How Do the Lincoln Continental's 30-Way Seats Adjust?

CARS.COM — You may have heard the front power seats in the new Lincoln Continental can adjust as many as 30 different ways. That’s a number that would topple even the most luxurious thrones in our original survey of power-seat controls.

Related: 2017 Lincoln Continental Review: Quick Spin

Just what the heck are those 30 adjustments? Cars.com had an all-wheel-drive Continental Reserve in its test fleet, complete with the 30-way Perfect Position seats — a $1,500 option on our trim level, but practically peanuts on its $70,405 as-tested total.

I planted myself in the cockpit of a Lincoln Continental one afternoon to find out.

My conclusion? The vehicle’s glove-soft Perfect Position power seats are mighty comfortable indeed, and they look like trendy airline chairs in business or first class. Senior Road Test Editor Joe Bruzek called them “a highlight of the driving experience,” and I agree.

But by my count, they only adjust 28 ways. Here’s the math:

• Eight: Start with the basics. You can slide the driver and passenger seats forward or backward (two ways), recline (two), adjust seat height (two) and adjust the cushion angle (two).

• Two: The top portion of the backrest has its own reclining adjustment, separate from the overall seatback recline. The effect makes for a more (or less) concave seatback — a useful adjustment for your back that BMW and other luxury automakers also offer. That takes the total number of adjustments up to 10.
• Four: The head restraints power up and down (two adjustments) and forward and backward (two more). It’s helpful to some degree, and it makes for a nifty visual as the restraint motors out of a cavity in the seatback. Still, I drive with my head off the restraint, so it’s more useful at a stop. That makes 14.
• Six: Next are high, medium and low zones of backrest lumbar support (each individually adjustable, so six adjustments total). Each one has designated degrees of intensity, so the seat memory remembers lumbar support, not just position. That gets you to 20.
• Four: The bolsters in the backrest and bottom cushions are separately adjustable (each area going in or out, so four adjustments total). The bolsters also have preset degrees, which the memory settings also remember. You’re up to 24.
• Four: Finally — and this is what sets the Continental apart — the seats have powered thigh extensions that work for each individual thigh. Press a control, and the extender unfurls the bottom cushion outward and upward for your left or right thigh. If you prefer more support for one leg versus the other, the staggered extensions are just what the doctor ordered. That’s four more (two movements, in or out, for each side) for a grand total of 28 adjustable seat options.

Last I checked, 28 does not equal 30. What gives? I asked Sam Locricchio, a Lincoln spokesman, about the discrepancy. He pointed me to a document that specifies all 30 adjustments but conceded that users “can only power 28 positions.”

The rub is with those thigh extensions. “There are two passive ways the seat moves, not controlled by the user,” Locricchio wrote in an email. “It’s the independent thigh support which interacts with the tilt.”

Lincoln considers them adjustable both upward and outward. As you unfurl each one, it extends and elevates in two separate adjustments, albeit through the same motion. Lincoln quantifies this as four adjustments per side, Locricchio confirmed. That’s eight adjustments in total from the left-right mechanism.

Still, that adds four more ways, which makes 32 adjustments, not 30. But according to Locricchio, Lincoln quantifies the vehicle’s three-zone lumbar movement as a four-way adjustment (not six) because it considers the three zones part of a simple height adjustment for lumbar support — the same allowance as conventional four-way, height-adjustable lumbar support.

“Of the ’30’ adjustments,” Bruzek said, “I only needed a few to dial in my comfort. I’m a slender 6 feet tall with a sensitive back and the main recline, fore, aft and height adjusters were all I needed to find the sweet spot.”

And sweet it is. However debatable their power adjustments are, these chairs are a highlight of the Continental. Stay tuned for our full review of the car.