I have now had my new Lexus TX 350 Luxury AWD for 4 weeks. I have just over 1,000 miles on the odometer. Today, when I folded down the 3rd row seats (from the rear of the car), the left seat had a hump up under the fabric on the right-hand side of the seat, toward the seam. I was able to flatten it manually, and I could hear what sounded like cheap, plasticky crap as I did so. When I raised the seat, the left seat was binding in the seam, this time toward the left side of the seat. Again, I was able to iron this out manually. I am not trying to be inordinately negative, but I would lay even odds that there will be a systemic failure of these seats that will result in most of them having to be repaired or replaced under warranty.

In addition to this, the fabric on the 3rd row seats seems to be of very low-quality. I am awaiting a cargo cape that I ordered to try to avoid excessive wear on the fabric, but it is already showing significant wrinkling from the few times that I have raised and lowered the seats thus far. We own a 2008 RX that we bought new, and the fabric in the back is still in real good shape (we take lots of road trips with lots of gear, and have 170 thousand miles on the RX). Besides the cheap, plasticky mechanisms in the 3rd-row seats, and the poor quality fabric, I am also not crazy about the way they used loose fabric between the steering wheel and the dash. I don't think that will wear well either, and none of my other 6 Lexus vehicles have had anything like that between the steering wheel and the dash.

 

Are you talking about the fabric on the back of the seats? I bought canvasback liners for them and they make a world of difference.

highly respected among the 4Runner community and I’m not disappointed

 

The fabric is one of the problems. The other is that the seat does not fold up/down properly. In the down position, there is a hump that seems to be caused by loose plastic housing.

I'll check out the canvasback liners.

 

yeah, check them out. the fabric on the back of the seats is really cheap feeling. nothing like the stuff I have had in my last 6 german designed vehicles. I got the trunk/3rd row and 2nd row seat back covers and they are really really nice.

sorry to hear you're having other issues with the seats folding. I used the 3rd row 2 weekends ago for the first time and had no issues...

 

Thanks. I'm curious as to why Lexus went with such a cheap feeling fabric. It reminds me of the 70s, when car makers really started cutting corners.

 

no idea. it's not an inexpensive car either. first time with a japanese car since a subaru in 2011 and that was actually a pretty nice car especially for the money. the canvas back stuff is really a lifesaver if you use the car to haul stuff. I have ski gear live in it all winter and golf stuff all summer and it makes a huge difference. I also run a weathertech mat just in the trunk as well.

 

We have the same problem with the back left seat. It appears that something plastic has broken underneath the carpet.

 

I just had mine fixed. They replaced both 3rd row seat back assemblies.