So now I hear some people complaining about the headrest is too far froward. So all you 09 owners what is your opinion of the headrest? Also isnt the headrest adjustable? I dont know if I can deal driving with my head resting against a headrest all the time.

 

Hasn't bothered me yet.

 

With the way I have my seat set the headrest is in the perfect position. About 1 inch from the back of my head.

 

Today I went to the local Mini dealer. All the seats in the 09 had the headrest that sticks out a few inches except the ones with leather. If it had cloth or cloth/leatherette it stuck out. No cars on the lot had punch leather so I dont know about that????

 

Having gone from an '08 MCSa to an '09 MCSa yes the headrests do stick out a bit further which I noticed right away.Anyway I got use to it very quickly but I have keep remembering when I get out of my car to lean a bit forward otherwise my left shoulder pushes the headrest up a notch each time.

 

I have the cloth seats in my MCSa.

 

I noticed right away that the headrests in our 09 clubman s with cloth seats are very far forward
This forced me to have to have the headrest at the proper height or it would dig in to my neck
You get used to it

 

Doesn't bother me a bit in our 09 Clubman although it does bother my wife. It is actually her car so she has turned the drivers side headrest around as she doesn't like her head touching the headrest while she is driving, she thinks it messes up her hair.

 

I noticed the title of this thread, "09 Seat Headrest Issues". Just wondering, what's the other kind of 09 headrest?

 

Yes, I find that this is bothersome as well. The headrest is always touching my head. To compensate, I crank the seat back more that I might normally like too. I would like to look at an 07 or 08 to see if there is a difference. I have cloth with blue letherette trim.

 

I turned mine around 180 degrees. Now i can look up at the Anthricite headliner without hurting myself.

Dave

 

Of course, it will probably break your neck if you get hit from behind...

 

Point of this Thread was that the 2009 Headrests are different (Angle) than the preceding versions.

 

This change was done to improve whiplash protection. I am sure this has to do with recent IIHS tests...

I drove a '90 R56 S loaner and the new headrests were indeed bothersome for the first day or two.

 

all you people consider yourself lucky. I have an 03 MCS and hate my seats. Trying to find some Black R56 seats if anyone wants to give some up.

 

When I first took delivery of my '09 in October, I searched everywhere looking for others who thought the headrest was too far forward but found nothing. I felt stupid starting a thread on this (thank you OP ) and figured I'd just have to live with it. I never considered the fact that this was a change from previous years.

From a female perspective with long hair, if I have my hair in a ponytail or a hair clip in the back of my head, I have to tilt my head forward while driving otherwise my hair/clip is hitting into the headrest! It is not comfortable at all and I now wait until I get to my destination to pull my hair up.

I am curious as to how any of you have turned the headrest around. Do you take it out completely and re-insert? I hadn't considered this and any pics of it would be greatly appreciated! I'm not interested in putting myself in danger in the event of an accident, but I have never experienced a headrest that juts forward as far as the 09 does.

 

My wife has the same issue. I took the passenger side out and reversed it for her, and she is pretty happy. She will only drive MY car on rare occasions (her choice). I don't have the issue, I think because I recline the seat a lot more than she does. She likes to site very upright.

We ran into a similar issue on an '08 Ford Edge some time ago. I was told by the salesman at the time that the headrest angle was going to be dictated in all '09 and later cars. Assuming he was right, this makes sense.

 

This issue is the one thing that really bothers me about my '09 Mini Clubman. Otherwise I love it!

I have the same situation as Elwood09. My wife likes the seat more upright than I do so it really bothers her. For me, I'm able to get some measure of satisfaction by tilting the seat back a little and raising the headrest up. I see a few possible work arounds:

• Turn the headrest around. I think this can pose a safety issue because of too much head movement in an accident. I abandoned this option because my head would tilt back too far before contacting the headrest.
• Raise the headrest up. Because of the angled front surface, raising it up allows a little more room for your head to move back. One downside is that I don't like the way it looks... it's a little strange-looking to see the headrests sitting up so high.
• Tilt the seat back a little. This keeps your head from feeling like it's looking at your lap and lets you actually look out the windshield. It's a big compromise to sit in an uncomfortable position just because the headrest is not designed properly.

The bottom line is that Mini needs to fix this design problem. People are going to do a lot of things that are unsafe in order to compensate for a poor headrest design. Tilting the seat back farther than necessary, turning the headrest in a position that's not designed to protect you and removing the headrest completely are all things that could either cause an accident or hurt you more if you get into an accident.

 

One more option is take the headrest to a good upholstery shop and have some of the stuffing taken out , or reshape the stuffing and re apply the outer cover.

 

Almost all new cars have this problem...

Everyone slouches these days so I don't know if it's modern seating that caused the problem or if manufacturers are just catering to the increasing number or round backs.

I really don't know how racers can wear a helmet with stock seats because the thickness of the helment would push your head even further forward.

I've bent the metal poles in the headreast on all my cars except the Mini because it really needs to go to an upholstery shop to remove some of the material.

In the meantime, I turned the head rest around backwards to prevent the neck aches that the stock seating caused.

 

OK, so I'm not crazy--or, at least, not because of my pain in the neck headrest. I absolutely cannot stand to drive the car with the headrest in the normal position. I tried raising it, changing the seatback angle, etc. Ultimately, I turned it around so that it slopes backwards. This choice does concern me, because it puts the headrest further than "normal" away from my head and the headrest does not stay fixed in one position (the detents don't seem to engage completely). I worry that it will come out entirely in a crash. But if I don't reverse the headrest, it really pushes my head forward and I am against it all the time.

The back seats are even worse for me. I had none of these issues with my '03 MINI Cooper. Perhaps the problem is that I am tall in my torso, which is why I went to the MINI. Lots of other cars I sat in had my head right in the roof.

 

I had my 2008 MCS in for service about a month ago and was given a 2009 MCS Auto loaner. I noticed almost immediately that the headrest was forward compared to my car. I kept trying to move it back but they aren't hinged like some cars. When I returned it a couple of days later I had to confirm for myself that they were different.

I found it very annoying to drive and felt like my head was being pushed forward all the time. If I was test driving a 2009 and had never driven a Mini, I think that detail could have swayed me to a different car. Seat comfort is very high on my priority list. BMW needs to make a change to this soon.

 

maybe you can buy 08 head rests and replace the 09 ones. I wonder how much they are.

 

Some of the headrests for '09 are actually larger than others. I have the cloth interior. The headrest is thicker from front to back. I too noticed it after purchasing the car. And it is more bothersome for those sat sit with the seat back more vertical. I was able to lay mine side by side with some off another dealer car and found mine to be ~ 1 inch thicker. My dealer allowed me to swap them out with a car they had on the lot so I now have the smaller one's and no more problems.

 

The '09 headrests bug the hell out of me. They protrude way too far forward. Since I'll be going from an '08 to an '09, I'm thinking of swapping the headrests or purchasing some '08 headrests from somewhere (dealer, salvage yard, anywhere) 'cause the stock '09 ones are ridiculously annoying. As a passenger, my wife didn't mind the '09 headrests, but once she drove the '09, she quickly commented how annoying the thicker headrests are. I too tried flipping them around, but as several others posted, that places the headrest way too far away for comfort or safety. The '09 headrests definitely deserve a dumb***-design award.