Butt Impressions in Leather Seat
 

I'll have to take a photo, but I'm getting fairly obvious butt impressions in my driver's seat with only 12,000 miles on my F54. I have Cross Punch Leather.

I only weigh 145 lbs and my sister and wife say I don't have a butt, but there are indentations in my seat. I have photos of other cars that I've owned with leather seats (nearly all of them) and they never formed similar impressions. (For example, an Alfa GTV6 with 117k miles, a BMW Z4 with 50 k miles, a BMW 335 with 75 k miles, and an Alfa 164 with 95k miles all had leather and none formed butt marks in the seats).

I'll post some photos tonight, but does anyone else notice this? It's not horrible yet, but with only 12,000 miles, I'm wondering how bad it may get.

Ok, here's a photo. It was still dark out so it's a lousy shot, but don't you agree that's quite a dent for only 11,000 miles. Does anyone else have the cross punch leather, and do you have similar dents already? As I've said, this has never happened in any of my other cars so it really can't be blamed on an anatomical anomaly.

Those do seem a little much. Maybe the leather would benefit from some proper conditioning to bring back its 'springy-ness'

Do you sit with your knees kind of high...do the back of your thighs touch the front of the seat? Seems like that would alleviate some of the 'butt-force' LOL. Maybe the front of the seats dont tilt up enough?

Warranty repair, probably need new foam or whatever fill they use. My F56 with Cross Punch doesn't look like that.

That doesn't look right at all. My 2007 MCS had leather seats and they didn't look like that after 7 years. Maybe a slight indentation (I weigh 160 lbs) but not like that.

FAIL:nod:!

Thanks guys. I agree, I think this is a warranty issue (for the car's seat, not MY seat). I'll talk to my dealer.

Let us know what they come back with, that certainly doesn't look right. My Subaru with 10+ years and 111,000 doesn't show that kind of indentation on the driver's seat. Yikes!

Aside, is leather worth it in MINIs? I have leatherette. I surprisingly do not dislike it, and it still looks brand-new. It's much better than the leatherette in my 2005 MC. Just sort of wondering if I'd go for leather in my next MINI.

As a guy who sells automotive leather and vinyl I can say that in a lot of cases you can't really tell the difference. As I'm sure you know many manufacturers have been piecing together vinyl and leather in one application for years. For example in another vehicle I had the bolsters were vinyl but the seat was leather. The biggest difference between the two products is temperature - vinyl will not conform to ambient air temperature in the same way as leather therefore, vinyl seats tend to be warmer and colder for longer periods of time than true leather. Otherwise, durability will be almost identical if not perhaps better depending on how you treat your interior.

MINI leatherette is very good, only reason I have leather is I bought used. Wouldn't pay extra 1500 for it.

I miss good cloth seats. My last car with cloth was a 2002 Jetta wagon with the black velour. Only drawback was the lint it attracts but it was really soft and comfortable. In fact, Audi and BMW used to put that in as standard...at least in Germany they did. I had a buddy with a 635CSI that had it and another one with a new (at the time) 100-Quattro with the dark blue velour. Much more pleasant than leather.

I had the foam and leather cover replaced under warranty. The foam was collapsed and the leather was stretched. I have about 200 miles on the new seat, and the dents are already forming again! I had a loaner for a week, and it had vinyl seats. Those seats looked fine and didn't show any signs of wear. I'm assuming that (for some reason) the leather seats have a different type of foam, but the dealer hasn't confirmed that yet.

I can't be the only one who is experiencing this. Anyone else out there with leather, please tell me how your seats look. Thanks.

When they replaced your seat cover, was it tight or did it seem slightly loose? I had my drivers leather seat cover replaced under warranty and it looked loose from the start. I asked the dealer about this and was told that the leather tightens up after use. (I thought that was a crock of s**t but they replaced the cover under protest so what could I do). If it doesnt seem to fit really tight right from the start, it will indent to some extent.

More than 1 year. Same seats.

Wow! That's hard to believe. Mine is far worse than that after two weeks (on the new seat). The strangest thing is that the same thing is happening to my new seat. I can understand if I just got a defective one, but to have the exact same thing happen to my car, but not yours is quiet difficult to explain.

Do you have butt warmers and power seats? I'm trying to isolate variables.

Looking here...
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=52_3984

...it seems that the part number for the foam padding may be different depending on the butt warmers and power seat adjustment, but the foam may still be the same. I suspect that most cars don't have power seats, so maybe that is the variable? I don't know (seems odd), but there has to be something unique about my car. Actually, I can see in your photo that you have power seats. So now I'm stumped again. Do you have the butt warmers?


Thanks for posting.

P.S.
Time to vacuum! :)

Yup. Both power and heat.

Dog hair gets everywhere even if the dogs don't go for a ride!

That first photo doesn't look right. I had the leather sport seats in my 2007 MCS and they didn't look like that when I traded it in in 2014. There might have been a very small indentation but not like that at all. And they were not heated.

Hmmmm, so the only variables are having a dog in the car and perhaps anatomical differences. I think it must be the dogs...