Hi. Just bought a 2013 focus titanium. Drives lovely but the sports seats are crippling!  The buckets are two narrow so the side bolsters force my shoulders to round inwards and i'm partially sat on the seat bolsters giving hip pain. (I'm 6'3" and quite wide with it.) I have back issues anyway so am sensitive to seats generally, but the seat seemed ok for a short test drive 😞  I'm playing around with various cushions, and they help a bit, but not to the point of making long journeys possible.

It was a private sale, so it's a case of: live with it (not really an option), sell it on (major hassle), donate to wife (possible) or change / adapt the seat somehow.

So my question is: Can mk3 non sports seats (e.g. zetec trim) be fitted to a titanium model? Do the connectors etc match? Do they actually fit? Could they be a straight swap, or are there any mods that would be needed. I test drove two zetec trim mk3's before buying this one and they seemed comfortable enough - quite similar to my wife's mk1 in fact (still going bless it) but not as comfy as my recently demised mk1.5 (rip).

Has anyone got experience of fixing similar problems? Ideally i'd get some sort of custom insert made to lift me out of the bucket slightly. Or, i've read it's possible to get the seat re-engineered by a specialist. Sounds expensive, but i might be desperate / stubborn enough. I hate car shopping so much i really don't want to admit defeat, but i need a solution. A secondary problem is the angle of the headrest. Why do they force your head forward to such an unnatural angle? I know they're there to prevent whiplash but it seems extreme...

Thanks for reading. All ideas welcome.

 

 

Yes, the seats are a straight swap.  Only issue you might find is that Zetec seats aren't heated for example.

I have the same problem with the headrests on modern cars...can't see how anyone can be comfortable with their head pointing down to the pedals but I can't say I've seen many other complaints about it! 

Thanks mate. Good to know. I can work around electrical problems, just the mechanics that concerns me. I'll start looking for some new seats i think...

Regarding the headrests, it seems it's everywhere when you start looking. It's just manufacturers lazily and cheaply following a poorly balanced regulation, i guess. Crash safety is important, but so's not being crippled in stages in everyday use.  Some videos on youtube showing how to bend the posts to change the angle. One even involves a scissor jack (don't try this at home!). Couple of americans ( of course) trying to organise class action lawsuits against the manufacturers for neck injury! I wish them luck. Seems the latest focus has comfort seats available that have the approval of a german group that lobby for better posture in car seats. Oh well, next upgrade i guess...