These Cars Have The Most Comfortable Seats, According To Consumer Reports
Seating comfort is likely to be near the top of most people’s preferences when they purchase a car, but which cars really have the most comfortable seats? To answer this burning question, Consumer Reports has tested a wide variety of cars, evaluating which of their front seats provide the highest amount of comfort. These results make for very interesting reading, highlighting the best front seats to be found in different categories of cars. CR puts out reports on many other automotive topics, including popular cars you should avoid buying.
CR’s testing process for their seating comfort project uses people of various heights to check how well different car seats support the body in the lumbar, thigh, and torso areas. Support for the shoulders and hips, how the headrest fits your body, and the ability to make fine adjustments to the seating position are also evaluated, as is all-day comfort during a long drive. After thousands of miles of testing, the CR team presents its findings. For the purposes of this article, we will focus on the four different categories of cars that underwent seat comfort testing by CR. These categories for the Best Front Seat are given to a small car, a mid-sized sedan, a luxury compact sedan, and a luxury mid-sized/large sedan.
Best Front Seat in a small car — Kia Soul
The Kia Soul has been around since the 2010 model year. It will come to an end after the 2025 model year has passed, having gone through 16 years and three generations of hamster-hyped production. It also happens to be Kia’s cheapest new vehicle in the U.S. While CR considers the Soul to be a small car for purposes of this evaluation, it can also be called a subcompact SUV.
But this has not kept the Soul from taking CR’s Best Front Seats in a small car award. The publication appreciated the Soul’s wide door openings, as well as its H-point that aligns with the actual height of your hips, making ingress and egress very easy. CR noted that the precise amount of comfort in these seats is intimately connected to the car’s trim level, with the S trim adding a power driver’s seat with lumbar support and the EX adding heat to the front seats. Another small car that placed close to the Kia Soul was the Volkswagen Jetta, making it also worthy of consideration as far as seat comfort is concerned.
Best Front Seat in a midsized sedan — Subaru Legacy
The Subaru Legacy, one of the most reliable Subarus ever built, is another car that will be leaving the U.S. market at the end of the 2025 model year. The Legacy was not only designed for the U.S., but it was also the first vehicle to be produced at Subaru’s factory in Indiana, boasting a total of 1.3 million units made over six different generations of this car. Thanks to the ongoing trend away from cars and toward SUVs, the Legacy is going away for good. The Legacy is survived by the Subaru Outback wagon, which was originally an offshoot of the Legacy wagon, with body cladding and ride height added.
The seats in the Subaru Legacy were appreciated by CR, although the trim level being considered seemed to make a difference. The Premium trim provides a 10-way power seat, while the Limited gets the dual upgrades of 14-way power and leather seating material. The Legacy seats that were covered in cloth seemed to give up some support on longer trips, while the leather seats provided better overall underpinnings. The Legacy’s larger front doors that open wider were also applauded for their ease of entry and exit. Also considered as good alternatives were the front seats in two different varieties of one of the Legacy’s primary competitors, the Toyota Camry.
Best Front Seat in a luxury compact sedan — Mercedes-Benz C-Class
The Mercedes-Benz C-Class is remaining in the Mercedes-Benz lineup, with no plans to leave, unlike the previous two winners. The C-Class is the three-pointed star’s entry-level rear-drive sedan, sandwiched in the lineup between the front-drive CLA and the larger, rear-drive E-Class. Even though the Mercedes-Benz C-Class is one of the least satisfying cars to own, according to CR, they still saw fit to award the C-Class the Best Front Seat in a luxury compact sedan.
CR’s test car came with the optional AMG-Line front seats, which offered the test subjects a higher degree of support, comfort, and adjustability. The CR test staff also appreciated the Mercedes’ seats added adjustability for seat cushion height, lumbar adjustment, and even a power thigh cushion extension control. CR also commented on how good the support for riders’ hips was on trips and how well the seats’ side bolsters held in their occupants during spirited cornering. Unrelated to the seat comfort, but still remarked on by CR testers, was the C-Class’s interior furnishings as well as its fuel economy.
Two other cars in this category also received a CR recommendation for the quality and comfort of their front seating. They were the Audi A4 and the Tesla Model 3.
Best Front Seat in a luxury midsize/large sedan — Audi A8
The Audi A8, Audi’s flagship sedan, is one of the best luxury cars you can buy. It competes with other top-end, full-size luxury cars like the BMW 7-Series, Mercedes-Benz S-Class, and Lexus LS.
It is also the winner of CR’s Best Front Seat in a luxury midsize/large sedan. CR noted how its seats, “are exactly what buyers would expect in an ultra-luxury sedan.” The testers marveled at the A8’s incredible seat adjustability, with items such as headrests, shoulder support, bottom cushion, and side bolsters moving smoothly and electrically to provide incredible comfort along with excellent support. The Audi’s seats even offer a massage function for tired travelers. CR testers also fell under the spell of the Audi A8’s other charms, complimenting its ride, its smooth driving feel, and its well-appointed interior.
There was one other high-end luxury vehicle mentioned as an alternative to the cushy seats of the Audi A8. It was the BMW 5-Series sedan, with CR surprisingly avoiding the 7-Series sedan when making this very interesting choice.
