When seated in the center of the driver's seat, does anyone feel that they are actually sitting slightly towards the right? I didn't notice this when I first got the car, then I noticed it as I got more familiar with it, now I'm used to it.

Is your driver's seat directly lined up with the center of the steering wheel? Maybe it's slightly to the right to aid in shifting. Hmmmmmm.

WayneTN

 

I noticed the same thing in my car. My friend though I was nuts. I don’t know about shifting aid. My guess is that some engineer got a couple of tolerances wrong (I do that all the time: .005 here, .005 there and nothing fits. lol). I wonder if it is the steering wheel or the seat that’s shifted.

Side note: Don’t quote me on this but didn’t the first gen. dodge vipers have a similar problem? I think there was some kind of interference with the wheel well (or something) meaning all the pedals had to be moved to the right. I think that lead to the seating position being at a significant angle. Can anyone confirm this?

 

Whew! I thought I was the only one. I didn't do anything because my Jeep's wheel is slightly offset in the same direction as well.

Good question though... is it on purpose or accident? Will we ever really know the answer? Does it really matter?

 

Oh great; a bunch of "right wingers" on here!

 

I think it is biased to the right (or I lean to the right) because the right side of the steering wheel blocks out the right side of the speedo (triple digit numbers)…unless I lean to the left slightly.

 

I never noticed this until you mentioned it but, mine seems to have the same affliction. I wonder if the cars in Japan are a little to the left?

 

I thought I was being too **** again!!

 

This is true, I think, in a number of cars: the MR2, Ferrari 308/328, several Porsches ... in fact in, I think I recall reading, the newest Ruf Porsche you can only drive it if your feet aren't too big because the footwell is constricted to the right so much by the huge air vents for the brakes.

Underneath the pretty sheetmetal there are all sorts of compromises they have to make, I guess, to get everything in there. Including the driver!

 

For me it's not the steering wheel, it's my ***. I slide over to the right because of that stupid little hump in the floor directly below your right foot. It doesn't allow my right heel to sit at the same height as my left and I always feel as if I'm shifted slightly to the right.

 

Hahaha. I thought I was the only one having this problem. I have to repeatedly reseat myself driving to and from work... So annoying.

 

I read in the Nissan brochure that the engineers designed the car for the drivers side to angle a bit to the right. Apparently allowing shifting to become easier, more of a natural position which aides in comfort for the driver as well.

 

Offset seating position/steering wheel relationship is present in many vehicles.

Some people are more sensitive to the condition than others. As is the case with other evaluation points, everyone places a varying priority on this parameter. So, maybe it's totally unacceptable to one person but others don't notice or don't care about it at all.

In my personal opinion, the Porsche Boxster has the worst pedal arrangement under wheel centerline I've ever seen. It feels as if the clutch pedal is directly under the wheel. For me it's way too far inboard and I feel like I can't drive while facing forward. I'm more sensitive to pedal/wheel alignment than I am to wheel/seat alignment. I fully believe the Boxster setup is unacceptable. It makes me glad I bought the Z instead of the Boxster!

 

Man, why did you post this? I never noticed this before, but now I am gonna think about it everytime I sit in my car.

 

Yeah, but look at all of the posts that I got from people who thought they were loosing it!

Plus, we got some great comments from Rat (apparently a new right-winger) and teh215 (who wonders if the seats in Japan are skewed to the left).

WayneTN

 

I noticed it right away in the Z. The seat seems to be even further to the right in my rx-7. So I just figure it's a japanese car thing. The narrower the car the more it's moved to the right.

 

Well my car isn't a JDM one but we're RHD also and yes our seats are to the left, maybe half an inch? I hadn't noticed it until I read this.

 

This is fairly common in many cars. I hadn't noticed it in the Z until now.

 

Very interesting post...

After reading it yesterday -- drove to work..home... and then to work today...

My body seemed to be aligned directly with the middle of the steering wheel.... or so I thought.

Then I read apsilon's post .. and he has a RHD ... like my JDM Z....and he says its a half inch to the left.

hmmm...back to testing

 

Maybe it's my body that's out of whack

To be honest it's probably less than half an inch. it's barely noticeable. I had to sit in the car and consciously move to the right wearing a business shirt lining up the buttons with the middle of the wheel before I came to my conclusion. I'll check again on the way home to make sure I was sitting properly.

 

Well I checked again on my way home and now I'm not so sure. I made sure I was seated properly and this time took my wallet out of my back pocket which could've been making the difference. If it is offset it's a very small amount.

Either way it's not enough to be a problem or to other me.