Upholstery

[dave7268]

When you have a crash that writes off your car leaving in it in the scrappy, it probably does involve some staining of the drivers seat!

ROFLMAO!!! 

[dave7268]

Thanks for those links guys - sure appreciate that. 

I have blasted off an email to them with the photos to see what they say and hopefully get an estimate too.

Just sitting here in the house knowing what the seat is like is grinding on me. I'm not in a mad rush to get it sorted as I still have not been given the all clear by physio to drive, so whilst I am still using my dad as a taxi driver I shall hold off on either a repair or replacement 

[I wanted a GTi]

How old is the car? I had the same thing with the seat bolster on my GTD and it was covered under warranty. They had the car for two days but were fixing other stuff as well so I'm not sure how long was down to the fitting of the foam part in the seat but the guy that done it said he has done loads of them.

That was about 2k miles ago and it is starting to go again now. I have a bad back so have to kind spin around a bit before I get out. Did over 120k miles in my last car(CC) and the seats looked like new.

[kalimon]

I'm not convinced that the seats in the GTI will wear very well in general.
Also the material used to cover the door cards appears to have the durability of a pair of nylon tights

[Watts]

I'm not convinced that the seats in the GTI will wear very well in general.
Also the material used to cover the door cards appears to have the durability of a pair of nylon tights

I think the centre sections in tartan will hold up well but I too have doubts with the bolster/sides material.

To the OP, I feel for you, I'd be devastated, a bit pathetic given it's only a car but I would. Might be worth pushing VW on it as it should handle more than it has, pretty poor imho.

[dave7268]

Car is just over 3 yrs old so out of warranty by 4 months. I was thinking about going back to local dealer but to be honest I've found  they are pretty useless.

Got a reply from Auto Trim in Manchester who said this is a pretty common repair for them and quoted around £200 for the job (subject to the damage being assessed in the flesh).

This would be a repair of the damaged bolster (not a complete replacement of the whole seat part). They said, "we cut out the damaged foam and replace. But we also laminate the foam top and bottom to prevent this damage happening again"

Does that seem reasonable as I have never had to have this type of thing done before??

[Watts]

You don't get much for £200 these days so as long as the work is good, sounds good value to me!

[I wanted a GTi]

You don't get much for £200 these days so as long as the work is good, sounds good value to me!

I'd consider getting them to do mine in that case as I only have the problem with the side bolster so I would imagine it would be even cheaper.

[SRGTD]

You don't get much for £200 these days so as long as the work is good, sounds good value to me!

Yes, sounds like quite a good deal. If you got your dealer to replace the bolster and supply/fit new covers I'd expect the cost would be much more than £200.

Car is just over 3 yrs old so out of warranty by 4 months. I was thinking about going back to local dealer but to be honest I've found  they are pretty useless.

Unfortunately, I don't think it would be covered under warranty. VW's new car warranty is pretty limited on what they describe as wear and tear items, which would include seat covers. According to the warranty terns and conditions on VW's website, wear and tear items are only covered under warranty for the first six months or 6,500 miles, whichever is the soonest. Link to new car warranty terms and conditions below;

http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/owners/warranty/new-car/terms-and-conditions

[JoeGTI]

Bolstered seats don't take kindly to dragging / sliding yourself into them unfortunately. You kinda have to climb into them to avoid this kind of wear/damage, but unfortunately your Dad isn't fit for that. MK5/MK6 GTI seats were notorious for premature wear on the bolsters. They'd be in bits in no time if you weren't being fairly careful.... very common to see MK5/6 GTI's with holes in the bolsters.

VW would probably tell you that the whole seat cushion has to be replaced but a decent upholsterer / after-market leather fitter should be able to sort that without having to replace.

I'd also agree with what somebody else said above - the cloth seats, particularly the bolsters and the material on the door cards - is crap IMO. It's the main reason I'd personally spec leather / art velours in the car - the "pleather" you get on the door cards isn't wonderful either but at least it wears very well.