Rear Comfort Seats?

325_bucks · 02-01-2018, 05:02 AM

Are electric adjustable rear seats standard on the G11 or is that what comes with rear comfort seats? What other differences to rear comfort seats offer over whatever the standard seats are? I have this option, but just want to confirm it gives me the electric adjustment. UK based by the way

Pelo Cat · 02-01-2018, 03:55 PM

My understanding, and someone correct me if I am wrong, is that indeed, in 2016 and in 2017 you could and can still buy a 730d without comfort rear seats (which means the seats are fixed in position and are not electric).

There is precious little to be found as to what 'comfort' seats means in the rear of the current G series 7. My take on it is that the seats are one solid fixed construction across the back and are not electric as 'standard'. Comfort means electric independent rear seat adjustment and that each seat can be separately moved up, down, forward, back and rear tilt as well as shoulder area moved forward with lumbar support. I have seen the comfort seats also called 'multi-contoured' seats which would also be correct as the upper seat area can be adjusted forwards or backwards in relation to the lower back area.

All G series (7's) have heated rear seats.

Ventilation and massage are options.

(all above is only for UK market and only for base models, the 740, 750 or 760 may have these as standard, however, for the 725 and 730 models comfort seats and therefore electric seat adjustment in the rear is an option that needs to be a part of a package or trim.)

If you order 'exclusive' or M Sport, you'll get comfort rear seats. Order a base 725d or 730d without those or without a package including rear comfort seats and you won't.

Again, there is precious little in terms of images showing the difference but I believe the images attached to this post do show the difference...and subtlety as well (for example it appears you can order the tablet control for the rear and still not have electric/comfort seats and that also appears to include the wood trim on the centre armrest as well)...

My own 730d with comfort rear seats (optionally ordered) is shown for comparison, I have neither exclusive nor M Sport trim.

You can see the seat stitching is different and that the seat belt is not 'guided' at the top with the sewn in loop in 'standard' seats (as it wouldn't be needed because the seats won't move). You can also note that the door does not have the electric seat memory buttons (always silver on the new 7, just below the door handle). You can also see that the seat side area where the armrest does go up into is one solid piece without any lines separating the seat from the middle (seat) area, and this is different in the comfort seats where the seat back line is visible in comparison. Finally, you can see that the standard headrests do not get the softer, removable additional cushion that the comfort seats get.

So, hope this helps, you'll have both comfort and electric seats as they are the same thing AFAIK. The comfort bit is likely that indeed they do offer more comfort over standard seats.

I should add for correctness that the images of the 'standard' seats are borrowed from the web google search and copyright of their respective owners.

I should also add that the standard spec sheet from BMW themselves conflicts itself as it does list electric rear seats as standard but does not list comfort seats unless you get 'exclusive' or 'M Sport' trim...but they are one and the same AFAIK and I think this is a typo (electric seats in rear is not standard).

325_bucks · 02-01-2018, 04:18 PM

Thanks very much. That’s extremely helpful and basically confirms what I thought. Main issue was whether comfort and electric are the same which it seems they are. Excellent write up.

Incidentally, is your drivers seat in your normal driving position as it makes the rear legroom look smaller than I expected? Maybe I should have gone LWB!?

Pelo Cat · 02-01-2018, 04:27 PM

Thanks, glad to be of help. ^

My drivers seat is indeed as far back as it goes and up quite high so this does make the rear leg room suffer and look very narrow indeed. It is still quite good and I can sit comfortably behind my drivers seat position without touching but it is indeed tighter than the older F01 series or earlier E65 by comparison.

I'm 6'1" (185 cm) so fairly tall. The comfort seats in the photo in the rear are also not in 'standard' position...They were up and forward quite a bit at the time and for the life of me I couldn't get the seat controls to work at all in the rear...I even started to wonder if the electric seat controls were fitted but not functional in mine...until I finally read the ... manual!

An important point for you parents (or parents to be!) is that you can lock out the rear seat controls from the drivers side door using the 'master window lock' button. This locks out any rear seat adjustment or window adjustment.

Took me ages to realise that was what was stopping me!

FastLaneJB · 02-01-2018, 05:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pelo Cat

Thanks, glad to be of help. ^

My drivers seat is indeed as far back as it goes and up quite high so this does make the rear leg room suffer and look very narrow indeed. It is still quite good and I can sit comfortably behind my drivers seat position without touching but it is indeed tighter than the older F01 series or earlier E65 by comparison.

I'm 6'1" (185 cm) so fairly tall. The comfort seats in the photo in the rear are also not in 'standard' position...They were up and forward quite a bit at the time and for the life of me I couldn't get the seat controls to work at all in the rear...I even started to wonder if the electric seat controls were fitted but not functional in mine...until I finally read the ... manual!

An important point for you parents (or parents to be!) is that you can lock out the rear seat controls from the drivers side door using the 'master window lock' button. This locks out any rear seat adjustment or window adjustment.

Took me ages to realise that was what was stopping me!

The rear leg room is an interesting point. I had a short wheel base 730d for a few days back when the new 7 series first came out. My eldest then would have been 13 and space was fine.

Having said that I do feel with the seat in my normal driving position there's more space in the rear of my M5 than on the SWB 7 series. Maybe that's with the rear seats reclined of course on the 7 which actually seems to slide the base forwards somewhat to achieve that. I'm right on that, yeah? I think it can move the back a bit but then if you keep reclining it then has to move the base of the seat forwards.

I guess you might only be a bit cramped if your 6 foot+ with a 6 foot plus person behind you. I don't know that for sure as not tried it but suspect that might be a bit cramped by that point.

The LWB is a huge difference. You have to speak to the person in the back via an intercom so they can hear you

But seriously if the 760 was available in SWB I'd probably have gone for that. Parking it will be that little bit nicer as it will overhang spaces a bit less in the UK. Both are still huge cars however.

Pelo Cat · 02-01-2018, 06:41 PM

The rear leg room is definitely tighter than on previous 7's (like for like G11 to F01 in my case). It is definitely noticeable.

My own subjective opinion is that they have compromised the rear leg room a bit to give the electronics and dash a bit more room and further back than in previous models. Certainly the car is no longer or shorter than my previous F01 730d (I can promise you I know this very, very well as I have to park in a very, very tight space!) however, I do believe it has grown about 1 inch in width over the previous F01, again as I have 2" either side to park this beast so I know this as the wing mirrors, when folded still almost touch so it is not any shorter or longer and the boot is the same so my thoughts are that the rear has shrunk a bit but I can't really see where it has taken space from except to think it is the bonnet and dash that have grown but I've not measured or checked.

We don't have kids, nor do I tend to have anyone at all in the car for most of my journeys so doesn't bother me in the least but I can understand it being a factor for those with families. Not sure I'd want the LWB model for parking reasons as FastLaneJB mentions...that extra 23 or so cm's will really make themselves felt in car parks / garages!

A point about the seats though, I am not familiar with the M5 seats (whether they have massage and are able to contort quite so much as the 7 comfort seats? My point is that at least on the 7 series, the difference in thickness of the comfort front seats to 'normal or 'sport' seats is marked, likely due to the space needed to get that extra wiring and mechanisms in to do the massage and this takes up space compared to the thinner / firmer seats from a subjective look at pictures at least...this may be a reason why the space also looks smaller than expected and compared to previous incarnations.

I'd take the 760 in any version...and I'll drool appropriately (outside the car) should I see yours but I'll happily park mine instead thanks!

325_bucks · 02-02-2018, 02:10 AM

I'm only a measly 5'10 so hopefully it will give that little bit of extra in the back, I also don't carry people on a regular basis, I'm just thinking about the kids and with the car seat that we are planning to buy, the base has a leg that protrudes quite far but hopefully there will be still plenty of space. It might be smaller than before but it's still a 7 series after all right?

The problem is that all my dealers locally have 760s in the showroom, never seem to have any of the SWB models on display

Pelo Cat · 02-02-2018, 05:28 AM

If you know the dimensions I can measure that out for you and let you know but yeah, I think you'll be fine with the car seat.

To reiterate, I'm 6'1" and have the drivers seat all the way back, if I then get out and sit in the back (with the rear seats in default position, there's a button that puts them back to standard position) I do not touch the back of the drivers seat with my legs sat naturally. There is only about an inch between them and the seat back but I do not touch and I can't imagine many are going to put two 6'1" people behind each other so you'll have more room than this.

I can measure the distance between the bottom seat cushion and the back fo the front seat (all the way back and no excessive rake to the upper drivers seat and let you know that distance as well.

Optically the seats do look thicker and more chunky than many seats due to the rather bulky rectangular look of the seat back in this 7 with comfort seats compared to many sports seats or other cars that have leg channels cut out of the back of the seat...

Hope that helps, any update on when you get yours 325_bucks?

325_bucks · 02-02-2018, 05:37 AM

Thanks very much for your help, if you could measure something it would be great.

The car seat base I want to get is 690mm from the bit that touches the back seat upright cushion to the end of the front leg. So I need 690 from the rear seat to the back of the front seat, plus more for bigger car seats themselves, but 690 is the minimum.

No updates on mine yet, it's scheduled for production w/c 12th Feb and still due in the dealers early to mid march but I now know that the configuration is locked so apart from that there are no more updates yet

Pelo Cat · 02-02-2018, 06:02 AM

No problem, I'm going out in the car around 2 this afternoon so will check it then and get back to you later this afternoon.

Good that its only 6-7 weeks away, you guys are better than me in terms of dealing with the anticipation though! Won't be long now.

325_bucks · 02-02-2018, 07:28 AM

Thanks very much mate, appreciate it.

In real life my anticipation is much greater than it appears online! I have to stop myself chatting to BMW to get status updates every day even when I know there are probably no changes!

FastLaneJB · 02-02-2018, 11:22 AM

Seems BMW must have pushed each of the dealers to take some M760's as my dealer has two in stock as well though they do have a 740d SWB as well.

Yeah I don't get why a car of that length is quite so small on space in the rear. It is a little strange.

For reference taken a few pics of my M5 so you can see the space there plus the seat thickness. I'm not sure the 7 series seats are all that thicker at all. They are sports seats but still very well padded and comfortable. I'm 6"1 so the seat is in my driving position.

Very curious as to what is the reason for the bigger 7 being that bit tighter in the rear on the SWB. The SWB is longer than the M5 still.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pelo Cat

Certainly the car is no longer or shorter than my previous F01 730d (I can promise you I know this very, very well as I have to park in a very, very tight space!) however, I do believe it has grown about 1 inch in width over the previous F01, again as I have 2" either side to park this beast so I know this as the wing mirrors, when folded still almost touch so it is not any shorter or longer and the boot is the same so my thoughts are that the rear has shrunk a bit but I can't really see where it has taken space from except to think it is the bonnet and dash that have grown but I've not measured or checked.

My god your a parking ninja to have to do that all the time. I think your qualified for a LWB model :P

I'm hoping the remote parking will let me drive the car into my garage however the entrance is thinner than the inside of the garage. I found the manual bit around this and the tolerances the system wants on either side aren't given exactly as they use roughly but the roughly is too much. Wouldn't be the end of the world, I'd just have to park it on the drive inside like I do now. I just fancied having it in the garage if I didn't have the hassle of getting it in and trying to get out of the doors each time. It's a double length garage but not double width

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pelo Cat

Good that its only 6-7 weeks away, you guys are better than me in terms of dealing with the anticipation though! Won't be long now.

I still don't know when I'm getting mine.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

Thanks very much mate, appreciate it.

In real life my anticipation is much greater than it appears online! I have to stop myself chatting to BMW to get status updates every day even when I know there are probably no changes!

I chased on Monday, am I allowed to do it again now? I think they've probably used all their V12 engines in all the stock they have sat around in UK dealers and run out or something like that.

Pelo Cat · 02-02-2018, 12:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

Thanks very much for your help, if you could measure something it would be great.

The car seat base I want to get is 690mm from the bit that touches the back seat upright cushion to the end of the front leg. So I need 690 from the rear seat to the back of the front seat, plus more for bigger car seats themselves, but 690 is the minimum.

Okay, I've put my drivers seat where I think most people would drive if they were my height and then measured the distance...it is only 68 cm without compressing any foam and I am not sure how far you would press in given the isofix system is not visible so hoping you'd have at least another 1 cm to give you the 69 you need but that would still be tight and touching. You may have the seat a bit more forward to drive and would need to if you were hoping to put the child seat behind your driver seat. Ideally I'd say you'd want to put it on the other side where the passenger seat is and likely not as far back as you might have yours so have more room but it does mean your wife wouldn't be able to look diagonally across to the baby while you were underway...I don't have kids so can't say how it should be done (if there is a logic to the madness!)

In any case, it will be tight if the length is actually 69 cm long. That is quite long and longer than you would need to sit even at 6'1" (Pictures at bottom of post):

Hope this helps in any case to figure out a strategy! I'm sure you can fit it in somehow but you may need to try things out. Let me know if I measured that wrong or you need another measurement.

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