Nowhere for Jaguar to hide on leather quality
CASE STUDY Premature seat wear leads to questions over robustness of F-pace’s trim
IF the leather upholstery on your new car’s seats starts wearing prematurely, your clothing is either excessively abrasive or it’s simply a dodgy batch of trim. Either way, if the dealer is happy to rectify the situation under warranty, it’s probably not worth losing sleep over. But what if it keeps happening? Surely the maker can’t claim it’s ‘just one of those things’?
Reader Alex Christie said that was the response he got from Jaguar after his new F-pace needed its fourth driver’s seat cover in only 10 months. Alex, of Eye, Suffolk, explained to Auto Express: “Six or seven weeks after collecting the car last May, I saw what I thought were dirty marks on the leather of the driver’s seatback. On closer examination, I discovered the edge of the leather piping had worn.”
Supplying dealer Marshalls Jaguar of Ipswich arranged to replace the cover under warranty. But by November the trim had to be changed again – and in January, Alex noticed yet more wear. This time, he took the car to dealer HA Fox Norwich. Alex said its service manager contacted Jaguar about the quality issue and told him “Jaguar engineering was aware there was an issue and was working on a solution”. However, the marque encouraged Alex to have a fourth seat cover fitted, and he said customer services then told him “there is no fix in the pipeline for this issue”.
We called Jaguar to investigate, and its spokesman denied a wider issue existed. He said: “We’re not aware of a quality issue with the leather trim on this model. This is an isolated case.” However, a search of the owner forums revealed Alex wasn’t the only person having problems with the F-pace’s leather. One owner even claimed he’d been in touch with his dealer to hand the car back.
Jaguar’s spokesman then told us only that it would investigate Alex’s case further. He said: “Various teams are now looking into the leather that is used.” In the meantime, Alex asked what would happen when the car eventually ran out of warranty. The spokesman told us Jaguar would “consider any repeat issues with the seating” outside warranty, under its “comprehensive goodwill programme”.
“Search of owner forums revealed Alex wasn’t only person having problems with F-pace’s leather”