Seats of power

Car users are sitting on more advanced features than ever before, but increasing demands for “comfort” and other considerations have focused industry brainpower on slimmer seat designs, new trim materials, and innovative technology solutions.

It must incorporate a mix of materials, mechanical systems, as well as aesthetic and purely practical design; it must meet market pressures for ever more features without gaining weight; and it must conform to the precise requirements of safety and the imprecise requirements of comfort. It is the car seat, once just a simple structure containing coil springs and padding wrapped in leather or cloth but now complex, costly, and cosseting.

Longitudinal, squab, and height adjustment were to be early harbingers of a plethora of seat systems that-particularly with the arrival of modern technology in the 1980s-would enhance not only comfort but also safety, and quickly migrate through ranges right down to entry-level models.