help with the back. Not enough help with the neck.

Maybe you have something wrong with your seat. It did take me a few days to find my setting, but that may have been due to too many setting choices. I taken some long drives and feel the seat is just right, the best out of all the cars I owned or driven.

I would try and take a ride in another X350 and see if you still feel the same way.

I agree, it took awhile to find the right set of adjustments, but I found it! Sometimes after a long ride, I will make a small tweak one way or another.

RyeJag

My 04 VDP seats are very comfortable. Must have a strangely shaped caboose!

That is a brilliant and dangerous suggestion. For now, the back rest is keeping me free from pain, but it slides around a lot.

This is horrible I just bought the car 6 months ago and I am in constant pain only relieved by ice and aleve twice daily. The seats in this XF have 6 inch hard leather bolsters on the side that wrap shoulders inward I am getting a pinched nerve in my neck and the shoulders are making a popping noise The worst part is the dealer says value is 10K less than I bought it only 6 monhs ago!! Rip off Tata and Jaguar Dealers should be ashamed to make and sell these cars I had a Jag in the 90s and It was comfy and fun. Huge loss but I am trading in for a Benz

Did you ever get a solution to this? We have returned a brand new Audi Q2 and a Mercedes because of discomfort. Now have a XF (4 years old) and it will be modified until the main driver can use it without pain.

I have a 2004 Vanden Plas, I find the seats very comfortable and very very adjustable. Takes a minute to find the right settings for everything, but as much adjustment as there are for the seats, I find it hard to believe that one cannot find an acceptable, comfortable position.
I hope that you were able to find a comfortable position. If not, maybe something is broken in the seat and the adjustments are not working. Good luck to you.

Have to admit as much as I love my XJ the seats are not comfortable. Took me a while to get them where I was semi-comfortable but still the lower bolsters bother me at times. Drive 2 hours a day in the car and I don't have pain (otherwise I would have gotten rid of it already), but some days it just doesnt feel right. My other driver is a Park Ave Ultra which is basically a couch that you can drive, so not surprised I'm not a fan of the Jag seats. Even my wife's '16 Regal GS is not comfortable due to the 'Sport" seat option. My advice would be to play around with the settings a lot until you find something that works. I found that even small adjustments here and there helped a lot.

The seats are snug and firm as it is technically a sports sedan and they obviously didn't want the driver position being moved excessively during cornering.
I make sure I take my wallet out of my back pocket when driving any distance, so that doesn't skew my seating position and upset my lower back.

However, having an X350 on the road does tend keep the wallet a little slimmer anyway

Sadly, I no longer have my '06 VDP, but the only thing that bugged me was the stiffness of the side bolsters on the lower seat. There's a far-stiffer wire holding that area up, ostensibly to better hold your backside in place in hard cornering. My interest in throwing a VDP around curves long since gave way to being comfortable. My height-challenged wife never rode in that VDP and probably would have refused to ride in it again after being poked by those wires. And, yes, my wallet rode in the center console with the x350. Actually, after my wallet was lifted in the Frankfurt airport I started using a front pocket wallet, which also often ends up in a jacket zip pocket or in the console as well.

On the 04s (not sure if this is for all years or all trim levels, mine is an 04 VDP) the 4 way switch activates two lumbar supports. When you make use of the full functionality you can feel the lower position and then the upper, which supports nearer the top of the seat. Check the owners manual for your year.
My problem is that I am sure mine was fitted with sport version seats and the bolsters are like high rocks. One day I will 'fix' that!
4-way switch only: Press the top of
the switch to increase higher lumbar,
decreasing lower lumbar support.
Press the bottom of the switch to
increase lower lumbar, decreasing
higher lumbar support. Press the front
of the switch to increase mid-lumbar
and the rear to decrease all lumbar
support.

The bottom side bolsters have always been too tall for me on my 04 XJR. I even tried replacing the seat with on from an 04 Vanden Plas. No change and found after the fact that the seat bottom frames are all the same part number! Expensive waste of time and money. I just use a pillow. The seats in an 01 XJR are some of the most comfortable ever. Same on the 09 Vanden Plas. Never had a problem with the head rest. I have to tilt my head back to touch it even with it tilted forward.
Possibly becoming more familiar with the seat control functions will help you find the right comfort combination. The other option might be to find a seat or seats out of an 08-09 Vanden Plas and swap. Unfortunately, I do not know if the electrical connectors are the same. The controls look the same and although Jaguar did change the shape of the seats, they might have kept the electrical connectors the same in the name of cost. The control functions are the same.
I hope you can find a solution. I know well how it is to love your car but find it uncomfortable to drive.

Well, I had similar problem with seats in my 04VDP. Solved it with:
Applied it to MINE, as oppose to a car, lower lombar.
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX AT WORK!