I wrote in another thread recently that I was favourably impressed by the space around the pedals of a manual Skoda Superb. Plenty of room for a size 13 and a nicely angled rest for the left foot, and a comfortable angle on the wheelarch to rest the right foot during those all-too-rare cruise control stretches.
My 2002 Volvo S60 is similarly commodious, which is part of what makes it so comfortable. Our Verso is good on the left, less so on the right - but then its cruise control is fiddly and verging on dangerous, so we seldom use it.
Other things I've tried lately have been less satisfactory. The new S60 has no left foot room at all and the foot has to go under the pedal: hopeless. The V70 and S80, I discovered yesterday, have the room but not the footrest, which could mean an uncomfortably extended ankle over a long journey - although I remember the automatic V70 I test drove being comfortable enough.
So what else is good for the well-endowed driver? And what's to be avoided at all costs?
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Although only a size 9/10 I find the Altea has plenty of foot space, big left sided foot rest and plenty of space on the right wheel arch as well.
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>> Although only a size 9/10 I find the Altea has plenty of foot space, big
>> left sided foot rest and plenty of space on the right wheel arch as well.
The Altea is great, slap on the cruise control and you have in effect a foot rest on the right, and on the left. The best car i have known for footwell space.
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Baggy trousers. Avoid spandex and lycra.
:)
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The kia rio has nicley spaced pedals and a left foot rest.
The worst car was a fiat chiquichento thing
accelerator has to be used with my foot twisted sideways.
Dangerous
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Like WillDeBeest I suffer with size 13 plates. The worst problem they caused me was when driving a Palmer Jaguar JP-1 (look it up!), the pedals were so closely spaced I had to take my shoes off to drive it. Not great on a racetrack in an unfamiliar, very powerful car with no servo assistance on the brakes!
I haven't really found anything to be undriveable because of the size of my feet, although I usually can't rest my left foot to the side of the clutch in anything with more than two passenger seats.
The old-shape FIAT Panda's pedals were mounted some way above the floor, which meant my toes could reach the accelerator whilst my heel was still on the carpet; a feat (feet??) which my other half at the time couldn't manage, much to her annoyance.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Wed 5 Oct 11 at 18:01
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I couldn't get both my size 12s in the pedal box of a mate's Elva Courier. I could brake or I could accelerate or I could press the clutch. It meant planning ahead. I suppose it's a man's car, it didn't need multi-tasking.
We also had to put the soft top down as I was too tall, but that meant the windscreen top rail was directly in my line of sight!
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You guys with big feet, how do you get on driving superminis? I only have petit size 9s, and I find some small cars almost undriveable. Usually in the form of trying to hit the clutch and catching the edge of the brake with my left foot.
Even some larger cars (e.g. Pug 309) I find this a problem. In bigger cars such as the 407, never a problem. Thinking about it, small French cars seem the worst offenders for tightly bunched up pedals.
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>> You guys with big feet, how do you get on driving superminis? I only have
>> petit size 9s, and I find some small cars almost undriveable. Usually in the form
>> of trying to hit the clutch and catching the edge of the brake with my
>> left foot.
>>
>> Even some larger cars (e.g. Pug 309) I find this a problem. In bigger cars
>> such as the 407, never a problem. Thinking about it, small French cars seem the
>> worst offenders for tightly bunched up pedals.
>>
Size 11 feet here.
Yup some cars are a right pain to drive.
My son (15) already has size 12 feet..............
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I haven't dunnit in the Lancer yet, but apart from that I have at times driven in my stockings when say I've taken Milo for a tootle and jumped back in the jam jar, taken my size 10 Zamberlains orf n' driven home, I quite like it actually (and driving in me stockings)
A lot of women do it, I hear.
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I knew you are kinky Dog.>:) Suspenders next.
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>> We also had to put the soft top down as I was too tall, but that meant the windscreen top rail was directly
>> in my line of sight!
I had the same problem when trying to drive a MkI Mercedes SLK. I also found that when asked to move an MG Midget around the yard, I couldn't actually get my gangly legs and arms in it and shut the door :( The clue was in the name, I guess.
>> You guys with big feet, how do you get on driving superminis?
I have to press the brake and clutch on a proper Mini as if on tiptoes. But then again, I have to walk down the staircase at home with my feet splayed apart so that more than half the sole comes into contact with the stair tread - if I keep my feet straight then I end up walking downstairs on my heels. :/
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Wed 5 Oct 11 at 20:26
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It's true what they say about guys with big feet. Respect...
:-)
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>> It's true what they say about guys with big feet
Big shoes :(
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But the other thing they say isn't true at all. Just as well or I'd need size 19s.
};---)
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RHD American cars are the worst for feet of any size. Several I've driven have no space for a left foot.
Another thing I don't understand is when 'working' vehicles have such a small pedal box that they prove almost impossible to drive if you are wearing boots.
Several Asian pick-ups I've driven suffer from this.
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...almost impossible to drive if you are wearing boots...
One of the design briefs for the original Land Rover was the pedals had to be big enough for a farmer wearing wellies.
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>> One of the design briefs for the original Land Rover was the pedals had to
>> be big enough for a farmer wearing wellies.
>>
I second that. My Series II has large pedals with metal studs, well spaced.
The Volvo is good too.
My wife's Peugeot 306 is awful. The pedals are small, close together, offset, and even though my feet are size 8 they still catch on the underside of the dashboard structure.
Another requirement for pedal design is that when the brake pedal is depressed, the accelerator is at the correct height for heeling.
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Alfas used to be awful - even with size 6 feet you had to develop the habit of holding your feet sideways, it was a bit like ballet dancing. The last 156 I drove was much better.
Jaguar, then Ford, made the XJS for 21 years and almost all of them were automatic. In later years almost every part of the original design was re-engineered. Yet there was never anywhere to put your left foot, although there was room for a footrest. It's not particularly uncomfortable, just a nuisance. Every road test I've ever come across complains about this but nothing was ever done about it. A mystery.
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...Yet there was never anywhere to put your left foot...
I was very interested in an X-Type before I bought the CC3.
Nearly put a deposit on a year-old one, until I realised there was nowhere to put my left foot.
Couldn't afford a nearly-new auto, so it was back to Ford for me.
There's not loads of room in the pedal box of the CC3, but it is possible to put your foot to the left of the clutch, which it wasn't in the X-Type.
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>>I was very interested in an X-Type before I bought the CC3.
Nearly put a deposit on a year-old one, until I realised there was nowhere to put my left foot.
Couldn't afford a nearly-new auto, so it was back to Ford for me.<<
X Type is a Ford (based on)
:)
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...X Type is a Ford (based on)...
Mondeo platform, but I think there's more room in the Mondeo's pedal box.
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>> There's not loads of room in the pedal box of the CC3,>>
Do you mean the footwell, iffy? The pedal box is the mounting for the pedals. That is the sort of mistake that motoring writers make. :-)
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...Do you mean the footwell, iffy?...
As if it matters, but no, I mean the pedal box - the box where the pedals are, and where your feet are when you push the pedals.
...The pedal box is the mounting for the pedals...
A box is not a mounting, look in a dictionary if you don't believe me.
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>> ...The pedal box is the mounting for the pedals...
>>
>> A box is not a mounting, look in a dictionary if you don't believe me.
>>
tinyurl.com/5u38ctw
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Size 11 here and I find my Vectra fine, and ironically my wifes Polo is no problem either despite being a fairly small car.
Bad cars: Ford Focus (mainly because theres no clutch foot rest!). Fiat Punto Grande was undriveable for my size feet.
My mates size 12's seem to fit fine into his Peugeot 107 as well so its all about design rather than car size!
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Is somewhere that needed to rest your left foot? I see it all the time in reviews seemingly marking it down if it hasn't got one, I don't think I've every used or needed one, must have a weird body shape.
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I don't know whether I'm just used to having a clutch rest, but I find driving a car without quite odd. Especially on the motorway when you have to rest your left foot 'folded' rather than in a more relaxed position.
Wouldn't buy a car without one now.
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I think it must be me, I don't mind either, flat on the floor or on a rest to the side. Guess it gives me more choice.
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Left footrest is a must for long drive. I have driven ones with and without one and the difference is quite painful.
Don't think it costs much to provide a footrest. Then why manufactures skimp on that?
Last edited by: movilogo on Thu 6 Oct 11 at 15:02
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Left footrest is also a must for me
The Vectra has one, gets used all the time - and there is loads! of room in the foot-well.
The worst offender I have come across is the Saxo/106 Every time I pressed the clutch the car would perform a emergency stop
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Curiously I once drove a rally-prepped 106 on a gravel circuit. With all the plastic bits gone there was a surprising amount of room inside, including the pedal area, although I don't think the pedals themselves were standard road items.
How many of today's cars are designed as automatics first? (i think this may be the way that Volvo is heading, with its reliance on the North American market.) And how many others have a natural footrest in LHD form that doesn't make the transition to RHD? Maybe our friends in Germany can help with that.
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I think one of the problems with rhd BMWs is that in the LHD versions the wheel arch serves as a natural left foot rest and these days all of them have a moulded foot rest fitted to the bulge where the wheel arch is. Clearly this won't work in the RHD ones.
Worst cars for foot space are invariably french and italian. I presently have a Megane Coupe as a rental car and I can't move my right foot from the accelerator without it catching on either the brake pedal or the edge of the centre console. This problem seems endemic to Renaults and Peugeots, though oddly the Citroen C4 I rented a few weeks back was fine.
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I have been out for the evening, have the mods had a tidy up?
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Big feet - BobbyG
