[adeuel]

Greetings -

First time poster on this board.

Just took delivery of a 2021 X7 M50i with luxury seating option - to get the ventilated seats. It's my wife's car, and after just a few days, she is complaining of low back pain just driving for 20 minutes or less.
She's coming out of a Yukon Denali.
She loves the seats in my '18 M5, and I don't find the X7's seats awful, but they are a bit "full". You feel more like you're sitting "on" the seat instead of "in" the seat.
I've tried numerous different ideas, none to any change.
Anyone ever had this issue before?
I think I'll try raising the seat higher to start with and adjust from there. Perhaps the Denali's seats were higher allowing more leg hang instead of extension.

TIA.

AD

[unfoundnemo]

They're definitely different than the seats in the M5, but I believe you have to have multi-contour to add the luxury seating, so it should at least have the same type of adjustments even though the seat might have some less aggressive bolsters to begin with. The X7 has a different relative seating position to start with, so as you allude to, I did come to a realization that I can't simply try to re-create the same position I use for my other car and need a different starting point in terms of seat height.

I'm a pretty small guy, and would say to get the support I want in the X7, I had to basically push the lumbar support all the way back/in, inflate the side bolsters all the way, lean the seat back more than I normally would, and then push the shoulders more upright to counter-act how far back the seat was leaning. This mixture basically let the seat wrap around me more.

Good luck!

[adeuel]

Originally Posted by unfoundnemo

They're definitely different than the seats in the M5, but I believe you have to have multi-contour to add the luxury seating, so it should at least have the same type of adjustments even though the seat might have some less aggressive bolsters to begin with. The X7 has a different relative seating position to start with, so as you allude to, I did come to a realization that I can't simply try to re-create the same position I use for my other car and need a different starting point in terms of seat height.

I'm a pretty small guy, and would say to get the support I want in the X7, I had to basically push the lumbar support all the way back/in, inflate the side bolsters all the way, lean the seat back more than I normally would, and then push the shoulders more upright to counter-act how far back the seat was leaning. This mixture basically let the seat wrap around me more.

Good luck!

That's basically what I have done in the M5 as well, and tried to recreate in the X7, so the only thing left is to change seat height and seat bottom lift.

Thanks.

[Wild Blue]

Oh man. Sorry, don't know what you're experiencing there. I'm doing a massive cross-country drive in my X7, sitting for hours and hours at a time, and I'm loving the seats. I just fire up the massage function every few hours so the butt doesn't get sore, and I'm set.

[Jakerx]

Originally Posted by adeuel

It's my wife's car, and after just a few days, she is complaining of low back pain just driving for 20 minutes or less.
She's coming out of a Yukon Denali.
She loves the seats in my '18 M5, and I don't find the X7's seats awful, but they are a bit "full".

I just traded my 2021 Yukon XL Denali for a 2021 X7 M50i with luxury seats and my wife says that the Denali's seats were more comfortable. I don't agree, but I think I understand. The Denali's seats were bit more recliner like - large enough to float around in if you will.

My wife also thinks the seats in my 2020 M5 are great, but hates climbing in and out of the car lol.

[adeuel]

Originally Posted by JakerStyle

I just traded my 2021 Yukon XL Denali for a 2021 X7 M50i with luxury seats and my wife says that the Denali's seats were more comfortable. I don't agree, but I think I understand. The Denali's seats were bit more recliner like - large enough to float around in if you will.

My wife also thinks the seats in my 2020 M5 are great, but hates climbing in and out of the car lol.

Very interesting. How tall is your wife? I wonder if that has something to do with it? My wife is 5'10"

Also, the dealership is thinking that the luxury seating has a different feel to the seat bottom due to the vent and massage mechanics in there. We're going to take a loaner without luxury option and see if that makes a difference. At that point, the best option would be to trade the luxury seating vehicle in, and order the same spec without the luxury seating option. I second guessed the luxury seating option at ordering, but for the $1,200 cost, it seemed like a wash. We never use the massage and the ventilation is terrible/nonexistent, so it looks like the cheap option may end up costing the most if we swap!

[Jakerx]

Originally Posted by adeuel

Very interesting. How tall is your wife? I wonder if that has something to do with it? My wife is 5'10"

Also, the dealership is thinking that the luxury seating has a different feel to the seat bottom due to the vent and massage mechanics in there. We're going to take a loaner without luxury option and see if that makes a difference. At that point, the best option would be to trade the luxury seating vehicle in, and order the same spec without the luxury seating option. I second guessed the luxury seating option at ordering, but for the $1,200 cost, it seemed like a wash. We never use the massage and the ventilation is terrible/nonexistent, so it looks like the cheap option may end up costing the most if we swap!

My wife is 5’ 7”.

I love the massage function actually. Use it in both my M5 and X7 at least once every drive. Ventilated seats have always been terrible in BMWs. The Yukon actually had great ventilation and so does my wife’s Highlander.

[Wild Blue]

I have seen others comment that the luxury seating package is firm, compromising comfortability. However, having just driven literally coast-to-coast with the luxury seating package, I did not find it firm at all.

And I do love the massage seats. Ventilated seats are nice, particularly when I'm using the seat heat, to avoid sweaty/sticky undersides, but the massage is where it's at, to avoid stiffness on long drives like I'm doing.

I'll be talking about this in detail sometime soon in my road trip thread, potentially the next couple of days.

[jasheaer]

Originally Posted by Wild Blue

I have seen others comment that the luxury seating package is firm, compromising comfortability. However, having just driven literally coast-to-coast with the luxury seating package, I did not find it firm at all.

And I do love the massage seats. Ventilated seats are nice, particularly when I'm using the seat heat, to avoid sweaty/sticky undersides, but the massage is where it's at, to avoid stiffness on long drives like I'm doing.

I'll be talking about this in detail sometime soon in my road trip thread, potentially the next couple of days.

I second the massage comment. I drove 700 miles the other day and switched between whole body activation, back massage and lumbar massage, and felt great at the end of the trip.

The Yukon is a tough compare though, GM does a great job with road trip ready seats.

WB any chance you've figured out a way to keep the massage function from timimg out?

Jay

[Wild Blue]

Originally Posted by jasheaer

WB any chance you've figured out a way to keep the massage function from timimg out?

No, and that's okay with me. I don't think I need the massage function going all 8 hours of a big road trip day. Every so often on the drive, if I get stiff, I'll realize "oh yeah, I have a massage function for that!" And turn it on. If it times out and stops during a long drive, I generally don't even notice.

[bhootnath]

I agree with Wild Blue I did 1,700 miles when I picked up my X7 last month in basically 2 days. And the massage seats were great and a big improvement from the last BMW I had with luxury seating (2014 535i), now you have multiple options and more noticeable actions.