[Rav26]

Hello all,

Just took delivery of my Discovery Sport this afternoon - what a brilliant car!!

Overall I'm really pleased with it, but one thing thats been irritating me is a couple of creases in the leather of the centre seat/centre row (see photo). I understand that leather will never be perfect etc but for some reason I can't blame this on that. So I just wanted to find out if everyone's centre seat looks like that or am I just slightly unlucky?

I know it's minor but one would expect everything to be perfect in a brand new car!

Thanks.

 

[Triple7]

Yup, my rear row also has upolstry of similar condition. It's my centre armrest section which is poorly constructed compared with the rest of the car.

 

[KaikouraDiscoSport]

I noticed that leather is not as nice anymore as when Evoque was introduced. HSE lux more often creased because of 2 layers of leather applied

 

[rtdf]

I commented on the demonstrators leather seats not being brilliant, front passenger especially. Seen a few photos on the forum where they're not as good as could be. Thankfully mine arrived ok.

 

[Disco Oldenburg]

I've come across many new cars with really poor leather interiors. Lots of them are really only part leather and the leather being used seems pretty thick and not very soft. It doesn't go round bends too well.
I've used a special leather softener in some cases and have seen a proper expert remove creases using a hair dryer.
I think this shouldn't be attemted as a DIY job though. Could be better than having the dealer install a new seat cover with even more creases and badly matched colour.

Martin

 

[Rav26]

Thanks for all the replies.

Martin - was thinking the same thing i.e. whether it's worth getting the dealer to install a new seat cover or not. I'll see what he says - most likely I'm stuck with it in which case I'll get try getting it sorted professionally.

 

[Chippy]

The answer is simple. The cutting knives for the two leather sections are wrong resulting in incorrectly shaped parts and/or sewing of the two parts is not up to scratch.
I would strongly suggest that anybody with this or similar problems doesn't try to get it fixed privately but should go back to the dealer and raise an official complaint otherwise the seat manufacturer will never get to know that there is a problem.
It's true that the leather quality is not what it once was clearly down to cost savings on behalf of the vehicle manufacturers.
As a matter of interest I spent years in the leather industry supplying only to vehicle manufacturers.

 

[slider]

Its not the cutting knives its the patterning of the seat..think dress makers patterns...the patterns have been designed and laid out by a pretty poor trimming specialist, it is a very skilled job/process to pattern a seat and sadly its a trade which is going the way of many of the old skills.
For the record I spent some 30 years in the automotive seating industry working for the largest seat manufacturer in the world...the rear seat are basically crap from a trimming point of view, mine are lousy to say the least, however for those of you who have creases watch some of them disappear when the heat gets on them.....I would guess that the manufacturer has made a bold move to remove or reduce the 'steaming operation' at the end of line.....always a target for the value analysis engineers....result = crease

Anyway....they (the seats) could be improved and I am sure that JLR engineers are kicking the supplier...

One day in the summer if I get chance I will retrim mine but as its the patterning I wont be be to do too much..

 

[Chippy]

Understand you slider. Agree with you that the skills are being lost and about the steaming or lack of at the end of the process. But in my humble opinion there is also a lack of skill these days in the manufacture of the knives as well and I've seen enough cases of this leading to such problems. But we don't need to start a big discussion here on that issue or we'd be here for ever.

Also begs the question what has gone wrong the seat suppliers final QC or are cost restraints here such a hig problem these days. I guess so.

At the end of the day if it were me I'd still go back to the dealer and complain but I don't have the problem.

 

[DiscoDave]

I have to agree, I haven't got this problem on my BMW. The rear seats in ours don't look perfect as I would expect.

 

[swarwi]

Hi,

if it helps, we have this on the back side of the passenger seat, i decided to live with it as was super excited to get the car, but am now regretting that as its the first thing that catches my eye.

 

[Rav26]

Thank you for all the comments. For what it's worth, I have complained and will be taking the car in for LR to look at. Will let everyone know what the outcome is.

 

[DiscoDave]

Did the same... going to STEAM the rear seats.
Everyone I have seen have poor rear seats. Even the car in the showroom looked bad.

Lets see what the can do with that.

 

[jwunda]

Thank you for all the comments. For what it's worth, I have complained and will be taking the car in for LR to look at. Will let everyone know what the outcome is.

Hey Rav26, how did you go with the dealer on the crease? I too have a crease in my centre seat, centre row and would be interested to know if there was a resolution.

 

[Geordie]

EVERY car I have looked at in showrooms has the seat creases in one place or another. Coming from a 5 series where the leather has been perfect on the last 3 cars, and noting the RRE's in the showroom are noticeable better quality. As mentioned above, it looks like the original templates may be wrong or shortcuts on the finishing/heating?

Anyone got perfect seat leather?

 

[Chippy]

I complained about the workmanship on my seats when I collected the vehicle a couple of weeks ago. The dealer undertook to pass my complaint on to LR Germany.

Apparently the dealer has an answer from LR and I'm visiting him on Monday to see what they are going to do about it. I'll "report back" to the forum.