Crack in Drivers Seat Bolster

[Sam_100]

Hey RedlandA9X,

Any updates on your engagement with Holden?

Ever since I saw this post, I have been inspecting my seat for similar cracks. Today I hit the jackpot and sure enough a few small cracks in the seat bolster have appeared along the crease line. I went to a local motor trimmer and he quoted $330 to replace the faulty trim and also reinforce the foam underneath. He explained that the crack is a combination of the seat foam softening over time and the quality of the material not being up to scratch.
The car has done 72K and is a Nov 16 build. Annoying that its happened so soon or at all.

Noting the problems everyone has had with Holden, I'm likely to use the trimmer to repair the seat. Matching the vinyl will probably be harder so will probably get the vinyl on the whole base replaced. I will also purchase some vinyl from the batch used for the repair to have ready just in case the passenger seat decides to crack also.

I have looked online for a genuine replacement trim and its about $450. However the material will probably be of the same quality as what's in the car and will likely tear again. Either way it is going to cost money.

 

[RedlandA9X]

Hello Sam_100. I've escalated to Fair Trading and Holden have already sent a reply, but FT haven't contacted me yet, but I did receive Holden's response . This following is exact wording of their reply (from Customer Resolution Executive):

"The customer does not have a valid claim under the consumer guarantee provisions of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) as this issue is deemed part of wear and tear due to external influences and not a defect from manufacturing process or in the material. This was not an issue from factory, however, as a result of how the customer enters and exists the Vehicle (ingress/egress) compounded by the fact that it is the driver's seat and not any of the others"

LOL, I've checked the owners manual, and no mention is made of how to enter & exit the vehicle. I've subsequently checked some VF commodore advertising and can confirm that I enter the vehicle the same way that is shown in them. I open the door & get it. I open the door and get out. Maybe all this time I should have been doing the Dukes of Hazard method. anyway, how does Holden know how I get in and out of the vehicle, and boy it's the driver seat !!! wow. It gets used 100% of the time. In my case passenger seat maybe 30%, and rear seat 5%.

You'd want to check you warranty. A Nov 16 build probably was sold with a bonus 5 year/130,000km warranty so I'd expect your will still be under warranty as part of the EoY runout until Nov 2021.

I wouldn't replace with a genuine part, It will fail just like the original. I've check wreckers photos and can confirn seat cracking also. This is a common problem from my limited investigations.

Next step if FT fails (which from above Holden reply is unlikely) is NCAT tribunal with small claims.

Is your trimmer willing to write a letter with what his thoughts are ?

Holden: If you are listening. This isn't going away......

 

[mpower]

Hey RedlandA9X,

Any updates on your engagement with Holden?

Ever since I saw this post, I have been inspecting my seat for similar cracks. Today I hit the jackpot and sure enough a few small cracks in the seat bolster have appeared along the crease line. I went to a local motor trimmer and he quoted $330 to replace the faulty trim and also reinforce the foam underneath. He explained that the crack is a combination of the seat foam softening over time and the quality of the material not being up to scratch.
The car has done 72K and is a Nov 16 build. Annoying that its happened so soon or at all.

Noting the problems everyone has had with Holden, I'm likely to use the trimmer to repair the seat. Matching the vinyl will probably be harder so will probably get the vinyl on the whole base replaced. I will also purchase some vinyl from the batch used for the repair to have ready just in case the passenger seat decides to crack also.

I have looked online for a genuine replacement trim and its about $450. However the material will probably be of the same quality as what's in the car and will likely tear again. Either way it is going to cost money.

any small crack over time isn't what the OP is referring to.

 

[Skylarking]

Hello Sam_100. I've escalated to Fair Trading and Holden have already sent a reply, but FT haven't contacted me yet, but I did receive Holden's response . This following is exact wording of their reply (from Customer Resolution Executive):

"The customer does not have a valid claim under the consumer guarantee provisions of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) as this issue is deemed part of wear and tear due to external influences and not a defect from manufacturing process or in the material. This was not an issue from factory, however, as a result of how the customer enters and exists the Vehicle (ingress/egress) compounded by the fact that it is the driver's seat and not any of the others"

LOL, I've checked the owners manual, and no mention is made of how to enter & exit the vehicle. I've subsequently checked some VF commodore advertising and can confirm that I enter the vehicle the same way that is shown in them. I open the door & get it. I open the door and get out. Maybe all this time I should have been doing the Dukes of Hazard method. anyway, how does Holden know how I get in and out of the vehicle, and boy it's the driver seat !!! wow. It gets used 100% of the time. In my case passenger seat maybe 30%, and rear seat 5%.

Next step if FT fails (which from above Holden reply is unlikely) is NCAT tribunal with small claims.

Is your trimmer willing to write a letter with what his thoughts are ?

Holden: If you are listening. This isn't going away......

No mention of seats durability, their expected life span, how they were tested, or what logically lead them to conclude that it’s wear and tear.

Hahaha, these bright sparks at Holden think because there is no wear and tear on other seats that their product is durable? Did they consider that there would be no wear and tear on other seats if the vehicle is primarily used to go to and from work each day, with just the driver sitting in it? That maybe they don’t have kids jumping in an out of this vehicle multiple times a day because they have no kids, or because they have another family car? Doubt Holden would have asked about family life, number of vehicles in the family, usage of those vehicles, etc to differentiate wear and tear as against their product simply not being durable.

Regardless, as the commodore is a large family car, any normal person would expect the seats to be durable enough for the seat material not to crack and tear when it’s being used as a such. An their durability should be such that one doesn’t have issues well past warranty. If seats don’t last at minimum 10 years, there is something wrong in their materials and/or design.

As is, family cars can be used for multiple trips per day, with multiple entries and exits per day... they, by their use require extreme durability. Even their sports variants with large seat bolsters are used as family cars and as such must also cope with repeted entry and exit and the abuse that entails, otherwise they are either not durable or their use case is very different from that which the market expects... and last time I read a commodore brochures or looked at commodore advertisement, Holden never stated, wrote or implied that sport cars seats need to be pampered, since the bolsters on the “leather” seats are not durable. Holden has done nothing to alter market expectations that seats will be durable...

Quite frankly, using comparison with other seats to determine wear and tear would be tragic if it wasn’t laughable. FT should see past this and have advised you that their response is rubbish and why their response is rubbish. But FT often has less than skilled employees and their is regulatory capture and all that...

Hopefully when such is presented to NCAT the judge will see through Holdens rubbish statements. As to having a report, thats all well and good but you may need to have the report writer at the tribunal so the judge can question them... you‘ll have to pay your experts to attend unless the court clerk says the judge accepts calling them...

 

[Sam_100]

any small crack over time isn't what the OP is referring to.

My bad I should have been clearer. The tear/crack in my seat bolster is in the same place and length as the OP but not as pronounced. It just appeared the other day and expect it to get worse over time as the car is my daily driver. It's obvious that the materials used for the seats are not of a sufficient quality to last a sufficient period of time. Vehicle manufacturers (or at least when I worked at Ford engineering in the mid 90's) normally design/test the components in the cars to last approximately 8 years to minimise failures during the warranty period.

 

[vywgn]

Just had this appear in my 2015 built vf2 with only 85000km on the clock

 

[Skylarking]

... Vehicle manufacturers (or at least when I worked at Ford engineering in the mid 90's) normally design/test the components in the cars to last approximately 8 years to minimise failures during the warranty period.

Back in the 90’s we had 3 year warranties so if what you say was standard practice, designing something to last for 8 years seems like a smart way to reduce warranty claims and preserve ones product reputation.

Now we have 5 or 7 year warranties so if the same design practices exist, one would think they’d now design stuff to last 13 or 18 years

If seats on today’s vehicles, with their longer warranties don’t last, then such long life design principles would be even more ammo highlighting that Holdens seats are not as durable as similar products on the market thus failing to meet the statutory warranty as required by ACL...

 

[wetwork65]

Just had this appear in my 2015 built vf2 with only 85000km on the clock

I've just inspected the driver seat on my 2014 SSV that has just gone over 40k km.
Whilst it seems my cracking is at a different part of the seat, in the stitching at the base of the side back bolster at the exit side. And they look like ripping starting - are my cracks similar?

 

[vywgn]

I've just inspected the driver seat on my 2014 SSV that has just gone over 40k km.
Whilst it seems my cracking is at a different part of the seat, in the stitching at the base of the side back bolster at the exit side. And they look like ripping starting - are my cracks similar?

View attachment 215138

Cracking that we are seeing is on the bottom bolster to the left of your image

 

[wetwork65]

Cracking that we are seeing is on the bottom bolster to the left of your image

Thanks. Seems my cars are unaffected by this cracking.
I just have a slight compression crease on the doorside of the passenger base bolster on both cars. I had always blamed the width of my wife's posterior for those. Can't find a polite way to tell her