Best car for lower back problems?

In addition to ride quality, you need to consider seat comfort!

I can tell you from personal experience that Honda Accords (the chief competitor of the Camry) are built very low to the ground and they also feature seats that are VERY close to the floor. The net result is that you have to lower yourself much more in order to get into the vehicle, and you have to lift yourself much higher when getting out of the car. These maneuvers can be very hard on the back.

Also, the very low position of the Accord’s seats–relative to the floor–results in a “legs out” seating position, which is very bad for the lower back. When driving my '92 Accord, I typically experienced lower back pain and sciatic pain radiating into my right leg if I drove for more than 30 minutes.

Later, when driving my SO’s '01 Accord, I experienced the same intense discomfort. While it is possible that the newer Accords are not built in the same manner, it would behoove you to do an extended test drive of an Accord if you are considering one. With the current sales figures for most car dealerships, you should encounter little resistance if you tell the salesman that you need to drive the car for an hour or so, in order to assess whether it is suited to your anatomy.

Incidentally, the easiest vehicles to get into and out of are–believe it or not–the smaller SUVs, such as the Honda CR-V, the Toyota RAV-4, and the Subaru Forester. Their seats are, literally, “butt-height” for most people, making for very easy entry and exit, and this is much easier on the back than having to lower yourself into a sedan seat or having to climb up and down in order to seat yourself in a large SUV.

With any vehicle, plan on an extended test drive in order to assess both the ride quality and the seat comfort. The typical 15 minute test drive tells you very little about seat comfort.