ventilated tan leather seats worn out after a few days

[Emanuel]

Hi guys,

I'm Emanuel from Germany and my father bought himself a brandnew Model S 90d. He ordered it right at the end of 2016 because free SC was going to end^^ He chose the tan leather seats in contrast to the black exterior color. He also added the premium package and got ventilated seats. The car reached Berlin on the 20th of May 2017.
A few days later the passenger seat already had two big folds/wrinkels on the seating surface and the driver's seat followed two weeks later. We have been to the service center already and they ordered new seats, but after reading some other comments/feedback on the ventilated leather seats I wonder if this is going to be a long term solution. I guess the seats are going to wear out again after a few days/weeks of usage and we will be unhappy again. The idea was to keep this car for a long period of time and we are still planning on it because it's a great car overall, but not with these seats.
Does anybody of you guys have some advice/experience/solution on our issue with the ventilated leather seats?

Thank you!

 

[Vern Padgett]

I searched on "ventilated seats" and found a few hundred posts in about 25 different threads, all concerned with ventilated seats.

 

[JasJ]

The new premium leather non-ventalited seats are not much better. This is picture of the 'replacement' seat I just received from service after complaining of numerous wrinkles with the delivered seat. This second seat is not much better. The service center suggested we wait for the next re-design and they will replace both front seats in our new MS. Crazy. I just want the new premium seat they show in the pictures and in the gallery storefront. No wrinkles at the start. These seats look like they are from a three year old vehicle and not one day old.

 

[X Fan]

White seats are the answer.

 

[pilotSteve]

White seats are the answer.

Agreed! Granted it’s only been 6 months and 12,000 miles but my late 2016 ultra white ventilated seats are perfect condition. And I love the ventilation in hot weather.

 

[Emanuel]

White seats are the answer.

Because they are not made out of this obviously too thin leather, right?
But I think they won't re-furnish our whole car with them

 

[Emanuel]

View attachment 235379 The new premium leather non-ventalited seats are not much better. This is picture of the 'replacement' seat I just received from service after complaining of numerous wrinkles with the delivered seat. This second seat is not much better. The service center suggested we wait for the next re-design and they will replace both front seats in our new MS. Crazy. I just want the new premium seat they show in the pictures and in the gallery storefront. No wrinkles at the start. These seats look like they are from a three year old vehicle and not one day old.

That is in fact crazy. Thank you for sharing your experience. I will keep you up with mine!

 

[Vern Padgett]

I'm sorry I got the leather seats. There were no ventilated seats available when I bought, a bit over a year ago. I'm thinking that fabric seats would have been better-- not so miserably hot?

 

[SMAlset]

Saying the leather seats are worn out makes it sound like the leather surface is rubbed off exposing the soft leather skin below. The leather instead is wrinkled. Each piece of leather is different because it is from individual skins of the animal and will react in its own way when stretched and sewn.

Leather clothing like skirts, pants, shoes even quality grain ones will sometimes develop wrinkles or cracks in them. This topic has been discussed in other posts. With a thinner soft leather I think it is something likely to appear. My Avalon's leather seats are made from a thicker leather and these have imperfections, more cracking or creasing.

 

[JasJ]

...it is something likely to appear....

Agree, but wrinkles should not show up in a few days from brand new (or in my case at delivery).

 

[Kurt'sX]

Recently had Service Center replace my tan leather ventilated drivers seat with 8K miles on it. Very bad wrinkle in the seat area.
They took 9 weeks to get the part in, and now its been about 500 miles of driving and the new seat is developing the same wrinkle.

Not sure what the solution is, but I have similar seats in my 10 year old Mercedes and they look like new. I was thinking of stopping in at my local upholstery shop and seeing what they think. Im wondering if it may be the foam under lay, or perhaps they just dont pull the seats tight enough during manufacture stage.

One thing I know for sure.....I paid $5k for the leather vented seat package and Im not happy with the results.

 

[aesculus]

Agree, but wrinkles should not show up in a few days from brand new (or in my case at delivery).

Some of this has to do with the humidity when it was built vs what it is for you now. If they gained a lot of moisture they can often wrinkle.

You might be able to get a upholstery shop to shrink the seats by applying heat to them and then before the moisture comes back treat them with a leather conditioner. I would not try this at home though.

 

[Mark Z]

When I first received Model X in 2015, there were a few wrinkles. My detailer said it was common with the finer quality leather used in high end vehicles. That information helped greatly and I enjoyed the quality of the seats!

The 2017 Model S is better, but I use a tan cotton jersey pillowcase from Target to sit on. It helps with color transfer and the seat bottom still looks like new. The perforated ventilation helps on hot days.

The worst perforated tan leather seat condition witnessed several months ago was a floor model at the Brea Mall. Wrinkled and dirty, the color transfer was visible from all the customers sitting in the Model S. I look forward to checking the seat wear of Model 3.