lesz

I suspect that what she meant was whether you have the standard leather or the semi-aniline leather. With a different level of suppleness and, perhaps, thickness of the leather, one or the other might be more prone to develop the issues that some are having.

Eagleguy

I went back and looked at the window sticker and as part of the"luxury Package" the seats are perforated-leather trimmed. I am guessing this is not the Nuluxe interior. I am also assuming the only leather in the seats is the perforated-leather...so is the rest of the seat Nuluxe?

Anyway, I will post what the dealer did with the car (they needed the whole day) when I pick it up on the 20th.

Mike728

Those are non semi-aniline, then. Does anyone have this issue with the Ultra Luxury (semi-aniline) seats? I have not noticed it, but I don't use the seat heater much. Just in case that's the root of the issue.

pherbst

To summarize the history of my seat issue- Originally the service adviser at my dealership decided that this wear was "Normal". He said he based this by looking at other 2013 ES 350s on their lot. (This sounds like the problem is pretty wide spread) I appealed to the dealership owner who said the same thing - "normal wear".

I then appealed to Lexus Customer Service who scheduled an inspection by one of their district personnel at my dealership. The inspection was last Friday. After looking at it, he agreed that to replaced the seat covers. He said that once they remove the covers its possible they may find an issue with the foam and if so that would be replaced as well.

We did discuss how hot the seat heaters got. He said that Lexus had received complaints about the previous model seats not getting warm enough so they increased the heat and now were receiving complaints about them being too hot. For the record, he measured the surface temperature of my seats at 90 degrees, which he said was normal. Also I had a theory about the heated seats being the cause of the problem with my seat covers. He said that the heating elements were in the middle of the bottom and the middle of the seat back and in the case of the seat bottom the element was not close to where we were seeing the indention's. He also said that the indention's were not the air channels for the seat cooling.

If anyone here does appeal to Lexus Customer Service at the 800 number ask for "Susan" she is the one who handled my case. If she gets enough complaints maybe Lexus will do some type of recall or something about this issue.

Lastly, when I took my car in for inspection, I was directed to take it to a specific service adviser (different than the one who denied my original request for replacement). This service adviser looked at my seats and immediately commented "that looks weird" indicating that he didnt' think this was normal. So it may pay to try a different service adviser if you get denied.

uncle

It is a sad commentary that all too often it is the customer's job make the dealer do the right thing. How often have you heard. "Its normal", "all of them do that", "its nothing to worry about", "someone must have done something wrong". The issue is these problems require an extra effort on the part of the dealer, and typically , they are not interested in going the extra mile. Maybe you will just go away.

Lexusxoxo

I have the Semi Aniline Leather and I use my heated seats ALOT!!
I have used my heated seats 3 hours straight several times.
I'm thankfully not having this issue..

bc6152

I wonder why that is. Even if the company agrees with the complainant that the seat is defective and will replace it, does the dealer have to supply the labor free? Seems that they (the dealers)take every opportunity to deny a claim. This incident is a perfect example. If it had not been pursued it would not have been corrected. Good job Pherbst!

Lexusxoxo

The dealer get paid for all warranty work. My Husband is a Service Manager and he welcomes all issues at this dealer.. Unfortunately he's not a Lexus Service Manager..
A lot of the time the customer wants work done that he knows his manufacturer will deny.
The manufacturer loves to say "it's a characteristic of the car".
Then it looks like it's "the dealer" saying no when really its the car manufacturer.

coach1

This was taken yesterday after setting overnight. My car has less than 6K miles. I have spoken with Lexus twice and explained these seats need better padding or the padding has already broken down. It appears I'm getting no where with our dealer or Customer Care. I asked for Susan and they said it was a big department and had no idea who that was.

lesz

That is a very good question. I know that, regardless of the kind of light, my seats have no shine to them at all. It makes me wonder if there is any possibility that, if some sort of dressing is being used on the seats, that dressing could be penetrating through the perforations in the leather and, then, causing deterioration of the padding in the seats. Especially, I would wonder if a silicone-based dressing could be causing damage to the padding.

LexBob2

It's just not a natural look IMO.

Eagleguy

I took my 2013 ES350 into the dealer and they were told by Lexus (I assume in California) to have the material in the drivers seat replaced and "tighten" the passenger seat material. The dealer had an local upholstery shop do the work. I got the car 3 days later but the guy working the service desk on Saturday had no idea what the upholstery shop did. The seats look much better but there is still a small indentation just below the head rest. I found the name of the upholstery shop and will contact them to try and find out exactly what they did to the seats. I plan to followup with service mgr to get more detail.

More info to follow.

Max707

Lexus has changed. Had a 1995 SC400 after a year had some minor wear on the drivers seat where the metal rivets on my jean rubbed when I got in and out.mentioned to service writer. They ordered a new seat.

Canesguy

I would have them correct the small indentation also. Might as well have them as perfect as possible.

coach1

I have received little satisfaction from Lexus Customer Care or the dealership. I viewed a number of 2013 & 2014 interiors on e-bay .... they all look the same, or much worse than mine. I also don't want an upholstery shop screwing them up any more. The seats are what they are and I don't think they can be improved upon other than a complete re-upholstery job.



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