Anyone thinking like me that the belt should have some sort of device or mechanism that keeps it from being so damn tight on your shoulder and sternum? I have this thing about having anything even remotely tight on my stomach. Cars used to have this thing where you adjust it, pull it forward a little and it would lock in place , still protecting you fine but without putting any tension on you. Am i making any sense??

yes, you make sense, the belt is too tight. You can move it but it barely adjusts

anyone knows of a good gizmo that woulf make it more comfortable? SB is compulsory here in PQ and there's a hafty fine and demerit points attached to it !

yeah, any small clip can be placed behind the seatbelt buckle to keep some slack for you.

My audi had a sliding clip/loop built into the belt that allowed me to breath some.

Use a triangluar folder clip (you know, the ones with the two chrome clips that fold back and are squeezed)

Originally posted by Squidward
yeah, any small clip can be placed behind the seatbelt buckle to keep some slack for you.I wouldn't recommend doing anything of the sort - doing anything to prevent the belts from performing their intended function is a no-no in my book. In addition, the RX-8 has seatbelt pretensioners that pull the belt tight at the moment of impact, and any foreign objects attached to the belts will either reduce the effectiveness of their operation or become projectiles after they're dislodged when the pretensioners fire.

But I guess that's the marvel of freedom of choice - if you feel the need to reduce the effectiveness of a safety device in exchange for a minor increase if comfort, then that's your right. Just take responsibility for your actions and don't expect to sue Mazda for injuries received in an accident due to the impaired effectiveness of the belts.

Personally, I don't find the RX-8 belts any more or less tight or intrusive than any other car I've driven in recent years.

Euh... Eccles.... i had no intention of reducing the effectiveness of the belt or to sue anyone anywhere about possible injuries i might suffer in a hypothetical accident i might suffer. I have been driving over 25 years and i think i know how belts are supposed to work. I just think that adjusting the belt and THEN pulling it a few inches do not put me in any danger.

Originally posted by f1michel
Euh... Eccles.... i had no intention of reducing the effectiveness of the belt or to sue anyone anywhere about possible injuries i might suffer in a hypothetical accident i might suffer.Glad to hear it, but unfortunately that makes you one of a dying breed, since personal responsibility appears to be dwindling these days. I think it all started with the McDonalds "hot coffee" and Audi "unintended acceleration" suits. :(

Anyway, I just wanted to point out that tinkering with the belts in any way may well reduce their effectiveness when you really need them, though hopefully that time will never come. :)

I did not take it the wrong, don't worry. Since i'm from Canada we are not as inclined as you guys from the States to sue . Our different judicial system makes it much much harder to take someone to court. sometimes i wish we were like you but other times when i hear about a fat person suing McDonald for making him fat i'm glad we are a bit different . :-)

Like I said, my Audi seatbelt strap has a slider that you can use reduce tension around your waist. The slider squeezes the strap just enough to hold the belt from sliding through it. It is slightly larger than the hole on the belt plug.

Audi "unintended acceleration"? Is that what happens when you start the car in gear? As for the seat belt thing, having some slack between the belt and the person will decrease the tensile strength of the belt in a collision.

Originally posted by Superfan
Audi "unintended acceleration"? Is that what happens when you start the car in gear?Where were you in the 80's? :)

Audi nearly disappeared from the American market in the late 80's after 60 Minutes beat up a story about an Audi 5000 which supposedly caused the death of a six-year-old boy because it accelerated and ran over the boy despite the driver (the boy's mother) pressing the brake pedal as hard as she could. This was contrary to her original statement to the police that she had missed the brake pedal and hit the gas, but 60 Minutes has never let the truth get in the way of a good story. See http://members.aol.com/daserde2/libel.html

Originally posted by f1michel
i had no intention of reducing the effectiveness of the belt

Unfortunately, that's exactly what introducing an inch or two of slack into the seatbelt loop will do. Those systems that allowed you to pull the belt out a bit and then held the slack (popular with GM and Ford) were actually quite dangerous - the bit of slack allows the occupants higher acceleration loads before the belts begin to decelerate the occupant in a collision, which translates to significantly higher G forces and thus higher peak force loads experienced at the contact points between the belt and the occupant. The result of a bit of slack is more broken ribs and internal injuries! That's why manufacturers have moved to pretensioners to remove any trace of slack and tighten the belts right tight before the occupant moves in a collision situation - it greatly reduces the peak g loads experienced by the occupant, and thus significantly reduces injury.

I had one of those slack-holding systems on an 89 Taurus SHO - I took apart the belts and disabled the slack-holding mechanism, so that the belts would always be snug.

Regards,
Gordon

Quite interesting Gordon, thanks.