Love the CX-5, hate the seats...Any way to make them better?

When I grew up in the 70's all the Mercedes had rock hard seats. The Germans knew something then and Mazda knows the same thing.
 
My 2020 CX9 seats are hard also. If I take any trip of 45 minutes or more I am actually in pain. This is the first car I have had that has this issue. My 2000 ford F150 is like a comfortable chair in your living room compare to this seat. I was told that the 2021 seats are softer and I did try one in the dealer's showroom. It was a bit better, but no solution for us that bought before the quote fix. What I did was go to https://purple.com/seat-cushions . I bought a Royal model and what a difference. It is like a honeycomb in that air can go right through it and the cloth cover also allows air transfer, so the heated and airconditioned seats still work. Purple and Mazda should get together and fix this issue for the customers.
 
The bolsters in my new 2021 GTR are the low point in my vehicle. Little or no improvement over my 2014 Touring. Bolsters are too hard and seat doesn't allow any wiggle room. Mazda seems to refuse to check how seats are constructed in vehicles with known good seats. Ed
 
Y'all might think this is odd, but I found that slightly tilting down the bottom cushion at the FRONT made a SIGNIFICANT improvement how the those bolsters hit my thighs, especially the left one where my leg/knee tends to rest a bit more heavily outboard of the seat, than the right leg. The new cushion position felt a bit weird for a few minutes, but is now my new normal position, and I can drive the car for an hour without constantly shifting to keep the bolster out of my thighs.
 
The bolsters in my new 2021 GTR are the low point in my vehicle. Little or no improvement over my 2014 Touring. Bolsters are too hard and seat doesn't allow any wiggle room. Mazda seems to refuse to check how seats are constructed in vehicles with known good seats. Ed
may be the QA people are smaller :) Yes its a problem with the GT and GTR bolsters. They are too rough material below the leather.

anyway, I would say try what AVC suggested.
Or even bettet try what the manual suggests for optimal seat position. There is a page on that
I had same issue primarily the left one - with the bolster.. for almost 2 years..until I read the manual. Now its like a new car for me and I enjoy it for longer distances.
Adjusted the seats accordingly and surprise.. no more issues. Full front leg support is lost a bit from the low tilt of the seating pad but no more bolster issues.
 
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I think seats are a personal thing, like butts.

Me, I never thought anything about the seats in my CX-5 or CX-9. In fact, never thought about it much in any car I have owned.

But if sitting in the car makes you uncomfortable, get another car. It is not the cars fault and it is not your fault.
 
Part of the problem is the seat bottom is too narrow because of the center stack. If the seat bottom were about 2-3 inches wider (Volvo, RDX, Mercedes, etc), then the bolsters would not be a problem. I will try as AVC did but, it didn't help on my 2014 touring. Ed
 
Giving some serious thought to selling the wife’s ‘19 cx5 touring for only one reason...the seats. Other than a sunroof that randomly exploded (and was covered by Mazda), we haven’t had a single problem in 16 months/37k miles. It gets good mileage, is reasonably fun to drive, and has low maintenance costs ($30 dealer oil change if I bring my own oil). And then there’s the seats...not so bad on short trips but definitely uncomfortable on the long ones. It’s rather irritating to have such an all around excellent vehicle with one glaring flaw that’s tough to overcome.

So now tentative plan is if I can find a properly equipped cpo Volvo xc90 t6 for a fair price, will slap the 10yr/unlimited mile warranty extension on it and launch the Mazda. Would be going from a reliable, fun CUV with crappy seats to a more expensive, less reliable, thirstier, higher maintenance SUV with a great warranty and sublime seats.

Before I go and do something crazy, has anyone figured out how to improve seat comfort on these, or found a bolt in upgrade (ie better seat from different model Mazda that would retain airbags, etc)?
Hey @Stickygreen. Same issue with my 2018 cx5. Did you find a solution?
 
I have tried all the suggestions and did not find a solution. The partial fix on my 2014 was to find a 1 to 2 inch pad that sits between the bolsters. I did this on my 2014 touring so I will try that as my only solution. Ed
 
If I were having this issue, I'd probably try the Purple seat cushion suggested by @Skiboat. If that didn't work, I'd probably consider selling the car or getting the seat reupholstered with softer padding.
 
My 2020 CX9 seats are hard also. If I take any trip of 45 minutes or more I am actually in pain. This is the first car I have had that has this issue. My 2000 ford F150 is like a comfortable chair in your living room compare to this seat. I was told that the 2021 seats are softer and I did try one in the dealer's showroom. It was a bit better, but no solution for us that bought before the quote fix. What I did was go to https://purple.com/seat-cushions . I bought a Royal model and what a difference. It is like a honeycomb in that air can go right through it and the cloth cover also allows air transfer, so the heated and airconditioned seats still work. Purple and Mazda should get together and fix this issue for the customers.
I am having the same issue. Very frustrated after only a few weeks with my 18 Sport. I ordered the Purple "Simply" model because they told me that was designed for cars. Is there a reason you went with Royal?
 
I have tried all the suggestions and did not find a solution. The partial fix on my 2014 was to find a 1 to 2 inch pad that sits between the bolsters. I did this on my 2014 touring so I will try that as my only solution. Ed
Did you try the purple seat cushion company. It really does work.
 
I am having the same issue. Very frustrated after only a few weeks with my 18 Sport. I ordered the Purple "Simply" model because they told me that was designed for cars. Is there a reason you went with Royal?
I read up on it and liked what it said. I use it everyday, even on short trips. Love it. The Royal one I got is a bit narrow but for me just the right thickness. So, you may want to get one a bit larger in lengh and width.
 
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