Headrests in cars

[fan-of-fans]

If your car has headrests in it, do you adjust them? My car has adjusting headrests on the front seats but they don't have lock buttons on them, but I have mine about 3/4 to all the way up. The rear seats on my car just have little bumps on the top of the seats, that look like headrests built in, but you'd have to be fairly short for them to be effective. They come up to about the top of my neck.

I know most newer cars have the active headrests that move forward in a crash.

Have you seen how on the first cars with headrests in the 60s and 70s, they tended to be bar shaped and usually had one flat rod that went down into the seat. I don't think they pulled out far enough to be very useful though.

The last cars I recall with those bar headrests were Ford Mustang, and Lincoln TownCar/Grand Marquis/Crown Victoria around 2003 or so.

And some cars had those built in headrests that just raised the top of the seat and couldn't be adjusted. I don't like those as they are usually too far back from my head.

 

[spacedogb]

I have a Volvo and the front headrests do not move. Honestly I rarely even use or notice them. It does have the WHIPS system that makes the whole seat and headrest move in a crash. Haven’t tried it out yet and hope I never have to.

 

[rolls_rapide]

A common misconception...

In actual fact, they are not "head rests" - they are 'head restraints'.

Absent or misaligned (i.e too low) head restraints can cause serious damage to the neck. The restraint is supposed to be adjusted to be level with the tops of the ears.

The Volvo WhiPS is supposed to prevent whiplash damage by causing the whole seat to swing backwards. When one of our consumer programmes did a comparison of car seats whiplash safety, the Volvo and Saab models got a good score. There were concerns about Volkswagen head restraints though.

 

[thomasortega]

All the time. I'm tall and Darryl is a little bit shorter, and we now share the same car (Toyota Corolla).

Driving without adjusting the head restraint is unthinkable to me. It just needs a low speed rear crash to break somebody's neck.

Also, I always keep the seat adjusted to a "decent" position for driving. It has to be comfortable, but also, the seat has an important role during an emergency.

Months ago we suffered a high speed crash with a RAV4 and the well adjusted seat kept me protected and "in position" to do evasive manouvers  to regain control after the first impact. If I weren't in position, I'd never had regained control and we could end up rolling over or falling on a hill next to the freeway.

 

[thomasortega]

Darryl's head restraint (front passenger seat) was missing. this car first belonged to his father and his mother hated headrestraints (maybe because it would flat her hair style) and for over an year I was always complaining about that. I even tried to find a replacement headrest but it was expensive and, recently arrived in the USA, I couldn't afford it.

Darryl had back injuries and I strongly believe it was because of the missing head restraint, considering the severity of the impacts we suffered. 

 

[askolover]

My 2001 Beetle head restraints are practical jokes!  I took the ones off the back seat because they obstructed my view.  I then removed the front ones with the weird angles in the posts and stuck the straight ones from the back in the front and that improved the function somewhat, but they will not prevent whiplash. 

My 2001 GMC Jimmy has pretty good ones in it.  I have them adjusted to just touch the back of my head which will help in a rear-end collision. 

Our new Lincoln MKS has wonderful head restraints.  They remind me of our last Mercedes S500's.  They adjust very well and are comfortably tall.

 

[dustin92]

I have adjustable headrests front and back in my car (2004 Toyota Prius), and I believe they are about 3/4 of the way up in front, completely lowered in back (if the back ones are raised, it obstructs my view out the back window). I don't honestly pay much attention to them. I've had vehicles with them, and without, and they just don't do much for me. I have a curve in my back, so my head is too far from the headrest to comfortably use it. I'd have to force myself back into the seat.