Buick VeranoThe car designed for people with ponytails

Steven Seagal, at times Lleyton Hewitt and David Beckham, maybe even Snoop Dogg, and presumably plenty of women too will all be perfectly at home in the all-new 2012 Buick Verano.

General Motors has gone to great lengths to ensure the new Verano is as comfortable as possible, and has guaranteed people with plenty of hair, particularly those with ponytails, will enjoy the ride.

In a recent press release, GM explains how it spent 1000 hours developing the Verano’s seats to help “prevent ‘hot spots’ from happening on long drives and help protect hair-dos from head rest interference”.

We weren’t sure how serious the problem of ‘head rest interference’ was, but apparently it’s one that you can devote the equivalent of seven straight weeks to.

GM says “large men and small women” spent everywhere from minutes to hours sitting in the Verano’s seats to give the engineers feedback.

Verano program engineering manager Brian Schell said the car’s interior was benchmarked against high-grade models including the Lexus IS and Acura TSX.

“When we set out to design a comfortable interior for Verano our goal was for customers to feel like vacation begins as soon as they get in the car, and not when they reach their destination,” Mr Schell said.

“Developing comfortable seats is both an art and a science. Knowing how to translate a physiological impression into tangible design elements is the art, and knowing how to execute the design is the science.”

The end result? They look a lot like normal headrests to us, but we’re sure they do a great job of combatting the automotive nightmare that is head rest interference.

What do you think? Have you ever not purchased a car because its head rests got in the way of your do? Let us know in the comments section below.