General Bigfoot - Driver's foot-rest problem

[brom]

I have big feet. Not huge feet - 10 1/2 UK size, but wide. Paws, my wife calls them.
I have a small problem with driving our Qubo.
The driver's footrest is quite large, and convenient for its purpose. However, when changing gear, especially if braking at the same time, my feet tend to get tangled up, resulting in rough changes and sharp braking. To avoid the footrest, my left foot has to move too far to the centre of the footwell , where my right foot is also busy.

The footrest is moulded as part of a piece of plastic trim fitted to the centre console, with two torx screws. (See P1). I wondered if it might be possible to replace this panel with a matching piece of trim from a LHD Qubo, where the same location would be on the passenger side, with no footrest.

I rang Ewan Renton, of the Parts Department at SG Petch, Darlington, as he has been very helpful to me in the past - actually interested in esoteric Fiat problems, and willing to go the extra mile to help. He looked through his minute exploded diagrams and sent me a copy; we chose the part we thought correct, specifically for a Euro-6 Multijet version. He warned me I wouldn't be able to return it if it didn't fit - but at £28 delivered, I felt it was worth the risk.

Two weeks later, the package arrived, containing two (?) identical plastic panels. They don't fit. They are the same shape down to the footrest, but extend no further. They also have no screwholes. (P2).

Ewan checked a Qubo that SGP had in, and sent me a photo (P3) of the passenger side, and you can see the floor pan extends higher to meet the smaller panel. He doesn't think it is feasible to get a direct replacement for the driver's side, without the footrest.

So, I am stuck. I can't see any way of solving my problems, short of getting someone talented to print me a bespoke, footrest-less 3D panel. Any ideas?

If anyone has any use for the two panels, I have them taking up space in my garage!

My wife has smaller feet, and can't understand my problem. Am I alone in this? I believe the later Doblo, from 2010 onwards, has the same feature. My old Dobbie does not, and I so have no issues with that wonderful car.

 

[Popitinpete]

I have big feet. Not huge feet - 10 1/2 UK size, but wide. Paws, my wife calls them.
I have a small problem with driving our Qubo.
The driver's footrest is quite large, and convenient for its purpose. However, when changing gear, especially if braking at the same time, my feet tend to get tangled up, resulting in rough changes and sharp braking. To avoid the footrest, my left foot has to move too far to the centre of the footwell , where my right foot is also busy.

The footrest is moulded as part of a piece of plastic trim fitted to the centre console, with two torx screws. (See P1). I wondered if it might be possible to replace this panel with a matching piece of trim from a LHD Qubo, where the same location would be on the passenger side, with no footrest.

I rang Ewan Renton, of the Parts Department at SG Petch, Darlington, as he has been very helpful to me in the past - actually interested in esoteric Fiat problems, and willing to go the extra mile to help. He looked through his minute exploded diagrams and sent me a copy; we chose the part we thought correct, specifically for a Euro-6 Multijet version. He warned me I wouldn't be able to return it if it didn't fit - but at £28 delivered, I felt it was worth the risk.

Two weeks later, the package arrived, containing two (?) identical plastic panels. They don't fit. They are the same shape down to the footrest, but extend no further. They also have no screwholes. (P2).

Ewan checked a Qubo that SGP had in, and sent me a photo (P3) of the passenger side, and you can see the floor pan extends higher to meet the smaller panel. He doesn't think it is feasible to get a direct replacement for the driver's side, without the footrest.

So, I am stuck. I can't see any way of solving my problems, short of getting someone talented to print me a bespoke, footrest-less 3D panel. Any ideas?

If anyone has any use for the two panels, I have them taking up space in my garage!

My wife has smaller feet, and can't understand my problem. Am I alone in this? I believe the later Doblo, from 2010 onwards, has the same feature. My old Dobbie does not, and I so have no issues with that wonderful car.

My two pence worth is this, in the past I've had to have a separate pair of 'driving shoes' just those thin old fashioned school pump type things to allow me comfort when driving, pain having to keep swapping shoes just to drive but it did the job, got used to the small space now I can use normal shoes.i did this not really just for close together pedals but because I'm tall and sitting in my Panda felt cramped and I started getting hip trouble and not having a 'heel' on the pumps dropped the angle of my legs helping my hips

I would personally take the offending footrest trim off and either leave it off (you can put it back in when selling) or cut the foot rest bit off and put what's left of the trim back on

 

[Red Van Man]

Hi Brom,

Possible suggestion (apart from 'smaller' shoes) - you could take out the panel and slice the footrest off, take off 1" or so from the side where it joins the side panel and then reglue with strips behind for added strength. The carpet would show a 1" gap but your foot might not be so compromised by the rest being in the way when pressing the clutch.

My solution (size 11 feet) is the Dualogic box

R-V-M

I have big feet. Not huge feet - 10 1/2 UK size, but wide. Paws, my wife calls them.
I have a small problem with driving our Qubo.
The driver's footrest is quite large, and convenient for its purpose. However, when changing gear, especially if braking at the same time, my feet tend to get tangled up, resulting in rough changes and sharp braking. To avoid the footrest, my left foot has to move too far to the centre of the footwell , where my right foot is also busy.

The footrest is moulded as part of a piece of plastic trim fitted to the centre console, with two torx screws. (See P1). I wondered if it might be possible to replace this panel with a matching piece of trim from a LHD Qubo, where the same location would be on the passenger side, with no footrest.

I rang Ewan Renton, of the Parts Department at SG Petch, Darlington, as he has been very helpful to me in the past - actually interested in esoteric Fiat problems, and willing to go the extra mile to help. He looked through his minute exploded diagrams and sent me a copy; we chose the part we thought correct, specifically for a Euro-6 Multijet version. He warned me I wouldn't be able to return it if it didn't fit - but at £28 delivered, I felt it was worth the risk.

Two weeks later, the package arrived, containing two (?) identical plastic panels. They don't fit. They are the same shape down to the footrest, but extend no further. They also have no screwholes. (P2).

Ewan checked a Qubo that SGP had in, and sent me a photo (P3) of the passenger side, and you can see the floor pan extends higher to meet the smaller panel. He doesn't think it is feasible to get a direct replacement for the driver's side, without the footrest.

So, I am stuck. I can't see any way of solving my problems, short of getting someone talented to print me a bespoke, footrest-less 3D panel. Any ideas?

If anyone has any use for the two panels, I have them taking up space in my garage!

My wife has smaller feet, and can't understand my problem. Am I alone in this? I believe the later Doblo, from 2010 onwards, has the same feature. My old Dobbie does not, and I so have no issues with that wonderful car.

 

[brom]

Thanks both, for those thoughts. I will need to seek permission from SWMBO to carry out mods - but am leaning towards replacing the existing panel with one of the smaller replacements, with a blank area below, and refitting the original if we ever sell.
That seems unlikely, as there's nowt else on the market remotely similar apart from the Ford Tourneo Courier, which she doesn't find as comfy, and nothing new in the pipeline - no-one wants small van-based mpv's any more, it seems.