Greetings all! The ARMY had me away for a while... but now I'm back. And good to see the RX8 community alive and jumping! Anyway, to the subject at hand. I posted about this problem I have sometime ago and I definitely still need some advice/guidance. From the get-go when I got my 8 back in Oct '03, I noticed some wrinkles or lines on the black trim of my red/black seats.

I've tried to get the dealership to fix this issue, but they seem to care less about it. Once they gave me "it's just normal wear & tear," which would be acceptable.... if it were on MY seat. But it's on the passenger seat, where there's hardly anyone ever there (or the rest of the seats for that matter). Long story short, I came here to ask you guys if you have this happening to your 8's!! I love this car (my first new car) and I want to keep it for 10 years. But this issue with the seats makes it look 10 years old already. Not zesty. Take a look... and thanks for responding guys/gals.

Also, any idea how I could go about getting this fixed??

 

That looks normal to me, then again I've never had a car with leather seats. Have you before this one ?

 

Hey how did you get that in your Signature?

 

Looks pretty normal to me. I wouldn't stress over this too much. Leather and trim are not cookie-cutter, pre-fab items (or at least shouldn't be). If you get cracks or something like that, different story. But it appears that you're not there yet.

 

Off another car site somewhere

 

RX8Alex,


Looks normal to me also. My interior is the same. I would recommend conditioning the leather once every couple of months. Maybe more freq with more used seats.

I would'nt worry about it. Hey, check out you driver side bolster. I posted a thread here before, mine is splitting!!

- Irish

 

Its normal, but you can help slow it down by getting into the seat better - plop your butt down in the center and not rub across the sides.

 

You can see a few in mine. The folds in the material tend to be by the doors than the center console since the center area doesn't get pushed in or folded when you sit in the car.

Also, I think the part that you're worrying about isn't made out of leather

 

It's not. It some rubber/vynil compound!!

Irish

 

Well the dealer won't do anything having to do with normal wear and tear. Which is what you have there. Looks normal to me. All the leather/vinyl I have ever owned did the same thing.

 

^ What he said. It's a pliable material, so it's going to show wrinkles, etc.

 

Hmm... the other side of the bolster looks smooth but the side you are talking about is wrinkled.

 

I don't think it looks normal to me. And as you show in the pictures all the other seats don't have it. On mine they all have just a little bit of it but nothing like that. I would call MNAO and demand that someone take a more serious look at it. Make the point that if it is going to crack in the future it would be on the spots that are wrinkling and you don't want to have replace something that should've been covered under warranty. You may want to explain to MNAO your disappointment with the dealerships response. Hope this helps.

 

You should probably get that bolster checked out... doesn't seem right to me. As for my seats... it's the rubber/vinyl trim that's wrinkled and look tearable. I don't think leather conditioners would help much.

 

I would be willing to bet there isn't one of you with factory leather and over 5,000 miles on your car and not have any of those folds. Any chair that is used is going to have this, unless you are able to get into the center of your seat without touching anything else. Difficult on a low sports car.

As I said, it happens on the side of the chair closest to the door because that is the part you sit on/push against as you get into the car. Same with the upper area of the chair, but to a lesser degree.

 

93rdcurrrent,

Thanks for the advice. I'll be working on that and hope MNAO cares enough to do something! My thoughts exactly though... a few light wrinkles might be expected. THIS however is equivalant to a 10 year old car with leather interior being parked out in the sun for ages. I'll have to give them a call! Thx.

 

JHamilton,

Appreciate the response. But I generally plop squarely into my seat. The damage shown however is on the Passenger's seat... which I find extraordinary because that seat is empty 90% of my drives. When my girlfriend is present though, both our butt's are small enough to fit nicely into the chair without putting much weight onto the black trim. These wrinkles are a pain in the *** mystery!

-Alex

 

Do you have any pics of that seat from when the car was newer?

Even with little use, I think the seat can have these wrinkles. My wife doesn't ride in my car all that much and her chair is similar.

 

My experience with this type of wrinkling is usually associated with people getting out of the car. They scooch to the edge of the seat and the ensuing rocking/mashing from them trying to propel themselves up and out causes this stretching. Yours is the worst I have seen though and if you rarely have passengers then it would seem excessive.

I would talk to an auto upholsterer to see if there is anything they recommend to reduce the current and prevent further wrinkles.

 

I have 14k miles on my car and my driver seat has some minor wrinkles in the vinyl trim. Nothing of course that looks like yours. I hope MNAO is taking care of you. Let us know what happens.