Retrofit Seats!

Chat about your 6R/6C model Polos here!
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samhall15
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Drives: 2017 1.4 TDI Match Edition
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Retrofit Seats!

Post by samhall15 »

New owner as of yesterday :) So be gentle
2017 1.4 TDI Match.. MK8??...6C? No idea

Learning curve for yet another VW make and model.

Drive it home and started to dislike the seats for long journeys.. felt like being in my old MK3 golf.

Previous car was a mk3 Scirocco and again you can tell the difference with how high the seats are.

Any advise on some seat upgrades would be perfect! Looking to just slide the old ones out and get some nice ones in.

Lets see what you guys come up with!
Suggestion of "deal with it" is a perfectly valid answer.

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RUM4MO
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Re: Retrofit Seats!

Post by RUM4MO »

A 2017 Polo is definitely a 6C version so in the context of this forum, also a MK9.

Seat Ibizas tend to have better shaped seats, ie more supportive, but I've not read of anyone swopping for similar aged Ibiza seats, good project - be the first, why "deal with it" when you can make better.

Welcome to the Polo forum by the way!

Edit:- even full Alcantara from certain Ibiza FR?
veteran
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Re: Retrofit Seats!

Post by veteran »

samhall15,

My Polo's a 2017 TSI Match, and your existing seats are almost certainly the same as mine. Given my issues with congenital backpain (spinal arthritis), when I bought my Match I didn't find any other offering from VW, in the way of seats, that was at all worthwhile, so I stuck with the stock seats, hoping that in due course I could perhaps get them changed for something better. And believe you me, I myself do need good supportive, yet comfortable front seats in my Polo, as otherwise I get into excruciating pain on long journeys.

Whilst you perhaps rightfully criticised your Mk3 Golf seats, my last vehicle was actually a Mk3 Golf too, but with mine I had especially-fitted 'Comfort seats' from Day One, which were, in that era, a VW purchasing option. They were the best by far car seats I've ever had and were adjustable in every way you could think of. But unfortunately, sensibly-designed seats of that kind are very rare these days.

With the stock Polo seats, which frankly are medically and ergonomically incorrect, I've managed to offset much of the discomfort by using a tempur-foam-based seat-squab cushion that I bought on the Web. Although an annoyance when getting into and out of the driver's seat, the cushion makes the world of difference and is a pointer to the way that car seats should really be designed, in terms of underlying materials and shape. It goes to prove that providing properly-designed seats isn't rocket science; it just requires a bit of awareness and thought on the part of the car manufacturer.

All that said though, I'm keeping my eyes and ears open for any sort of 'comfort' seats that could, in the longer term, replace these Polo 'instruments of torture', ones that'd be just the right size and which would have the same, or similar, floor-fixings and built-in airbags/electrical connections (if only to comply with MOT requirements). I guess that if any such seats exist at present at all, they'll cost a pretty penny, but that's something I'd be prepared to accept.
samhall15
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Re: Retrofit Seats!

Post by samhall15 »

Thanks for your reply!

Having a read around, it looks like people are swapping out the Polo 6R seats for Audi A1 seats.

Again straight away I dont know if the 6C and the 6R share the same platform

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SRGTD
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Re: Retrofit Seats!

Post by SRGTD »

samhall15 wrote: Wed Jun 05, 2019 4:00 pm Thanks for your reply!

Having a read around, it looks like people are swapping out the Polo 6R seats for Audi A1 seats.

Again straight away I dont know if the 6C and the 6R share the same platform

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The 6C and 6R do share the same platform. The 6C is the mid-life facelift of the 6R Polo. The body shell and pretty much all the body panels are identical on both the 6C and 6R, with cosmetic differences in the bumpers and light clusters. The main differences between the 6C and 6R are some revised engines were introduced to the range and new tech introduced.

My 6C Polo GTI replaced a mk6 Golf GTD. It did take a couple of months to adjust to the Polo’s seats, especially as the seats in my GTD were some of the most comfortable, supportive seats of any car that I’ve owned in over 40 years of driving. Having owned my Polo for 39 months now, I’m used to the seats and find they’re fine (like veteran, I also have long standing back issues). Forum member D7VXD did replace the front seats in their Polo with a pair from a mk6 Golf GTI which are the same as the GTD’s front seats apart from the colour of the upholstery. I seem to remember it wasn’t a straight swap though and required some modification to the seat runners.

As you’ve only just got your car, it’s probably worth persevering with the existing seats for a while; some of the issues you’re experiencing could be down to not having found the optimum driving position yet (it always takes me a while to get the seat adjusted so it feels ‘just right’).

It might be worth trying the seats in a Polo Blue GT or GTI as the front seats do have more side bolstering on the seat backrests and seat cushions than the seats in the Match. Assuming that if you do replace the existing seats with a used set (new ones would be horrendously expensive), make sure that any donor vehicle wasn’t involved in an accident that could have caused structural weakening or distortion of the seat frames.
veteran
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Re: Retrofit Seats!

Post by veteran »

samhall15,

SRGTD raises some good points. However, my experience is that exaggerated bolstering around the edges of the seat do little or nothing for backpain. Yes, you do need a modicum of bolstering just to keep yourself from jiggling about too much on the Polo's rather jelly-like suspension, but beyond that I don't see that anything additional will help; indeed, you might then find it difficult to get in and out of the seat.

The problem with the Polo's stock seat - apart from the fact that its squab (the cushion bit that you actually sit on) is permanently inclined at the wrong angle - is that, within the squab, there's structural ribbing, and some of that ribbing lies right under where your spine ends. Coupled with insufficient padding across that area, the effect is that after a time you feel that ribbing via your coccyx and sacrum. So, primarily what's required for a better design are two things: (i) an ability to adjust the tilt of the seat-squab, or make the squab horizontal, and (ii) far more padding in the seat-squab, so that the ribbing cannot be felt, even after some years of the seat's usage.

The dreadful 'bucket seat' design that still prevails in most cars (not just VWs) was, as I understand it, originally meant to keep the driver in a basically backward fall, so the driver would be less inclined to come off the seat in a mild shunt. However, that was in the days of no seat belts, and seatbelts these days do a much better job of forward-restraining the driver than does an ergonomically-wrong '5-minutes-to-2' seat-squab.
RUM4MO
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Re: Retrofit Seats!

Post by RUM4MO »

One thing to check if considering A1 or Ibiza seats is, both these car could be slightly wider than similar aged Polo or Fabia.
Jacob1234
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Re: Retrofit Seats!

Post by Jacob1234 »

Hey guys I was wondering if Audi s3 seats would fit in a polo gti 6r?
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