V90 - R-Design Leather Seats - Failure

[IMQuinn]

Hello

Has anyone else had issues with the side supports and or their leather seats?

I have a V90 R-Design which, after 2,500miles, has shown significant wear on the sides. Now, and I must recognise this, Volvo have agreed to a one off replacement, not under warranty, but I am concerned that this will just happen again, the attached photo's were taken at 2,500miles, the covers were replaced today at 5,842miles and were a lot worse, should point out this happened on both the driver and passenger front seats.

Right now I am talking with Volvo about this, they say its damage caused by getting in and out of the car and therefore not a warantable issue... I maintain the car and the seats should be designed to handle people getting in and out of it, otherwise its not designed for the purpose its intended, unless you can float in and out or use the sunroof (which we don't have)!

It seems that the parts and labour are about £1300 per change, for both seats, so I am looking at a £29k (circa) bill over 60K miles if I keep changing the seat covers at 2,500 miles.

Thoughts or input would be helpful as I progress with talking to Volvo.

[Jimrod]

That's pretty terrible, like you'd expect on a car that hadn't been cared for with 100k+ and 10 years+ old!

Surely Volvo can see that's a problem, especially since they're renowned for their seats!

[berrymanuk]

Originally Posted by Jimrod

That's pretty terrible, like you'd expect on a car that hadn't been cared for with 100k+ and 10 years+ old!

Surely Volvo can see that's a problem, especially since they're renowned for their seats!

I'm fairly certain Volvo would be interested in things like this .. the drivers who run the cars into the ground would have picked this up during testing and VCG wouldn't let it get to market in that state.

Did a dealer tell you this isn't warranty, or did you speak to VCUK directly?

[Whyman]

That's awful both the condition of the seat and the attitude of Volvo.

Are they expecting you to live in the car?

Climbing in and out is part of the basic use of the vehicle and the seats should be able to handle this.

[IMQuinn]

Originally Posted by berrymanuk

Did a dealer tell you this isn't warranty, or did you speak to VCUK directly?

Volvo Customer Care UK have told me its not warranty.

Some sound bytes from the email from Volvo Customer Care:

"no evidence of a defect claimable under warranty"
"it is most likely that this damage is being caused when getting in/out of the car"
"Should it re-occur however, we would not be able to cover again"

[berrymanuk]

Originally Posted by IMQuinn

Volvo Customer Care UK have told me its not warranty.

Some sound bytes from the email from Volvo Customer Care:

"no evidence of a defect claimable under warranty"
"it is most likely that this damage is being caused when getting in/out of the car"
"Should it re-occur however, we would not be able to cover again"

have you tried reaching out to VCG Customer Care in Sweden?

Global CR
0046 31 325 0077
gcem@volvocars.com

Would be interesting to see if you get any different feedback.

[IMQuinn]

I have not, but I will give Volvo UK a few more attempts to resolve this before I escalate it.

However I am grateful for the contact details.

[cassell]

That's not good, however it's not unusual either.

My wife has a 2014 Toyota Auris Excel Tourer with similar styled sports seat side bolsters to the R Design V90 and she too has almost identical wear to yours on the driver's seat leather.

Toyota also rejected a warranty claim as the wear started to become evident after just a few months. To be fair it hasn't seemed to get much worse since then and I've now taken to applying some black leather colour dye and conditioner gently to the area when cleaning the car interior. Not ideal on a car costing £26k, even worse on a Volvo costing a lot more.

I'm glad I bought a V90 Inscription and not an R Design now!

[MiniNinjaRob]

My 20 year old 940 CD has full leather seats and there is virtually no wear to them after 185000 miles.

Yours is simply not acceptable.

[soupytwister]

Here's my Apr 2017 XC90 R-Design with 2200 miles on the clock - and it does a fair few short journeys and I'm a big guy so it gets squashed around a bit!! I do consciously enter & exit the car by not trying to "squash" the seat bolster though as I'm a bit paranoid it goes like yours. No, you shouldn't have to exit the car like that, but you know....