The logic is simple. The recaro's were not airbag compliant for 2015 in the USA. Instead of spending more money to redesign them they just decided to use seats that were already airbag compliant and in their inventory, ergo the standard lancer seats.

 

What do you mean airbag compliant? I saw the 15 Canadian evo x and they have an airbag sticker in the recaros which means airbag compliant.

 

Supposedly the rules changed in 2015 -- I've heard both airbag and whiplash as supposed issues. I believe it has more to do with whiplash than airbags though. sblvro is right, these seats have had airbags in them since 2008.

 

Stupid air bags ruining everything...

 

I'm also leaning more towards the whiplash issue at this point.. I thought that the "airbag" issue was that they Recaro seats didn't come with the knee airbag. I then found out that the knee airbag isn't actually in the seat in the 2015 car, which threw that right out the window. As far as I can tell, both the 2015 seats and the OEM Recaro seats only have the single airbag in the outer shoulder bolsters, so now I'm totally confused as to what the actual reason is.

If it is whiplash related, I'm very curious in what way specifically the Recaro seats are worse than the 2015 with the adjustable headrests, as everything about the seats appear/feel safer to me.

 

I think it's the fact that the adjustable headrests are adjustable, so they fit more varying sizes. Or perhaps padding? pure speculation.

 

Maybe they just ran out of recaro seats and didn't want to place another order for 2015? lol

 

That's all I could think of too (even though I don't fully understand why being adjustable would help prevent whiplash honestly), but if I'm not mistaken, there are new cars that come with fixed headrest Recaro seats still. I've heard that the "headrest" issue is only an issue in 4 door vehicles, and isn't an issue in a 2 door.

If true, that makes even less sense to me, as the headrest would have the same impact on the driver in a car that had 10 doors.. so is there an issue that impacted people in the rear seats due to the Recaro headrests? Unlikely, but I don't know.. it's very strange that nobody actually knows why the seats were changed in 2015 (including the dealerships).. you would think that information is out there somewhere!

 

Haha, definitely a theory, although you can still order Recaro seats at the dealership if you need replacements for your car (they are $4k-$6k per seat), so I'm assuming Recaro didn't run out of them lol.

 

Has anyone actually ordered one of those seats though? I feel like at that kind of price they'd have to make it all from scratch instead of just shipping one that's sitting around.

 

You get the seats in parts at that price (many parts).. they are completely un-assembled, so no, they aren't just sitting around on the shelf or anything. You get to drop $6k (for leather), and then get to build the seat yourself lol..

 

Dropped on swift spec-r's and h&r 20mm spacers until i pull the trigger on some te37s

 

After replacing the swift spec low Spring, is there any difference between the stock spring and the after market Spring when driving the car? If so, would you tell me about it? ( btw nice car ✌️)

 

Thought you were getting some gloss black bbs's put on? Would love to see the diamond white FE with gloss black bbs wheels because I'm thinking about getting mine powder coated the same, btw just traded in my '13 gsr cosmic blue for a diamond white FE, CA0319

 

Here's a couple pics of her.
Edit
Phone is having trouble uploading..