I have a 61-plate S350 Bluetec with 54K on the clock and have owned it for just on a year. We're off on our usual long drive through France in about 5 weeks time and I look like I may have to sell the car and buy something with comfortable seats.
Not to mince words, the seats are abysmal and I have gradually built up an extreme sciatic inflammation which results in me having trouble walking for the first minute or so after any trip of more than a few miles. the problem is pressure on the base of my pelvis affecting the right leg and producing burning muscle pain and even tendon pain when I stand up.
The seats are correctly adjusted and do not exert blood-restricting pressure behind the knee but I feel as though my right pelvic base is resting on a wooden board. I'm getting some relief with foam pads, 2 inch thick on the rearmost panel of the seat base and 1 inch thick on the panel immediately behind the front roll.
I already know that this is a common complaint from talking to other drivers and to specialists - the consensus seems to be that the W220 had excellent seats but the W221 seats are truly awful.
Before this car I had an E320CDi which I had reupholstered in light grey hide to relieve it's gloomy black factory look and those seats were over-lined with 1 inch foam immediately below the covers with wonderful results.
Has anyone with experience any advice to offer - at the moment I plan to experiment with a carefully shaped cushion made in parchment leather, to match the seat, with a breathable cloth base. I plan to specify tapered foam from thick at the rear to thinner in front and with thinner wings on the side bolsters of the seat, but an in-seat solution is what I'd really like.
Ed Form
Not to mince words, the seats are abysmal and I have gradually built up an extreme sciatic inflammation which results in me having trouble walking for the first minute or so after any trip of more than a few miles. the problem is pressure on the base of my pelvis affecting the right leg and producing burning muscle pain and even tendon pain when I stand up.
The seats are correctly adjusted and do not exert blood-restricting pressure behind the knee but I feel as though my right pelvic base is resting on a wooden board. I'm getting some relief with foam pads, 2 inch thick on the rearmost panel of the seat base and 1 inch thick on the panel immediately behind the front roll.
I already know that this is a common complaint from talking to other drivers and to specialists - the consensus seems to be that the W220 had excellent seats but the W221 seats are truly awful.
Before this car I had an E320CDi which I had reupholstered in light grey hide to relieve it's gloomy black factory look and those seats were over-lined with 1 inch foam immediately below the covers with wonderful results.
Has anyone with experience any advice to offer - at the moment I plan to experiment with a carefully shaped cushion made in parchment leather, to match the seat, with a breathable cloth base. I plan to specify tapered foam from thick at the rear to thinner in front and with thinner wings on the side bolsters of the seat, but an in-seat solution is what I'd really like.
Ed Form
Last edited:
