Bought the Accord after a short test drive; never thought about the possibility of driver’s seat being unadjustable. It’s killing my back and numbing my thighs. Okay, so I now see tirades on the Internet about this; however, Consumer Reports for the past several years doesn’t mention it. Any way to “fix” my driver’s seat so that it does press into the back of my legs–I’m 5’ 2". I’m willing to work on a fix rather than trade back at this time for a loss.
What trim level do you have? There might be an adjustment that you are unaware of.
The driver’s seat isn’t adjustable? Have you checked the owner’s manual?
We had 2013 Accords at work and the seats were fully adjustable.
I’m wondering if Accords still have seats set extremely low on the floor of the car.
I say that because my '92 Accord, and a friend’s '03 Accord both had seats that were so low to the floor that I would develop very bad sciatic pain after driving these cars for anything more than 30 minutes.
If Honda is still putting their seats in an extremely low position relative to the floor, it is possible that the only solution is to replace the car.
Hopefully the steering wheel is adjustable. It’s a combination of the two that gives you best comfort. That’s why the passenger complains less about seating; they don’t have to drive. If the car is still new and less then a few months old, trading it in on a higher model with better seating adjustments with minimal loss would be n a dealer’s interest. Talk to them about it first. Trying to fix everything while the car gets older would be an alternate thing to do. Start talking with them NOW, ASAP. You might be surprised what some dealers do to keep customers…I said some, not all. 
A friend of mine is about your height and she has to use a pillow to make her seating position comfortable. She doesn’t drive an Accord though. I suppose you’ve already tried various pillow configurations right? Assuming the pillows don’t work, and you’ve tried all the various seat adjustments provided already, besides buying a different car, the only other thing I can think of is that your car’s option package maybe doesn’t have the seats that are maximally adjustable. If so, maybe you could contact the dealer and see if they can install the more expensive front seats.
I looked at the Honda web site and the entry level Accord has tilt and telescopic steering wheel. The drivers seat has manual height adjustment. The next level up has power drivers seat standard. Using a pillow to set in the drivers seat will be just plain dangerous in a crash. You have to wonder how they test drove the car if someone 6’ 2" had driven it before them.
I would bet that there is an adjustment. I had a similar problem with a Hyundai Sonata that my institution rented for me to drive to a convention where I was presenting a paper. I was in a hurry as I had a 50 mile trip to pick up my research partner and then drive another 120 miles to the city where the convention was being held. I got in the Sonata and the seat back was reclined farther than I like and the seat was very low. I pulled on a lever to bring the seat back to a more upright position, but nothing happened. It was a very uncomfortable 50 miles. When I picked up my research partner, she offered to drive. I am 6’ 2" tall and she is about 5"4" tall. She found the seating position just awful. We traded off drivers about 3 times for the next 120 miles.
On the return trip, I decided to be nice and drove the first 60 miles to an agreed upon rest stop. While my friend was in the restroom, I decided to examine the seat again. There was a second lever that neither of us had seen to adjust the seat back. I then looked at the lever I had been pulling up. I pushed it down and it made the seat rise. Pumping this lever up and down made the seat rise. My colleague was able to adjust the seat height and comfortably drive the car back to her house, and I was able to readjust the seat for the 50 miles back to my campus.
I’m short too and the problem for me is not that the front of the seat is too low, but the front is too high in relation to the butt portion so that the front cuts the circulation on the legs. I always insist on power adjustments. So see the dealer about getting the power seat option.
Most autoparts stores and the automotive sections at some department stores carry a selection of seat cushions, lumbar supports etc and they can turn a mean seat into a much friendlier seat. Costco has a cushion made of gel and memory foam with the little notch for the backbone that is very comfortable.
I just got a lumbar support for my Subaru Legacy from AutoZone that makes the car drivable for me now. Even though it came with an adjustable lumbar support, those factory ones do not support the lumbar at all, they just rabbit punch your kidneys.
I used bot a lumbar support and a pad from Costco for may last cross country trip an my Saturn. The pad filled in the 'bucket" part of the seat and the lumbar saved my back.
Truck stops also have a really good selection of pads and supports as well.
I have to use an aftermarket seat pad to make my car comfortable.
Having degenerative disc disease, it has long been my opinion that automotive seats in most mass produced cars targeted at the working class have been very poorly designed for years. It seems that ergonomic engineers are being taught to design seats such that they force people’s body into the theoretical optimum positions and firm enough to force them there. I would not be surprised if energy absorption for crash tests is a major factor on the firmness of seats these days too. The seats in all of my cars from the '60s and '70s were far more comfortable than any modern car seats. They seem to have had the ability to conform to different body shapes and seating preferences as well as sufficient padding to be comfortable.
In short, I suspect that modern seats are being designed for crash protection as a priority rather than comfort. I’d be surprised if there were not considerable federal regulations for automotive seats that designers have to meet that didn’t exist in the '60s and early '70s. I admit that I’m guessing on this one, but I’d be surprised if my guess was wrong.
I think I’ll do some research in this area. I’m sure the D.O.T., where automotive design requirements live, will have something. I’ll post what I find if I find anything. Should be interesting.
Ahhhh, here we go…
http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/rules/rulings/HeadRest/update/202FinalRule.html
Whoops, this is just for the headrest. Still looking for the overall seat…
No WONDER there are no comfortable car seats anymore! Lets hope they don’t decide to establish standards for toilet seats!
I think the vast majority of car seats could have been used with great results back during the Spanish Inquisition to force people to see the error of their ways.
Thirty minutes of a typical car seat and they would be begging for the Iron Maiden… 
I suspect you’re right.
My youngest son just bought a 2013 Camaro. Nice car but I swear the seats are cast from concrete and I can’t imagine a 100 miles on them.
My preference would have been cushy seats instead of having 2 speedometers. Redundancy on an aircraft I can understand…
I had a 2008 accord ex-l and I hated the seats. I remember when I drove it one of my legs went numb. I think for me it was because the seat was so low. I’m only 5’7" and at the time I researched it and I found out I wasn’t the only one that had that problem.
Okay–steveng has confirmed that Accord seats were still as low in the 2008 model as they were in the earlier Accord models that gave me back and leg pain. Can anyone confirm whether Honda still places their front seats so ridiculously low to the floor?
Comfort in a car seat is a complicated thing. I noticed in the original post that the OP is 5’2" and the seats are not only killing her back but also numbing her thighs. I have very short legs, and I’ve found in modern seats that they’re not only very hard but the bottoms in most are too long for my legs. My legs cannot rest comfortably on the seats, because my knee joints are barely reaching over the seat bottom. I solved the problem by finding (after many tries) a seat pad that works for me, but this should not be so necessary.
Either the art of seat design has been lost in the process of quantifying it into fixed formula commonly used by the industry, or the art of comfortable seats has been displaced by federal regulations focused on crashworthiness that don’t take comfort into consideration. Although I was unable to find the specifics recently, I suspect the latter to be true… perhaps with the former also in effect.
Re: the OP’s Accord, when I used the colleges’ Accords (before I retired) I had to bring my seat pad with me. The only suggestion is to try seat pads until you find one that helps.
Sincere best.
It’s not easy trying to accommodate so many different body types. Unfortunately, the shape of the car to begin with has an influence and bigger, taller cars unlike accords have distinct advantages in adjustability. That has been a sidelight of having cars with high ground clearances the last twenty years for us. Once you can hoist yourself up into them, the seats seem to offer a bigger range of adjustments. Of course, the older we get, the more pain we are in regardless and short of lying down in a recliner or standing upright, there is little many of we bad back sufferers, self included, can do to get comfy.
I am also a big power lumbar supporter for All cars. Not because they give you a final adjustment you can live with, but just being able to alter the seat position frequently and slightly while driving keeps the back and legs from causing too many problems.
Like everything else on a car, the seats are going to be a compromise designed to fit an average.
Even tires are a compromise with no one tire being excellent in all areas.
Anyone familiar with the BBC show Top Gear may notice they often refer to “understeer” a lot while on the track. It’s designed in as a little bit of insurance to try and keep people from killing themselves. It’s not always successful but that’s the intent anyway…