From the November 2023 issue of Car and Driver.
Production manager Juli Burke sent me an interesting question. Her in-laws are looking at new SUVs and, unhappy with the hardness of BMW and Mercedes-Benz cushions, wanted to know which vehicle has the most comfortable seats.
I get a lot of car-buying questions, and I usually find the answer in a back issue or on our website and send it along, but we haven’t conclusively answered this particular query. Sure, we cover seat comfort in reviews (in particular, we complain about the uncomfortable ones), but ranking car seats isn’t something we do. And while the comfort ratings we use in comparison tests factor in seats, they’re just a part of those subjective scores. Seat comfort is also not among the hundreds of measurements our testing team performs on more than 250 cars each year. When testing director Dave VanderWerp reads this, I imagine he’ll order a durometer and start figuring out an objective way to quantify comfort. Godspeed, Dave. Until then, we’re flying by the seat of our pants on this one. Polling the staff leads to a conclusion: The best seats in the industry are made by Volvo.
Inside the 2024 Volvo V60.
For decades, Volvo has produced thrones good enough for Carl XVI Gustaf, king of Sweden. The brand has a long-standing interest in automotive seating, having introduced adjustable lumbar support in the 1964 120-series, also known as the Amazon. In those days, more often than not, you’d adjust your body to the seat or add pillows. But in addition to lumbar support, the Amazon’s seats reclined, moved fore and aft, and were height adjustable. I’ve only shopped for these old Volvos online, so I’ve yet to plop down in one to see whether it’ll make my L3 smile. But my best friend owned a 1988 Volvo 740 GLE in college, and inside that metallic-gold brick were leather chairs that cosseted and felt like expensive designer pieces. Every time you got in felt special, as if someone had figured out how to bolt an Eames lounge chair into a car.
On trips from Tennessee to Michigan, that 740 would leave us pain-free and refreshed, even after nine hours in the saddle. Most cars have two- or maybe three-hour seats—as in, you want to get out of them after two or three hours. Entire states would pass in the Volvo without our having to fidget or readjust posture. The company keeps the tradition alive today. The brand’s cushioning is more complex than what’s in almost every German, Korean, American, and Japanese vehicle for sale today; as you put weight into it, you feel like a layer of padding is resisting your mass like a pillow-top mattress. A 2024 Volvo V60 recently visited the office for two weeks, and I’m pleased to report that the Swedes still rule the seats. While the contemporary Volvo seat has a sportier look thanks to lateral bolstering and suedelike trim, the suppleness, support, and comfort remain unmatched.
So, Juli, please let Larry and Barb know the best seats in the house are in a Volvo.
Editor-in-Chief
Tony Quiroga is an 18-year-veteran Car and Driver editor, writer, and car reviewer and the 19th editor-in-chief for the magazine since its founding in 1955. He has subscribed to Car and Driver since age six. “Growing up, I read every issue of Car and Driver cover to cover, sometimes three or more times. It’s the place I wanted to work since I could read,” Quiroga says. He moved from Automobile Magazine to an associate editor position at Car and Driver in 2004. Over the years, he has held nearly every editorial position in print and digital, edited several special issues, and also helped produce C/D’s early YouTube efforts. He is also the longest-tenured test driver for Lightning Lap, having lapped Virginia International Raceway’s Grand Course more than 2000 times over 12 years.