Could be the cabling but I think the main reason is, that you are going to loose the side airbags which is a major change to what the car has been delivered as.

At least here in Europe, disabling Airbags is really a big deal with lots of paper work involved.

 

That might be a Switzerland thing, in the UK I don't think anyone would ever notice the lack of airbags. The only time they would be checked is at the 3-year MoT test, but even then, I wouldn't have thought that the test centre would look at the seats too closely.

Whenever you see the spec sheet, lightweight seats are marked as 'not US', which I assume is because they don't have airbags. But the lightweight CF seats weigh about 4.5 Kg (thats about 10lbs), which is astonishingly light.

It does seem a bit odd that lightweight seats come with motors to adjust height, tilt, and fore-aft movement. If retrofitted, surely you'd just fit Recaro conventional adjustable rails, and save a load more weight?

 

The recaros are not the same as the aston seats. The aston seats will be way more comfortable b/c they don't have the deep side walls that the recaros do. I would only do the OEM aston seats as I want to keep the interior 100% OEM and not turn it into a "boy racer", this isn't a bmw M3.

If you were to put manual rails it would probably be closer to 80-90lbs savings instead of just 42. But you seriously loose alot of convenience going that route and for some reason manual rails on an aston just seems really cheap/ghetto.

Still, 42lbs savings saved and still maintaining electric adjustment is the perfect blend of weight reduction and comfort/convenience.

I will try and see if I can somehow use a euro vin to purchase a set (anyone willing to help out) lol
________
Children Avandia

 

Its at least a German and Austria thing too. And I think its an issue in the UK as well because we are certainly not talking about MoT and who does notice or not any changes to the seats. We are talking about airbags here and what will happen in the case of an accident. You are getting into big troubles when your car is crashing, somebody gets injured and the factory installed sidebags are missing just because you have decided to remove them on your own just for the sake of sportier seats.

As I said, pre MY10 cars are not homologated to use the light weight seats because it was not a factory option at the time of their release.

PS: The base of AM Seats is actually built by Recaro, but they are not offered as part of Recaros retail collection.

 

The Seats are indeed made by Recaro for Aston Martin, noticed some boxes marked Recaro during my factory tour & even asked the guide about it.

Here's a link I found:

http://www.recaro.com/us/product-are...2-vantage.html

 

You're right, I'm probably not a good judge of safety issues, I really find the whole subject of safety so very uninteresting. Whenever a salesman tries to explain the safety features on a car I ask him to skip that bit, and I can't get myself to read the section in a brochure headed 'Safety'.

I just moved to AM from a TVR that didn't have any airbags, and I was very happy not having that weight to carry around.

I did a quick poll with a few friends last night, and none of us knew of anyone that had ever deployed an airbag, and I expect that I'll never, ever use one.

So, my view on them isn't at all balanced, they are for other people

 

I have had the airbags go off TWICE in the last 4 years. Other drivers seem to have a desire to hit me!

 

I see, you are one of this "It never happens to me" people

However, I have decided to spec the light weight seats on my V12V and therefore gave up the safety of side airbags but I really don't care because the bucket seats are so much more supportive, lighter and better looking.

So I am a tiny bit into your direction

 

I thought the issue would be with homologation, but swapping out seats in any other car isn't much of an issue, so why would the seats in an AM be any different? I think it might just be what the company thought would sell the best for the US market. Lots of stuff gets kept from different markets based on what the company thinks will sell in those markets.

But still, AM does a lot of custom builds, so it should still be viable to pick them up through a dealership or something.

 

Just another perspective - years ago when Porsche came out w/ their original GT3 seats (one piece shell) they were for the "Euro" market only. Six months later we (NA) could order them from a dealer or just about any one that sold Porsche parts. They were made by Recaro too. You could get the same seat from Recaro but they did not have the Porsche emblem stamped in the leather (head rest area). My guess is AM will publish the PN and then anyone can order. In the case of these Porsche seats they were not "Powered" thus did not have all the "positions" but were a huge weight savings (50+ lbs each). I installed them in my 996TT no problem - just unbolt the stock seat (4 bolts) and unplug the electric connector. Initially Dealer got around liability (if any) by not installing them - later the did installs too.
I am kinda thinking AM will follow this path. An example is the AM Handling Pack for the Vantage - you can order any parts by individual PN now - not buy the whole kit - to upgrade your older Vantage.