New car purchase, sagging leather
Discussion
I'm looking at buying a 4 year old/40,000 mile Mercedes which is around 4 hours drive away from me. There are only 3 of this particular model for sale in the country so I'm not blessed with choice.
I had a video sent by the dealer (dodgy stills attached). The car looks in good condition, the only thing I can't see past is the drivers seat has a noticable sag in the base and some creasing to the right hand bolster. Having looked at a few of these cars already it doesn't seem to be a common issue.
I've read up a little on using a heat gun or some hot towels to try and shrink the leather back to original state. This particular model has genuine leather rather than the fake artico stuff, so this may work but how likely is it to then stretch again, or eventually lead to looking even worse?
I'm most likely going to hold out for another car, but it's frustrating as the car is otherwise the exact spec I'm after. I've not even told the dealer why I'm stalling yet as I don't want to be 'that' customer, and I'm aware they're not going to replace an entire seat on a 4 year old car.
I had a video sent by the dealer (dodgy stills attached). The car looks in good condition, the only thing I can't see past is the drivers seat has a noticable sag in the base and some creasing to the right hand bolster. Having looked at a few of these cars already it doesn't seem to be a common issue.
I've read up a little on using a heat gun or some hot towels to try and shrink the leather back to original state. This particular model has genuine leather rather than the fake artico stuff, so this may work but how likely is it to then stretch again, or eventually lead to looking even worse?
I'm most likely going to hold out for another car, but it's frustrating as the car is otherwise the exact spec I'm after. I've not even told the dealer why I'm stalling yet as I don't want to be 'that' customer, and I'm aware they're not going to replace an entire seat on a 4 year old car.
Got a pair of leather shoes handy? Look at the creases and folds on those.
Eventually leather stretches and creases, that's the nature of the stuff, and that's a moderately well-used 4 year old car.
You -might- be able to shrink it a bit using a steamer, but there's no guarantees that it won't just stretch again with 80+Kg of human sat on it for hours at a time, moulding the seat to the shape of their backside.
Not being rude, but I think you're maybe expecting new-car perfection on something that isn't.
Eventually leather stretches and creases, that's the nature of the stuff, and that's a moderately well-used 4 year old car.
You -might- be able to shrink it a bit using a steamer, but there's no guarantees that it won't just stretch again with 80+Kg of human sat on it for hours at a time, moulding the seat to the shape of their backside.
Not being rude, but I think you're maybe expecting new-car perfection on something that isn't.
shtu said:
Not being rude, but I think you're maybe expecting new-car perfection on something that isn't.
I think that's a fair comment, which is why I haven't made the point to the selling dealer. Other cars with similar age/mileage don't appear to have the issue though, so as it's bothered me to this point I think the only option is to avoid this particular car. I was just hopeful there was an easy fix that could make it look more presentable. I don't expect it to be perfect but it's a £30k plus car, shouldn't feel tired and worn as soon as I get it home.paul_c123 said:
Which model and spec of Mercedes is it? There's "cheap" leather and there's "decent" leather. The other possibility is the car is an ex-lease which has had a mileage blocker (so the lessee could take the cheaper lower mileage option) and actually has much higher mileage.
It's a GLB35 which I was lead to believe has 'proper' leather rather than the man-made stuff on the rest of the range, although I can't find anything online to back this up now. I'd be surprised if it's been clocked, it's still above average mileage for the model and the rest of the condition checks out.
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