A neighbour bought an A-series but soon sold it as it gave her back problems - she replaced it with a Peugeot 308 .

The trouble with car seat comfort, or otherwise, is it's a highly personal thing. Another person could easily find the reverse, that the Merc seat was comfy and the Pug not.

One car I have heard being complimented on its seats (because I had been looking at one to be our next car) is the current Citroen C4 Cactus.

It may be as much to do with the range of the steering wheel reach/rake adjustment and other proportions of the car as the seat itself. The one thing which has changed recently (due to requirements for better strength in a crash) is that the side windows have generally become smaller and higher up. I'd think that would definitely apply to the Civic. This would mean that the OP is needing to have the seat higher than it should be for the pedals/steering wheel in order to be able to see out.

I've done quite a few miles in Insignias, and the seats are pretty good as well as being very adjustable. However, at 5'6" I felt like I was a bit too small for the car and needed the seat fairly high up in order to be able to see properly, so this may have the same problem as the Civic.

If the OP has not had this problem in a Mokka, why not consier one of those? They are perfectly adequate, if slightly dull cars.

As extended test drives seem to be a thing of the past these days, it might be worth trying a few cars out by hiring them to see which work better over a longer drive. This might cost a couple of hundred pounds, but thats much less than the loss which would be made on having to trade in another car after a few months.

HJ used to recommend the Driving Ergonomics Loughborough University site. If you Google it and click onto the downloads there is a link that gives you their advice on the best order in which to make the various adjustments.

I also find I need to adjust car seats according to the journey. I drive closer to the wheel and pedals for short journeys but for long motorway stints I set back more. Putting light pressure on the footrest also helps me reduce long distance back pain. But maybe that’s just my old bones.

Coming up to 50 years behind the wheel and in that time I have only had one car with a seat that caused issues for me. That was a 1999 Ford Puma which used Fiesta seats of which millions had been used over the years. Drive more than about 30 miles and I had to stop and walk round for about 5 minutes then fine for another 30 miles or so.

As hinted, I suspect the OP is suffering from age related lumbar disc degeneration. The spine was never designed to be vertical, despite the attempts of the b*****-minded latest example of vertebrate evolution to keep it that way. For those unfortunate drivers who do not enjoy the luxury of the Audi A8 comfort seat, which is basically a large collection of electric motors with some padding, a strategically placed cushion usually suffices.

It is very subjective. I am/was 6'2" and over the years have not had much trouble with back problems while driving. I used to drive at least 25K miles a year for many many years too. The worst case I had was with a Vectra CD model. Could not get really comfortable at all. Tried all the reach and rake settings going. Eventually swapped it with a colleague. Several of our engineers had the new shape Vectra and they all had back trouble and had to offload the cars. Vauxhall seemed to be the culprit here. My last car for work was my own Skoda Superb Elegance. Full leather and lots of adjustments, and electronic memory settings are a godsend. Drove over 210K miles in it and not a twinge. Current Volvo XC60, leather again, is very comfortable too. Only time I had to have the drivers seat replaced was in a Peugeot 406 GLX. It gave way and was replaced under warranty. I am not small but certainly not over weight or obese. At about 95Kg I thought I was well below the design threshold for a car seat. Only advice is to try a long test drive or a weekend loan.

Cheers Concrete