Parts sharing done right: Ford Taurus gains massaging seats first seen on Volvo S80

Ford’s subsidiary Volvo, has a history of making car seats that are as close to ergonomically perfect as possible in a car. So their seats, or some of their technological advances, seem like the ideal thing to pull out a corporate parts bin and spread across the top trims and models of a manufacturer’s product lines.

One advantage for large manufacturers with a multitude of brands and models is the ability to share parts from their giant parts bin. This can be good or bad for the consumer depending on the quality of the part and the appropriateness of its new use.

Details and press release after the jump.

Enthusiasts criticized GM this year when the manufacturer used the steering wheel from the budget-minded Chevy Malibu in the $125 thousand Corvette ZR1. Edmunds.com has no problem with the paddle shifters on the Infiniti FX50 that resides intheir long-term test fleet. They were originally designed for the Nissan GT-R.

A British driver of an Aston Martin V8 Vantage received quite the shock when the leather on his car key became scuffed and torn. Under the leather was a Volvo logo. While using a quality part makes perfect sense, perhaps Ford, the owner of both brands, should have done a better job of covering up the key-fob’s origins.

At the start of the 2009 model year, Volvo announced that the XC90 SUV and the S80 sedan would now feature optional ventilated and massaging seats. The massager works by operating five inflatable bladders inside each of the front seats. The manufacturer claims that the massager “wafts away feelings of tiredness and stiffness on long journeys.”

Being a complete Volvophile, I remembered this bit of tech when I was reading over a press release announcing that the 2010 Ford Taurus will feature “multi-contour seats with active motion.” These seats have seven bladders that work in the same manner as those on the Volvo.

Ford's new system uses seven bladders to keep the driver comfortable

According to a Ford representative, both the seats in the S80 and Taurus were developed in Germany at Ford’s European Research Center. Also involved with the massager’s development were “back pain and fatigue specialists from the medical community.”

Steve Michell is a product design engineer who worked on this new bit of technology. According to him, “active motion” refers to a constant movement in one region of the seat.

“What it's doing with that cushion massage, is ever so slightly tilting the pelvis to keep that lower spin from getting locked into a certain spot, keeps that into an active type of environment which hence the trademark name for the cushion massage system which is Active Motion.” The new Taurus and Taurus SHO will be in dealer showrooms this summer.

MULTI-CONTOUR SEAT WITH ACTIVE MOTION
Another industry first from Ford Motor Company will have drivers and front-seat passengers sitting
pretty for longer periods of time. Product Design Engineer, Steve Michell, says the optional
innovative front seats, debuting in the 2010 Ford Taurus were specifically designed to make long
drives far less fatiguing.

"The cushion massage, with this system, and this is the first of its kind in the industry and it really provides great benefit for people that spend a great deal of time in their vehicle and that's part of the reason we're bringing it in on the Taurus a full-size family vehicle as opposed to a luxury vehicle." Michell says the intention of this Multi-Contour Seat with Active Motion is to relieve and change the pressure points while your sitting in that vehicle for extended periods of time.

"It allows those pressure points that develop over time to be changed, ever so slightly, and really promote circulation and reduces muscle fatigue for the driver on the long term comfort evaluation."
This innovative seat, debuting in the 2010 Ford Taurus, has a total of seven bladders in each individual first-row seat providing six-way lumbar support, lumbar massage with a gently rolling pattern.

"We talk about a massage of a seat, it's a very, very subtle, gentle, low pressure type massage, if you're looking for a regular deep pressure massage, this is not your seat." The Multi-Contour Seat with Active Motion is a trade mark name and Michell explained why.

"What it's doing with that cushion massage, is ever so slightly tilting the pelvis to keep that lower spin from getting locked into a certain spot, keeps that into an active type of environment which hence the trademark name for the cushion massage system which is "Active Motion."

The active motion of the lower cushion was developed in conjunction with Ford's European Research Center in Aachen, Germany, with input from back pain and fatique specialists from the medical community. The Multi-Contour Seat with Active Motion will be an option on the Ford 2010 Taurus and the 2010 Taurus SHO in showrooms this summer.