SHE SAYS...

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32565, 26 March 1971, Page 17

SHE SAYS...

Discussing last week how women would avoid some of the design mistakes in cars which men seem to make brings to mind a problem I, and some others, have with certain cars: when we turn the steering wheel, our fingers brush across our stockings, and rings promptly become snagged. This happens when the layout of the car is such that the bottom rim of the steering wheel is too close to the driver’s legs, and the only solutions are a smaller steering wheel, a lower seat, or adjustable steering. If you have a car with this problem, there is often not much you can do about

it, unless it happens to be one of the few cars round with an adjustable steering column. You can buy smaller-than-standard diameter steering wheels, but they reduce the amount of leverage you can exert, and can thus make the car’s steering far too heavy for a woman.

Lowering the height of the seat is possible, I’m told, but for many women this means they are well clear of the steering wheel but can hardly see over the top of the dashboard! In many cars the front seats are designed so that they move upwards as they are moved forward on their sliding rails —so if you happen to be a short person with amply-proportioned thighs, you are bound to be in trouble!

I don’t think that many women Would disagree with the comment that an awful lot z of cars have badlydesigned seating. Seats often appear to be made to look smart in the showroom, and never mind the comfort on the road. When you buy a car, you don’t always discover this for a while, either, because a seat which feels fine on a quick trip round the block can leave you with a crippling back-ache after 200 miles. A seating and backdisorder specialist recently made a study of the seats in 20 or so of the latest British cars. He said none of the seats were ideal, in a couple of cars they were good, in several they were fair, and in the rest they were guaranteed to cause trouble. After more than 50 years of car-making. I’m sure factories could do better than this.