Model 3 seats wearing out early?

[superbaka]

Tesla, like many others, has succumed to the pressure of the vegan community to delete the traditionally prestigeous leather interiors on higher quality vehicles. Now even the steering wheel has changed from premium leather to common plastic.

Hard to blame them. Activists were relentless, at shareholder meetings, shaming Elon into eliminating any natural products. Even down to the glue used to hold the seats together.

Hope everybody enjoys their plastic seats...

The problem is that people still desire leather. Most luxury materials in world history for kings and queens are in fact not leather. The new E-Tron GT agreed with this notion and has some amazing textiles in place of leather. My friend was a designer at Audi and said the design chief actually put Persian carpets in his car (!).

I can find you textiles that are orders of magnitude more expensive and luxurious than leather.

Its generally a mental fixation that leather = luxury by consumers. While true bespoke leather can be quite nice, no cars have that. It would cost $15k per seat. So we end up with mass produced leather and then mass produced fake leather. But the rich never got very interested in leather. It was kind of a middle class aspirational symbol.

And BTW - I owned both leather (Porsche 911 with leather on the air vents option!) and fabric cars, and the fabric looked as good as the day I bought the car some 6 years later but not so for the leather.

 

[KenC]

The OP's avatar shows the type of shorts and pants he wears and apparently the pockets, etc are particularly abrasive. I had a car with over 200k miles, I forget which one though, that showed some wear in that area, and I altered how I slid into the car. Sit in, then swing legs over. Don't just slide in.

 

[patrick40363]

I'm 5'8" ~160 lbs for reference.

Based on the responses it is likely my own behavior, and I will suck it up for the repair and change some habits.
Thanks for the help everyone, to confirm the issue is between the seat and the steering wheel.

With the latest responses (on FB as well) it sounds this is what is likely happening:

• My normal seating position is upright and fairly close to the front steering wheel.
• This leaves a relatively small gap for me enter the seat
• This results in my butt literally scraping the bolster (I never really paid attention until literally last night). Literally BUTT WEAR lol...
• I believe it is likely my rear pockets being abrasive against the bolster since I usually wear cargo type pants + shorts the flaps covering the rear pockets act as a source of abrasion.

Solution is simple from Tesla (a SW fix) and Customer Education Fix.

• Easy Entry
• Sit directly onto the bolster, and not slide into it from the side.

Contributing factors are:

• Polyurethane is not as strong as leather for abrasion (this makes me concerned about the Vegan Steering Wheels). I'd much rather prefer a leather option. 3rd Party is always an option.
• Larger bolsters (I like them so I don't suggest changing this)

Put your butt in first than swing your legs in. I was causing wear and this is how I avoided it.

 

[Subhuman]

I wonder if it has something to do with the position of the seat (i.e. to far forward causing the seat belt to rub every time you take it off).

 

[Jedi2155]

I wonder if it has something to do with the position of the seat (i.e. to far forward causing the seat belt to rub every time you take it off).

Absolutely a factor IMO. Someone told me today with bucket seats, don't try to slide in. You gotta center yourself then sit straight back. Didn't realize I'd have to re-learn how to sit down too when driving a Tesla

 

[aronth5]

I saw this as a potential problem when I first got my Model 3 (black interior). I've gotten into the habit of pushing my seat belt back between the pillar and the side of the seat.so that it doesn't rub on the edge of the seat when I get in and out. 18k miles and no wear so far.

 

[Big Earl]

No issues at all with our black seat material after 42,000 miles. However, small chunks of foam have been slowly accumulating under both front seats and the padding doesn’t feel as soft as it did when new. Leaving the foam on the floor until we set up an appointment with Tesla to have them looked at.

 

[MacGreiner]

Tesla, like many others, has succumed to the pressure of the vegan community to delete the traditionally prestigeous leather interiors on higher quality vehicles. Now even the steering wheel has changed from premium leather to common plastic.

Hard to blame them. Activists were relentless, at shareholder meetings, shaming Elon into eliminating any natural products. Even down to the glue used to hold the seats together.

Hope everybody enjoys their plastic seats...

It was the right thing to do.

 

[KenC]

No issues at all with our black seat material after 42,000 miles. However, small chunks of foam have been slowly accumulating under both front seats and the padding doesn’t feel as soft as it did when new. Leaving the foam on the floor until we set up an appointment with Tesla to have them looked at.

What?!? Your seat is crapping foam?

 

[KenC]

The problem is that people still desire leather. Most luxury materials in world history for kings and queens are in fact not leather. The new E-Tron GT agreed with this notion and has some amazing textiles in place of leather. My friend was a designer at Audi and said the design chief actually put Persian carpets in his car (!).

I can find you textiles that are orders of magnitude more expensive and luxurious than leather.

Its generally a mental fixation that leather = luxury by consumers. While true bespoke leather can be quite nice, no cars have that. It would cost $15k per seat. So we end up with mass produced leather and then mass produced fake leather. But the rich never got very interested in leather. It was kind of a middle class aspirational symbol.

And BTW - I owned both leather (Porsche 911 with leather on the air vents option!) and fabric cars, and the fabric looked as good as the day I bought the car some 6 years later but not so for the leather.

View attachment 468671

I'm apparently a peasant, as I like leather seats.

 

[hamtonp]

I suggest setting your seat profile or easy entry so that the side bolsters are further back than the entry opening.

I don't use easy entry but my seats are set pretty far back so if I would rub against the car frame instead of the bolsters.

As a not as expensive fix, you may consider seat covers. Some of them looks pretty nice.

 

[MikeR55]

Tesla, like many others, has succumed to the pressure of the vegan community to delete the traditionally prestigeous leather interiors on higher quality vehicles. Now even the steering wheel has changed from premium leather to common plastic.

Hard to blame them. Activists were relentless, at shareholder meetings, shaming Elon into eliminating any natural products. Even down to the glue used to hold the seats together.

Hope everybody enjoys their plastic seats...

I'm sure the non dead animals do!

 

[Sutton 3P]

I'm sure the non dead animals do!

They may not be dead but they also don’t exist. I mean they weren’t hunting these animals in the wild

 

[St☰v☰]

I had a 30th Anniversary SS Camaro that had white seats and it wore there as well. I learned that it was caused by me rubbing against it during the egress/ingress of the car. So with the 3, I set the easy entry for the seat to be all the way back and all the way down. Time will tell if it works.

 

[wdskuk]

I work for BMW and I can tell you the synthetic leather wears a lot better then the Nappa leather. It's the way they are made.

 

[Bill Foster]

I'm 5'8" ~160 lbs for reference.

Based on the responses it is likely my own behavior, and I will suck it up for the repair and change some habits.
Thanks for the help everyone, to confirm the issue is between the seat and the steering wheel.

With the latest responses (on FB as well) it sounds this is what is likely happening:

• My normal seating position is upright and fairly close to the front steering wheel.
• This leaves a relatively small gap for me enter the seat
• This results in my butt literally scraping the bolster (I never really paid attention until literally last night). Literally BUTT WEAR lol...
• I believe it is likely my rear pockets being abrasive against the bolster since I usually wear cargo type pants + shorts the flaps covering the rear pockets act as a source of abrasion.

Solution is simple from Tesla (a SW fix) and Customer Education Fix.

• Easy Entry
• Sit directly onto the bolster, and not slide into it from the side.

Contributing factors are:

• Polyurethane is not as strong as leather for abrasion (this makes me concerned about the Vegan Steering Wheels). I'd much rather prefer a leather option. 3rd Party is always an option.
• Larger bolsters (I like them so I don't suggest changing this)

This is exactly it. When I worked in the auto industry you'd get this concern from time to time, people saying their leather is faulty ect..

If somehow they got the manufacture to cover it, it would always reappear.

Its always how you get in/clothes you wear/perfumes/lotions/skin products that wear and soften leather/vinyl over time.

 

[Bill Foster]

Wouldn't this be covered under warranty?

Outside influence

 

[Tron 3]

I also wear a leatherman every day and noticed it snagging the lefthand side of the seat getting into it.
That prompted me to configure the easy entry position further back and now I don't even touch the side getting in or out. No wear, 10,000 miles.

 

[astrowunder]

I'm 5'8" ~160 lbs for reference.

I'm your exact height and weight. No damage at 25,000 miles

 

[Glamisduner]

It's likely your seating habits, similar issues show on lifted trucks without side steps because you have to slide out of the vehicle and you rub the bolster, both my previous trucks had this issue (although one is not lifted but it's higher up than the slightly lifted one I had).

Anyways, something I did right away as set easy entry so I would avoide excessive rubbing, and I'm careful when I get out too. I don't have any wear like that at 18k. This will eventually happen to leather seats too, but most are more durable than teslas (unless they are PU leather or something)