Accelerator pedal covers

Ultrasonic

Doh! What I was rather ignoring was the thread title . I suspect it is indeed the accelerator pedal being referred to!

Joe_Horner

Ultrasonic wrote: »

Doh! What I was rather ignoring was the thread title . I suspect it is indeed the accelerator pedal being referred to!

I assumed you were responding to this bit in the OP:

Heedtheadvice wrote: »

[...] Seat adjustment (fwd/back + height+ rake) cannot cater for best position of both clutch and accelerator.[...]

Heedtheadvice

Thanks all for the help to date.

Perhaps my OP could have been clearer but I think you all got there in the end.
It is usual to adjust the seat so that the clutch can comfortably be fully depressed. For that setting there should not be an issue with brake or accelerator pedal position. In my case there is! So it's really the acc'r pedal that is depressed w.r.t. both brake and clutch (check you car , most are!).
Must admit "I" is Mrs Heedtheadvice - it just seemed easier to write in the first person!!

She just cannot feel comfortably safe with an automatic and feels she is not fully in control, something I can appreciate so hence trying to find the optimal compromise.

Looked at the suggestions based upon the motability (and similar) mods and i to am not impressed with most for the reasons given by other posters and also that the 'height' difference is less than most minimum distances they quote (it's actually just an inch or two at the most).

I had thought that there might be something like a thick rubber overboot that would not have the drawbacks.

I agree if it was between auto and pain (all other things being equal) then the answer is obvious but feeling safe when driving also comes into the equation - and to a much lesser extent capital and running costs but it is really the lack of 'safety feeling' aspect that prevents buying an auto.

Great contributions so far but please keep them coming if you can. :T

Ultrasonic

I guess the question I should ask now is whether there might be any appreciable adjustment of the height of both the clutch and accelerator pedals?

photome

Just wonderd why you wouldnt feel safe and in control in an auto.

I have never owned an auto, but have driven a hired one abroad on many occassions and for thousands of miles and have never felt unsafe. In my experience it is more relaxing

Joe_Horner

photome wrote: »

Just wonderd why you wouldnt feel safe and in control in an auto.

I have never owned an auto, but have driven a hired one abroad on many occassions and for thousands of miles and have never felt unsafe. In my experience it is more relaxing

It's usually a mixture of two factors from what I've seen.

Creep at idle. Some people really can't come to terms with the idea that the car will start trying to move as soon as you lift off the brake or release the handbrake. That's kind of natural and, if you can't get used to it, you just can't. A CVT auto can go a long way to overcoming that because they don't creep but people don't realise that until they try one.

Not being able to "choose" your gear, especially for accelerating or slowiing down. It always surprises me how many regular auto drivers don't understand, or care, what that sticky-out lever with more than two "forward" positions is there for.

Even early auto boxes give you almost as much control over the gears as a manual if you want to use it. You can change down for engine braking, you can drop down before starting an overtake then change up very quickly if you need to part way through, you can force it to stay in a low gear in town for flexibility. On most modern ones you can even make it pull away in second if you need to for poor road conditions. In fact, about the only thing you can't really do is force it to labour in too high a gear for the conditions.

They give you the option of letting the box get on with it if you want, but you don't have to use that option - you can "drive" them just as much as you can with a manual.

Still, popular percepton is that you have "no control" except for direction and that worries some people. In my experience, a spirited drive with someoone who knows how to work the box usually overcomes that misconception (as well as the "autos are slow" ballcocks)


Back to the Op's problem, if you have, or can find, a good garage (with thinking mechanics rather than mindless fitter-drones) then it might be worth asking them about the possibility of repositioning or adapting the accelerator pedal slightly. Most of them are pretty simple steel rods and can be bent to shape - within reason.

"Lifting" them is usually easier than dropping them because dropping them gives less available movement, so can restrict full throttle. But it's usually a good idea to add a stop underneath if you do lift them because otherwise the linkage / cable will be acting as the stop when you "floor" it and they're not usually designed to take that strain. bear in mind that any such mod may not be popular with buyers when you try to sell.

Robisere

he just cannot feel comfortably safe with an automatic and feels she is not fully in control, something I can appreciate so hence trying to find the optimal compromise.

I used to feel the same way about Auto's, but have now driven an automatic Motability car since 1995. I would never go back to a manual, even if a magic wand gave me back a healthy spine and working left leg. It takes much of the hassle out of driving for me, and I have severe spinal problems. Modern auto boxes have features such as 'Hill Hold' which means that you can pull away from traffic hold ups quite easily, in fact I can usually pull away much more easily than any manual driver. Get to a traffic light, for example: stick into Neutral from Drive, when lights change, stick into Drive again, pull away on light throttle.

In a very short time, I am completely confident that you would find it easier and less painful than using a clutch. In use, you would gain in confidence and I am certain you would benefit from it. Try it!

InsideInsurance

I thought it was a safety feature that the accelerator was below the plane of the brake so that you dont accidently press both if you intended to brake but misaligned your foot?

As others have said, really need to clarify if its a case of not being comfortable moving between gas and brake peddles or the fact that to set the seat comfortable for clutch as well causes you problems.

I echo the opinions of most others, once you get used to automatics they are fantastic. You certainly can still get those where you can still select the gears (though it may be in an up/down fashion rather than explicitly choosing a number). Not all creep after taking your foot off the brake and arguably with that its just a case of getting used to creeping forward on the flat -v- rolling back on a uphill with a manual.