Received my Model S 8 months ago. Most of the time no one sits in the rear seats. About once a week on average, the kids will use the back seats and buckel themselves in. I just noticed while vacuuming the car earlier today that I've got a spot on the rear seat leather where the leather's worn through. I've never had leather wear through on any vehicle I've owned up until now. To have this happen with less than a year's light useage (that car gets driven heavy, but not much activity on the rear seats) bothers me greatly. Is this sort of thing under warranty? What should I do?
Did you ever have a car seat back there? I saw damage to my Explorer which was very similar. A burr on the bottom left of the car seat was found to be the blame in that situation. Were I you I would show it to the service center and prior to that contact Tesla. Good Luck with it.
FWIW, the seats in Model S are made by an external company "Futuris", which manufactures seats for Ford, GM, Toyota and Mercedes... so I would expect decent quality.
That damage could have also been caused by a rivet on someone's jeans tearing into the leather. It's been known to happen.
I don't *think* there was a carseat there. Pretty sure it's not an issue with jeans, either. I'll email [email protected] and see if they want to take a look at it.
Looks to me like something in your back seat at one point caused excessive rubbing at that spot. Is that a possibility? Maybe you had something sitting back there on the seat for a short time?
Looks like something that should be covered by warranty. Doesn't look like a scratch to me, it looks like the surface peeling.
Zoom in on the photo... That's definitely damage from a sharp object, you can see some areas where it penetrated and then cut the leather. Since it is directly below the buckle, take a close look at the bottom of buckle on the seatbelt and feel for a burr.
That was my thought, when the belt is plugged in, take a look at where the buckle touches the leather. It’s probably rubbing, and might have a rough edge.
It might be caused by manufacturing problem, or people trying to buckle up pushing the other metal part rubbing on the seat. It's hard to buckle without looking at the female part.
Kind of hard to say one way or another when looking at a picture on a forum, isn't it? When I blow the picture up, it DOES look like puncture marks. But maybe from the seat belt buckle, maybe from something else. I think the OP and Tesla will need to do the detective work. I don't think there is enough information to form an opinion - at least not for me. It could go one way or the other ...
As others might have mentioned, it might be the buckle either hitting that area on the way in, or once "clicked", the edge of buckle rubbing. Was there a car seat in that area that was buckled in for a period of time?
That's a very strange wear pattern for leather. Leather does not have a backing and it looks like the surface of whatever that is has been scratched off. I've not seen leather that wears in such a way. That looks like the kind of wear that vinyl would show. I'm not sure about Tesla but maybe only the seat surfaces are leather and the sides vinyl -- that's the case in many cars.
Update: I emailed the same picture to Tesla and they agreed that it's covered by warranty. They're ordering the part and will let me know when it arrives.
Did you check the buckle to see if there's a rough edge on it, or something sharp? The spot of the wear... it looks like it'd align with a buckle when connected.
