These Are the Most Uncomfortable Cars You've Ever Driven

No interior room, bad seats, loud, stiff suspension unloaded. up armored ones ride better. Extremely Capable off road

The Hummer H1 wasn’t known for comfort, so it’s not surprising at all to hear that the original military Humvee was far from luxurious. While we’re at it, let’s go ahead and throw tanks and personnel carriers in with the Humvee. It doesn’t sound like any of those are remotely close to being comfortable.

Submitted by: Bob

Driving any longer than 30 minutes in my ‘01 Toyota MR2 Spyder. Small, cramped, loud, and frequently blown about by semis on the highway made it pretty fatiguing in itself, but its complete absence of cruise control was absolutely brutal on longer trips. Not sure why they didn’t offer it on manual-equipped models (an automatic with cruise was offered on the refreshed model). Maybe the bean counters forced the engineers to chose between that and the standalone digital clock that adorned every Toyota center console since...ever (and continued until about a decade ago).

Small cars are great. Until they’re not. But hey, at least you could put the roof down, so it wasn’t as cramped as it could have been.

Submitted by: paradsecar

Any race car. Every BaT comment on a race car auction asking “can this be titled for the street?” is completely off-base, and anyone asking that has assuredly never driven a race car in their life.

Stiff suspension, loud, squeaky/grabby brakes, no radio or heater system. Only plus is that the Recaro fixed race buckets in my track car are actually more comfortable than the factory seats they replaced.

I almost went with one of the track-only cars I’ve driven or ridden in as my answer to this question, but it felt like cheating because they were all so ridiculously uncomfortable in a way that few street-legal cars will ever come close to approaching.

Submitted by: BigRed91

One without working AC, when you live where it’s hot and humid. Nothing else is more uncomfortable, ergonomics and suspension be damned.

Growing up in Georgia, I thought I knew heat and humidity. And then I visited New Orleans in the summer. I’d rather be eaten by an alligator than drive in Louisiana without A/C. Thankfully, even the Jeep Wrangler now comes with it standard.

Submitted by: Give Me Tacos or Give Me Death

Mine’s a weird one because it should be a comfortable car. I could not get comfortable in a Ford Flex. It’s a ergonomics thing, I think. I’m exactly the wrong shape and proportions for it.

I’m shortish for a guy 5' 7", I weigh a buck 35. I have long arms for my height. There is no combination of seat distance, seat height, steering wheel angle, steering wheel height that works for me in a Flex.

I’ve driven myriad cars - Mustangs old and new, Porsches, commercial trucks, pickup trucks, hot hatches, SUVs, CUVs, Mercedes sedans, old MG Midgets, a Jag E-type (once).

I can make anything fit and be comfortable. Not the Flex.

As someone with short arms and a long torso, I totally get having a hard time getting comfortable in a car that wasn’t designed to accommodate your body proportions. Sometimes a car just wasn’t designed with the way you’re built in mind.

Submitted by: JohnnyWasASchoolBoy

100% Countach - Don’t meet your heroes. I have had the rare privilege of being behind the wheel of just about every car I’ve ever wanted to drive and the Countach absolutely takes the #1 spot for me of just absolutely terrible seating positions. You can’t see a damn thing and your legs and hips are at an awkward angle that after a short time becomes quite literally painful for anyone over 6 feet. It really is terrible to the point of almost ruining the experience. That said, it’s so cool I still want one. With a front wing. Fight me.

I’m shorter than six feet, so maybe if I ever get to meet this particular hero, I won’t completely hate it. (I probably will.) Also, shoutout to Lamborghini for having a bunch of Countach photos on their media site.

Submitted by: DansDrives

My dearly missed 2007 Z4M Coupe. Awesome on perfect roads, dreadful on anything less.

I almost wanted to pretend I didn’t see this answer so that I could continue passively planning to buy one in the future. Instead, I’ll just accept it and passively plan on moving somewhere with perfect roads before I pull the trigger.

Submitted by: S54

I waited so many years to be able to properly quote James May on that, but it’s the Dacia Sandero, specifically the first generation.

There’s no ergonomics whatsoever. If you put the seat into a comfortable position for your legs, you can’t reach the gear shifter. If you put your seat in a good position to shift, your legs get cramped. The foam used in the seat cushions is impossibly bad (at least in the Brazilian version, the Renault Sandero), being too soft on your ass (so you sink down) and too hard on your back, with the worst lumbar support I ever experienced.

When you finally find the least uncomfortable position to drive and adjust your mirrors, you realize that the steering wheel blocks all the relevant information from the dash.

I have nothing personal against Romanians or whoever designed this car, but WTF???

So what you’re saying is, when Dacia introduced a new Sandero, it was...great news?

Submitted by: edu-petrolhead

Although mundane as hell, it would certainly be 2,800 miles cross-country in a large U-Haul box truck while also towing a car on a flatbed, sitting on a non-reclining bench seat with the padding of a prison cot that was permanently fixed at 90 degrees. This was also in the long, long ago (AD 2000) before smartphones, Mp3 players, or standard AUX inputs, so there was nothing for entertainment other than AM/FM radio — not even a cassette deck. Between the extreme discomfort, boredom, and deranged ramblings of Christian fundamentalist AM radio, which is all I had for company much of the time, I nearly lost my mind.

2 years later I drove the same trip in a Honda del sol. Surprisingly, not at all terrible.

Yep. Moving from Boston to Los Angeles was miserable enough in a newer truck that had some basic creature comforts. Take all of that away, and Nebraska or Kansas might be as far as I got before I abandoned everything I owned on the side of the road.

Submitted by: Hankel_Wankel

Easy, the Focus RS, which is my current car. The ride quality is terrible (especially in Michigan where I live), the seats hurt after so long because they squeeze you, and its really really loud...

But its also super fun and engaging to drive... even on road trips. My wife hates when we take it anywhere but I would rather drive it than just about anything.

I don’t remember the Focus RS being quite on the 4C’s level, but driving it out to Willow Springs was so disappointing. I wanted to love it, but even the shape of the seat felt like it was trying to change the curvature of my spine.

Submitted by: Kuhat

The Miata, I am 6'3" and on the husky side and cannot fit to save my life so if anyone says “hey I’m 6'8 300lbs and fit perfectly”, are lying! Here’s the list:

Miata

Evora, well any Lotus really

Corvette C7 manual

current gen Supra

Camaro

Like they need to start building cars for giants in mind.

As an average-sized Miata enjoyer, it’s a shame so many people are simply too big to fit comfortably. Which is why I have previously argued that Mazda should offer a second, bigger Miata that even tall people can enjoy.

Submitted by: darthspartan117

2005 Lotus elise with original seats. Basically just a piece of leather on fiberglass. Not well shaped to a body. Sought medical help the day after a road trip in it.

Replaced those seats with some aftermarket ones from Tillett- shaped WAY better.

Years ago, former Jalop Doug DeMuro (RIP) pretty famously drove an Elise across the country. Unsurprisingly, he did not enjoy it. Even worse, he allowed his mom to subject herself to the Las Vegas-to-Denver portion of the trip.

Submitted by: spitty3448

The 1993 Dodge Viper RT/10 was one of the most badass cars ever made. It was also one of the most uncomfortable. The engineers at Dodge spent all of their time putting more liters into the engine than they did considering that someone actually had to get behind the wheel. If you’re less than 5'9", the seat would not adjust far enough forward for you to comfortably reach the pedals. The driving position had your legs are parallel to the ground, but your upper body is almost upright. The pedals were canted significantly to one side to leave room for the massive transmission tunnel. The clutch pedal is as heavy as the sight lines are bad. There are no glass windows (the canvass ones lived in the trunk). They put a radio in it, but I’m not sure why. Even if you turn your Bruce Springstein to 11, the V10 is going to drown it out. The suspension belongs on a race track. But the best middle finger from Dodge is the side exhaust that runs JUST below the comically high door sills, causing them to get so hot they’ll leave blisters if you come in contact. The 1st gen Viper was like a dare from your best childhood friend; it was terribly uncomfortable in the moment, but you felt triumphant after it was over.

Triumphant after it was over...as long as it didn’t end with a crash. But hey, some people did technically survive their time behind the wheel of the original Viper mostly unscathed.

Submitted by: Trent Rosenthal

My old Evo X. You could chip a tooth hitting a pothole

Hey, if you’re going to chip your tooth, it’s probably more fun to do so behind the wheel of an Evo than it was while playing beach volleyball in Panama City Beach. Hopefully, Johnny [redacted] has a better handle on his anger issues these days.

Submitted by: BunkyTheMelon

Hard seats with adjustments. No suspension travel. Sloppy steering. No headroom if you’re over 3' 8". Feet catch on bumps.

I swear, it’s like Little Tikes gave zero consideration to driver comfort or safety when it was designing this thing. Could you imagine trying to road trip one of these things? And let’s not even talk about what would happen if you were in a wreck behind the wheel of one. But, of course, there was plenty of room in the budget for a redesign that completely ruined the previous version’s iconic styling.

Submitted by: dbeach84