Which Cars Can Fit Loooong Legs Best?
Question: I am more than 7 feet tall and considering buying a new car. Naturally, legroom is very important to me, but I can’t seem to find data about this compiled in one place. Can you tell me which cars have the most legroom and which to avoid? If I had a custom bucket seat installed, would I face insurance problems if I were injured in an accident? -- W.R.
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Answer: Auto makers design interiors pretty much to fit a standard-sized person, but there is a huge amount of variation in front-seat legroom among different models and you should be able find a car to accommodate you without modification.
After all, Los Angeles Lakers players--including Vlade Divac, James Edwards and Sam Bowie, the tallest men on the team at 7 feet 1 inch--drive standard cars.
Bowie and Edwards drive Mercedes 600 class cars and Divac has a BMW 750i. These cars offer generous legroom, though the players’ knees still tend to stick up, a team spokesman said.
These cars are beyond many people’s means, but that doesn’t mean tall people are out of luck.
You are right that detailed information about legroom is not offered in buying guides. But Peter Levy, president of Intellichoice, which puts out an automobile guide, was able to create a list of cars ranked by front-seat legroom, using a special software program.
The car with the most legroom is the Acura NSX, offering a generous 44.3 inches, measured from the seat back to the fire wall. The Honda Prelude and Dodge Stealth were next at 44.2 inches. The Lexus SC300 has 44.1 inches, followed by the Mazda RX-7 at 44 inches, the Jeep Eagle Talon at 43.9 inches and the Chevy Corsica at 43.4 inches.
Most tall people are also concerned about head room and here the results are completely different. Trucks and utility vehicles have the most headroom, but tops among cars were Volkswagen Passat, Buick Roadmaster and Chevy Caprice--all at 39.6 inches.
Some cars to avoid if you are tall--or perhaps seek out if you are very short--are the Ford Escort, which has only 34.6 inches of front legroom, the Dodge Caravan with 37.3 inches, the Volkswagen Eurovan with 37.8 inches and the Suzuki Samurai with 38.3 inches.
Early next year, Intellichoice will offer customized software packages to sort car choices based on parameters entered by a shopper. For example, if you want to specify a car within a certain price range, trunk capacity and fuel economy, the Intellichoice software would provide the cars that fit the description, Levy said. Intellichoice can be reached at (800) CAR-BOOK.
As for modifying your new car, some body shops are capable of doing the job by moving the entire seat track back a few inches.
As you suspect, a big problem is that modification could jeopardize an accident injury claim. Moving the seat would change its relationship to other parts of the interior, including the distance to the steering wheel, the fit of the seat belt and the proximity to air bags.
A spokesman for the Auto Club of Southern California said his company will accept such modifications, provided they are done by a dealer or a shop authorized by the manufacturer. A number of shops modify cars for the disabled and may have the authorization needed to modify a seat.
You should check with your insurer before making any changes and disclose what you do. In the event of an injury that resulted from an undisclosed modification, AAA may not honor a claim, the spokesman said.
