I've seen this on almost every mini I've looked at, and It's already started on mine even though I've only had the rear seats folded down a couple of time. When you fold the rear seats down, the receiving end of the seat belts dig into the seat, permanently flatterning the padding, and digging into the leather. What can be done to avoid this or at least to limit it? I've had the seat down twice and there is already the standard dent.

 

I haven't noticed this on my leather seats. Do you have a pic?

 

Mine has done it but if you take your finger and smooth the leather back out after you put the seats up it will go away.

 

I'll throw up a pic when I get home, but the rear seatbelt female ends dont sit flush with the base of the seat, so when the top folds down the corners of the female seatbelt end digs into the folded down seat. Any weight added only makes it more pronounced. thanks for the quick responses, pics to come.

 

I had this problem. You can alleviate it some by pushing the seat belt catches down into their nests. They do recede a little. Then I laid a couple folds of blanket across the seat. Not a perfect solution, but good.

 

Same problem on my car. Seats are in the down position usually one time per week for about an hour and there is an indentation after 8 months.

 

Well, I've got a spanking brand new convertible, and have transported my bulldog on the folde rear seats a grand total of 4 hours, and there are two large dents on the seat backs. Not good. I'm going to try some of the methods talked about here, but it seems as though they could have engineered the latches/catches to tuck away.

 

I just pull out the rear seat bottom cushion out and it's a nice flat surface to load up the rear.

 

On the hardtop if you just take the removable boot cover / shelf off it and place it on the seats (it custom molded to fit only one way) before folding down the seats I think you will find that you don't get seat belt dents.

Try it!

 

Thanks for posting this. I am sure a lot of owners don't even realize this happens before it's too late.

I didn't notice after I had my seat down for a day or so but luckily there wasn't much pressure and it didn't really hurt it. I wouldn't have thought to put it back up unless I read this thread!

 

Is this a problem only with those who have leather seats, or does it also affect coopers with cloth seats?

 

I am not sure what qualifies as "cloth seats" but mine are leatherette with the mesh areas and I am pretty sure it would affect it permanently if significant pressure were applied.

 

Hmmm - '09 convert doesn't have one of those - may b I can buy one

 

i put a folded up blanket on that area of the seat when i fold it down and i don't get marks unless i put a larger amount of weight on it. even then the leatherette goes back to normal shape after a few days.

 

thanks kb - good suggestion. i'll try a blanket or even a stadium seat cushion...it's really just that small section that gets the dent.

 

I have used the towel method with my golf clubs in the back and it seems to reduce it, hard to tell if its helping completely since there is still some marking from before I realized how bad the probelm was. If they had engineered the seatbelts to be flush or even recessed into the seatbottom a bit it wouldn't be an issue at all. Easy fix, sometimes you wonder if any of these engineers spend any time driving these cars. I am going to give this a try though, not sure I can picture how it is going to work, You mean the flap that covers the boot on the hard top to "hide" items from view right?

"On the hardtop if you just take the removable boot cover / shelf off it and place it on the seats (it custom molded to fit only one way) before folding down the seats I think you will find that you don't get seat belt dents.È

 

Ditto on the blanket or towel.... We use a heavy black bath towel (folded) to cushion that part of the seat. Since we keep the seat down all the time, it works great. I check the seat when I clean the interior and so far so good. Basically we treat our MCS as if it were a two seater.

 

I have the same issue on my 09 MCS....
I had noticed this issue from the beginning, thankfully!

 

Slightly off topic...anyone notice that you hear more road noise with the rear seats down?

 

Yeah, it's the same with any car that has folding rear seats...