gap between brake and gas pedal

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Tue 25 Oct 2005 16:38
gap between brake and gas pedal - nutty_nissan
Right, there I am thinking I've got meself a safe, comfortable car for the price of a new Almera. Volvo S80, and it is lovely to drive around.

However, now that I'm driving it for longer periods, I noticed something potentially unsafe!!!!!!!

It's and auto, and when I press the brake pedal, the edge of my shoe sometimes is almost touching the left edge of the gas pedal. I must have driven 100 different automatics from small cars to luxury cars, and it's never been a problem.

Ok, I have big shoes (size 12), now I have to be conscious when driving of pivoting my foot slightly over to the left when braking. I'm concerned in an emergency stop I might end up with my shoe going partly on the gas pedal.

The gap seems awfully small between the pedals on this model. Volvo are the last company I figured that would not test all shapes and sizes of drivers.

Anyone had similar experience?
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Tue 25 Oct 2005 16:46
gap between brake and gas pedal - nutty_nissan
Perhaps it's set up for left foot braking????
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Tue 25 Oct 2005 16:48
gap between brake and gas pedal - Armitage Shanks {p}
I know I would never ever get used to it but HJ says autos should be driven using left foot braking. I am too old to change and I won't have another autobox anyway,unless I win the lottery and buy a Merc!
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Tue 25 Oct 2005 16:57
gap between brake and gas pedal - SjB {P}
Me, size 7.5, brother size 9
Both a wide fitting
His V70 D5 auto (same pedal setup as your S80)
No probs
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Tue 25 Oct 2005 17:46
gap between brake and gas pedal - pmh
A google on the terms "shoe size distribution uk" reveals that only about 2.5% of the uk population has a UK shoe size of 12 or more.

Possibly Volvo did their market research and found the added cost of catering for such a small percentage of the rhd was not worthwhile! For Japan I believe the % is even smaller.

PS I have purposely not added the links from Google (for those of a nervous or jealous disposition) as it finds other interesting apparently correlating data !!


--

pmh (was peter)


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Tue 25 Oct 2005 17:58
gap between brake and gas pedal - P 2501
>>>PS I have purposely not added the links from Google (for those of a nervous or jealous disposition) as it finds other interesting apparently correlating data !!


LOL! i have found that site and as a size 12 myself, i can confirm that it is all true.
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Tue 25 Oct 2005 18:04
gap between brake and gas pedal - BazzaBear {P}
My gut instinct would be that this is just a case of you needing to get used to a different pedal layout, rather than it actually being a safety issue, after all, every manufacturer (if not every model) has a different layout.
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