Be Careful About Resting Your Elbow There!!!
After a 21 hour drive from Oklahoma City toward the East Coast (taking a scenic route through Kentucky and West Virginia), I experienced what I thought was a "temporary" numbness in the little finger and ring finger of my left hand.
I had been resting my left arm on the door pull after wrapping the metal with one of those cushioned seat belt shoulder harness pads sold at Wal-Mart (black to match the interior). The cushion on the door pull fit perfectly and prevented direct contact with the metal, but it was apparently insufficient to prevent damage to a nerve in my elbow.
The consequence has been medical treatment and a prognosis by the Orthopedic specialist that the numbness will "eventually" go away. (His other option was exploratory surgery.) Now, three months later, the numbness persists, but it "is" improving slightly.
So, even though the arm rest on the door IS too low, I've begun trying to use it (or my left thigh) to avoid further nerve damage. Still, I find myself unconsciously putting my arm or elbow on the door pull from time to time.
Photos of the seat belt shoulder harness pad are included at:
<http://home.flash.net/~cwmorgan/SSR/SSRInterior.html>.