Been reading the postings about mods for tall folk. I have the opposite problem. My wife is 5'-0" and has the seat way up and forward to see and reach the pedals. Number two son (14 yrs) due to medical condition will be about same height when grown. I expect he will be driving one of the bricks.

We had a tragic death here in Toronto some months back when a woman in a brand new 2000 Mercedes was in a ~10 mph collision. The airbags went off and she was too close to the steering wheel. No airbags in my bricks but I still worry.

Anyone know about pedal extensions or other mods I can do to get the driving position right?

'89 245, 298,000 km; '90 740, 187,000 km

Is there any problem with her reaching the pedals now? My mom is 4'11", and drives a '93 VW Passat with a manual transmission (meaning she has to be able to push the clutch to the floor) and she doesn't have any problem reaching the pedals with the seat moved forward and raised upwards. The VW has a seat adjustment that raises the back of the seat up, but the front height isn't adjustable. What adjustments do you have on the seats of the 740? As long as there is no air bag, I wouldn't expect a problem.

Just thought I'd add my $.02. It's been mentioned several times in this thread that if there's no airbag, there's no problem. I disagree in that when a driver is seated very close to the steering wheel/dashboard, there's no room for them to move forward in a frontal collision as the seatbelts stretch (and yes they do stretch a bit). The driver then can't ride down all the collision forces via the belt, but strikes the interior of the vehicle. This can result in head/chest/leg injuries. Any modification that increases the distance between the driver and the steering wheel/dashboard, without compromising the ability to control the car, is probably good.

You didn't mention if your car is a stick or automatic, but if you didn't want to permanently modify the car (resale considerations), I would suggest acquiring an extra set of peddle arms from a boneyard that you could use together with a properly engineered and constructed set of clamps to attach them to the cars peddle arms. The dimensions and orientation of these clamps would determine not only the added extension, but vertical height of the peddles. If I were building them I would opt for machine forming, rather than fabrication utilizing welds. Billet aluminum is very easy to work, light, and strong. When bolting the two sides of the clamp together, use thread locking compound on all fastenings as security against loosening.

The accelerator peddle could also have another peddle 'stacked on it' that was a modified OEM part. This could be done with a material also easy to work such as PVC. Grey PVC is commonly available in sheet stock to 1, and can be laminated with PVC solvent glue to whatever thickness is desirable. The center of the spacing block could be hollow to minimize weight further, so that the accelerator maintains it's light feel. I would not extend the peddle more than 4 inches using this method.

If you car has a manual transition, you can extent the shifter quite easily by acquiring a stock shift rod to use as a donor. Modify the lower end to mate to the top of another. You can remove the knob on the car's rod and install the modified shifter directly atop the one in the car, or again build a machined billet clamp assembly that will help offset the shifter as needed on the horizontal plane as well as extending it's height vertically.

I haven't looked closely at the Volvo seat mounting arrangement, but I haven't seen many in my time that were impossible to retrofit hardware that increased their height. Gaining headroom for a tall person is nearly always a tougher problem. If you have power steering, change out to a smaller diameter steering wheel once the seat is higher if you need more room to swing the legs in and out. A deeper wheel hub can extend the wheel out toward the driver a few inches if needed as well. If you need to extend the column's controls stocks back to the driver as well, I would again look to the boneyard for a couple of stock donor parts. I would then experiment with heating and reforming the plastic stalks at the points of their natural bends. They look to be a form ABS molded plastic. If so, boiling water of hot air from a heat gun will do the trick.

Maybe I should make a career out of doing this stuff . . . wonder if there is any market? :-)

Sincerely, best of luck to you and your family this holiday season.

Phil G.

I have indeed seen pedal extensions in some car stuff catalogs. I would not worry in a car without airbags, but yes too close to the steering wheel with airbags is not a good thing....but since people are worried, places have started to offer more options for small folks....I would say start by contacting Volvo and do a web search (sorry for the lack of specificity)

YEs, I'd do a web search on little people. They undoubtedly have resouces for themselves to address these issues, and for individuals who are far shorter than 5'0". Good luck.

p.s. We have a ortho surgeon here who is a dwarf. If I see him, I'll ask about airbag issues with little people.