Can someone please point me to where we discussed swapping the Avalon seats or the Camry seats into the Prius. I searched and didn't find it. My local dealer has an upscale Camry on the floor but not an Avalon; has a Solara too. Those leather seats are quite nice; eight-way they call them. I walked the lot but no Avalons were open. So has anybody looked at this swap? Seems to me the airbag issue would disappear as it is all one mfg. Just a quick look showed the leather Camry seats with four bolts mounting it flat to the floor. The Solara, however, has the rear center mounting bolt sent horizontally into the tunnel just like the Prius and Corolla. Is the Solara a lesser model than the upscale Camry, or in other words would the Solara seat not be as good? Before I take my tape measure to the dealer what do you guys know about it?
I would check to make sure the seats actually fit in the Prius (not the bolts but the seat bottom/seatback). The reason is that you need clearance btwn the seats and the doors for proper airbag deployment plus there isn't much space between the seats and the centre console box.
My GF has a 2001 Avalon. I haven't measured, but I think the seats are quite a bit wider than the Prius seats. They are 8 way adjustable with 2 memory settings for the drivers seat. I think the Solara is an upscale Camry; the 2 door coupe version of the Camry also offered as a convertable.
Also, just because the seats are from the same manuf. doesn't mean the airbags will be ok. It's the shape and size of them that is most important. You may be able to swap the Prius airbags into another seat, however. You'd have to make sure they would be at about the same space from the side of the car and the same height. Otherwise they could physically interfere with the other airbags in the car.
I was at the dealer today. The space available for the seat appears to be 23 inches in both the Camry and the Prius. Each seat appears to be 21 and a fraction wide. The width of the front mount is 15 1/2 in the Prius and 17 1/8 in the Camry. Considering the washer width of the front mount it is 19 1/4 in the Camry. Seems like it would fit.
The seat mod is quite difficult. I'd say "extream". It involves changing out & modding the frames ... welding, etc. I don't have the link in front of me. The guy who did it actually bought the seats at the junk yard for a big up front savings.
I continue to look at this. Today I was at a Lexus dealer and looked at the IS 350 as well as the other cars on the showroom floor. My premise was that like most makes Toyota reuses body styles in different product lines with different trim levels. Alas, while very nice the Lexus seats do not mount the same way as the Prius thus no direct bolt-in. They appear to have about the same track width and front mount but the rears are completely different. Considering the premium asked for Lexus parts in the salvage yard there isn't much reason to pursue this approach. I visited the Volvo dealer too. The seats are faster to adjust with greater range of motion. Very nice quality of leather in the ones on the dealer floor; manual lumbar adjustment though.
