Duh - so who drives about with the rear headrests UP ?

[barrysharp]

The other day I had to collapse the rear seats to make way for a 350 lb Treadmill the doctor said my wife needed for additional exercising etc. At first I was puzzled about how to lay the seats down (haven't done it since purchasing the car) with the headrests in place - and then I saw the small nylon loops that when pulled allow the headrests to flip down and allow the back rests to lay flat down.

Sooooo, after unloading this 350 lb thingy I needed to restore the rear seats to their upright position. I did so and fogot to reposition the headrests in their upright position. The next day my wife exclaims - What did you do as I can now see soooooo much better out the back!

My wife usually is the lone driver with me at the wheel or in front passenger seat at weekends etc.

Duh - and to think we've been driving about all this time partially blinded to the rear. :( ;)

[kbdixon]

Barry, I find that this doesn't bother me as much in the wagon as it does in my wifes S60, that convient switch on the dash is well placed for better rear vision in that car. I also find it works well to wake up rear seat passengers who may be dozing/talking to much.
Keith

[TrueBlue]

I had a Saab 9000 where you had to remove the headrests to get the seats down, and if memory serves me right, the seat squabs didn't fold forward which left an angled floor (??safety feature). Not my most memorable car... I think my wife's S70 was similar.

I'm amazed that Barry missed the little black pulls on the headrests. Two posts in as many weeks on the same subject!

Now, wouldn't it be great if the front passenger seat had the same arrangement? One has to wind the seat back to its limit in order to lower the back rest, and even so it fouls the glove box....

Occasionally I have to put long things in the car and the inelegant way of getting the extra length is a pain.

[barrysharp]

Occasionally I have to put long things in the car and the inelegant way of getting the extra length is a pain.

I owned a Renault 16 a number of years back. That car was an engineers dream car. Within about 5 mins one could remove all the seats minus the driver's seat. I moved my whole 'house' to another with this Renault - sofas, carpets, frig. The Volvo wagon today is no match for that good ole Renault. ;)

Volvo could be more inovative and be a 'first' by designing their headrests to retract into the backrest when a seat is not occupied.

Also, the cubby hole under the rear cargo floor should slide out to the rear much like a draw does. The number of times I've wanted access to that area but can't because the cargo area is chock full of gear.

Ah well, wishes. :D

[XC70Geo]

But great wishes, I think. I really miss this "LEGO function" - and today it is not a technical problem.

[gibbons]

Volvo could be more inovative and be a 'first' by designing their headrests to retract into the backrest when a seat is not occupied.


My center seat head rest (40/20/40) retracts smoothly into the seatback, so I guess it isn't rocket science for Volvo. It just wouldn't look as cool as the two side ones do now. I don't know if the middle one looks best retracted so they make them that way, or if a full size head rest would hit the center hump on the floor.

I never leave the center up, but then again, I have never been bothered by the side head rests. If the side head rests really bothered me personally, I would drop the whole seat back into cargo position since no one rides in the back of mine anyway. I think the headrests tilted down pointing forward looks dorky.

By the way, if anyone would like to swap some taupe 40/60's for my 40/20/40's with boosters, speak up.

[skibo]

Gibbons -

I've been in mourning for 6 weeks now, since picking up my new '04 (bought sight-unseen) and finding it had the 60-40 instead of the 40-20-40 the brochure claimed. I see others got the same surprise.

My interior is black, so the trade won't work, but I wonder why you're interesting in going TO the 60-40. The 40-20-40 looks great for skis, etc. Is there a downside that I'm not seeing?

mln

[cbob]

Duh - and to think we've been driving about all this time partially blinded to the rear. :( ;)

Flipping the headrests down for better views out the back was one of the first things I did when I got the vehicle.
Now I've got the opposite problem : I forget they are down, and get the strangest reactions from folks who get in the back seats. They puzzle over the curious Volvo seat design (head covers for very short passengers?) until I tell them that they have to flip up the headrest.
Duh! :D

[gibbons]

Skibo- Man, I can't tell you everything, or no one will want to trade :D

Actually, I simply have no need for boosters. My youngest is 14, and I don't see booster age grandkids (whoa, me that old???) for a long time. I ust don't like how the boosters look with their split where the booster folds up. Second, we never drop just the center section, it is always 60/40 or 100 anyway. But bottom line, it's the boosters. They would have been way cool when our kids were younger. But as it is, they just remind me that I paid $300 extra for something I didn't want, that could have gone towards the $695 for DSTC that the dealer was too dumb to order.

[birddog]

I've only laid the seats out flat once since owning the car. When I returned the seats to an upright positioin I was very upset because there were small indentations in the headrests which I was afraid were never going to go away. Someone here told me to try a hairdryer (may have been Willy or Art) and to heat them up a bit which helped immensly. Now I would be sure to put a hand towel or someting there before folding the seats out again. I much prefer the headrests being removed as we did in our other Volvo estates.

BTW skibo, I live in PA (although the opposite side) and am dying to have the boosters in the back seat. When I move to Xanadu my XC will have a 40/20/40 with booster seats. I'll bet if you look hard enough you could find a rear seat in a salvage yard to drop in. Let me know if you are interested in doing that and I may be able to help you locate one. :)

[skibo]

birddog -

Thanks for the offer.

Do I infer from your post that on this side of Xanadu the boosters are only available with the 60-40 seat?

mln

[littlewaywelt]

The 40-20-40 looks great for skis, etc. Is there a downside that I'm not seeing?

mln

yepp. I would have paid for the 60-40 if the 40-20-40 was standard. ... and I would have paid a lot. Since we can't use the steel barrier with the 3rd row seats we need to have a barrier in the back. The 6040s have a barrier that pulls out of the seat backs. This is (for us) far more convenient than using the fold up nylon barrier which never came out of the plastic except to try it out once. I was also not impressed by how the 20 section pulls out or gets used as an armrest by flipping it, leaving a hole to the cargo area.

I do commend Volvo though for giving us the choice and the drop in fridge for the 20 section is really cool.

As a side note:
Eventually I do want to get new 4rd row seat belt hangers fabricated so the belts can be used with the steel barrier in place. I just have to make sure that the side air curtain won't be affected.

I think this is a really bad design since Volvo doesn't seem to realize that a lot of people need the steel barrier & vertical divider and also a 3rd row. dogs, road trips, kids????