Tall Drivers: Add 4-6 inches of Leg Room To Your i3

[ImaBigD]

All,

New to the forum and very excited to have recently purchased a CPO 2015 BMW i3 REx. I love everything about the car except I wish I had a little more leg-room being 6'5 and nearly ALL leg (35-inch inseam).

I have been searching high and low for options to extend the seat rails on the i3 but have not had any success until today. I have been communicating with folks from extendmyseat.com. You can click this link to check out their website: http://extendmyseat.com/

For those that don't know, they are a company run BY tall people FOR tall people that design custom fabricated, laser cut, seat extension kits that are completely DIY that allow you to easily and simply add 4-6 inches of legroom to your driver's side seat (depending on available space behind it). You can check out an installation video here to see how simple and straightforward installation is: https://youtu.be/MS2PagEAZRY

DIY install kits sell for $249 and are available for certain makes, models and years based on customer demand since the folks at ExtendMySeat have to custom design and fabricate a mold for each make, model and year.

That is the good news. The bad news is, if you go to their website and look for their available models, the i3 is not listed. Nor are any BMW vehicles. :-(

Now the potentially great news! I reached out to the owner of the company to see whether they would be willing to fabricate something for the i3. The owner reached back out to me and offered me this:

Thanks for the email. Unfortunately we do not have a solution for your i3. We do need the car for a week to complete the engineering. We havent seen any demand for this vehicle yet but if we do or could arrange for 10+ units we could rent one and create a solution.

So, my fellow Tall i3 drivers - I KNOW you are out there somewhere. If we can get at least 10 of us to commit to buying a $249 priced kit from extendmyseat.com the owner will be willing to rent an i3 and do exact measurements required to custom create a solution for us.

Please (pretty please) contact ExtendMySeat.com at this link: http://extendmyseat.wufoo.com/forms/q7x3z9/ and leave a comment letting them know you are interested in a kit for the i3 and you'd be willing to purchase one for $249.

Please respond to this thread so we can keep an accurate head count of interest and so I can reference that to the owner to show that our interest/demand is real.

For the record, I have no affiliation with ExtendMySeat.com and do not stand to benefit financially from them in any way. If anything, I may be willing to go in for more than 1 kit depending on demand just to facilitate a solution for the i3!

Having had custom seat rail extensions made for 4 of 6 vehicles I have owned in my lifetime, I can tell you that $249 for a custom and quality kit it is extremely reasonable. My past rail extension modifications were priced anywhere from $600 to $1,200 depending on the vehicle.

Hope to hear from many of you soon!

Thanks for your attention. Let's make this happen!

 

[ImaBigD]

I'm amazed that there are over 400 views and not a single post.

Curious: for anyone who has seen this thread and not replied - has ANYONE attempted to contact the manufacturer of extendmyseat.com to inquire about fashioning a solution for the i3?

Or was I wrong in thinking that there are tall drivers that own an i3 and want an added 3-4 inches of legroom in an easy, affordable, DIY kit?

 

[jadnashuanh]

My inseam is 34", and I do not have the seat at the end of the track. What I find more of a problem is that I wish the steering wheel extension was longer. Very few cars have moveable pedals, but if I were going to wish for something, it would be that verses a longer track!

 

[ImaBigD]

jadnashuanh,

I appreciate your post. A longer steering wheel extension is definitely something I would also champion, but I don't know of any mods (DIY or otherwise) that would begin to address that, but I completely agree with you that it's also an issue.

It seems like car manufacturers target a narrow range of driver shape and size when identifying features like steering wheel telescoping length, seat track length, etc.

What drives me bananas is that if you look correlations of height with socioeconomic status/earnings, taller people fair better. The auto industry is cutting out a significant part of the demographic with earning power by being blind to the needs of taller folks.

Good luck and thanks again for your post.

 

[jadnashuanh]

There have been a few cars where, after my normal routine of adjusting the seat all the way back, I could not reach the pedals!

My bigger issue, and it's a close call on the i3, is the seat height to the top of the door opening, second is the actual headroom once in. I have a long torso, but am not very flexible, so I can't bend well to get through the doorway of many cars without literally hurting in the process (and sometimes, for hours afterwards!). The i3 is just barely tolerable in that front. No problem once in, but just at the range of my being able to bend to get into the thing. this limits greatly the number of cars I would consider, and is annoying. "Mandatory" sunroofs in many cars affect the headroom, especially if you can't reach the steering wheel after getting your legs on the pedals and the seatback where you aren't brushing against the headliner. On one car I had, an early Audi A6, I was able to buy it without a sunroof and per the specifications, that gave an additional 2.85" of headroom verses the same car with a sunroof. That's a huge difference. It's a major pain being outside the normal size and then trying to find things that fit. Cars included.

FWIW, on one car I owned, I unbolted the seat, then fabricated four flat steel stock pieces, and moved the whole seat back a couple of inches. All that took was some flat steel stock and a few bolts and a few holes drilled in that flat stock. It probably would have been stronger to use two longer plates, but it worked for me. Cost all of a few dollars and maybe a half hour.

 

[smboards]

What are you talking about? I am 6ft 5in tall and have 36in inseam. If I move the seat to the rearmost position in i3 I can reach neither pedals nor the steering wheel. This is one thing about BMW that has amazed me over the years (my i3 is my 8th BMW) - they somehow manage to make cars that are comfortably driveable for people 150-200cm tall. Not a common feat.

 

[goingtoarizona]

The steering wheel adjusts both up and down and in and out. There is a lever to the left of the steering wheel on my 2017 i3, and both adjust at the same time. I'm a mere mortal at six foot, both my 4'11" wife and I fit fine.

 

[jadnashuanh]

The most flexible arrangement is one where the seat, steering wheel, and pedal assembly can be moved. Some of that can be ignored if there's enough vertical clearance as you can adjust the height to allow a bit more legroom and still reach the steering wheel. In my case, when my legs are comfortable, I need the seat to be down all of the way to make my back comfortable and still have enough headroom. Then, the steering wheel is a little too far away. It's a combination of lots of things. I find the i3 acceptable, but not ideal for my personal situation. It's rare that I find a car that is easy to get in and out of, and, can get that 'perfect' arrangement for fit once I'm in there. If I were to raise the seat height, it would be hard to get in and out since I don't bend well anymore (even though there's enough headroom, but not through the door opening), so it's the door opening height (getting shorter on most cars to provide more roll-over protection, and doing it every time to get out and then raising it again after in just isn't really a good option.

For most people with normal size and flexibility, the car is much better than most. Many just literally hurt if I try to get in or out, if it's possible in the first place. It would be nice to have more choices.

One car that I owned long ago was a Citroen. All three pedals (clutch, brake, accelerator) were at exactly the same height, so all you had to do was swivel your ankle to change from one pedal to the other, and didn't need to raise your leg...it was much easier to get an ideal seating position in that vehicle as it also had a huge amount of headroom to play with and a significant door opening height from the seat up. Those days are gone.