Anyone wish / know how to slide the seats further up? My wife isn't even that short (~5'4"), but she still finds the clutch a little far in the forward most seating position. You'd think she would have mentioned this during the test drive... but I guess she had too many other things on her mind. I suppose that means she could eventually get used to it but she would like to be closer. How do really short people do it?

 

How close does she need to be? You want a little bit of a bend in your knee but, don't want to be pushing the clutch to the floor every shift. Plus that air bag goes off and it will hurt her pretty bad.

 

It is really scary to see people driving close to the steering wheel. You are correct with regard to the clutch, if I push the pedal to the floor it does not shift smoothly but half way the gears are like butter.

 

My wife is less than 5'3", she finds raising the seat up almost as high as it will go makes it perfect for her, of course I can't get in the car after she get's out till I lower it down again....

Raising it up also moves it forward, so much so that she doesn't even have to move it forward from my position.

It also allows her a better view of the road, and makes the angle of push on the clutch pedal better.

Have her try raising the seat up and then see if she even needs to move it forward

 

Ah that's a great idea, thanks! I think that should fix it because she only wanted a little bit more.

We both sit so our wrists rest on top of the steering wheel and can flex our hands. This is not a problem as the steering wheel is adjustable. Getting closer to the clutch is simply a muscle memory / comfort thing as our BMW and STI could achieve roughly the same driving position.

I always fully depress the clutch. If you miss and do not fully disengage your clutch when shifting you can damage your synchros. I know some people that have installed clutch stops however, so they can always hit the same spot while getting rid of an extra bit of travel. We don't have any problems shifting smoothly when fully depressing the clutch.

 

Thank you for this thread! My mom is 5'2" and was having a hard time with the clutch.. I'll try pumping the seat up for her next time!!

 

my sister (5'4") and bro-in-law (6'+) share their mini and have found a seat adjustment such that sis pumps the seat all the way up and bro-in-law pumps the seat all the way down, they do not have to adjust the seat for and aft at all

scott