03 Lexus GX470 detail... damn carpets!!

SilverLexus said:
Still for $150K+ I would want to have wire grills bent by hand in England. That's my point.
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The "$150,000+" is what made me mention Mercedes as they have at least one model that exceeds that, and I do not think the parts are hand crafted as you hoped they would be with the $150,000+ Bentley.
 
Lee- I was feeling the sides of the lseats in my car today as a result of this discussion (my fiance thought I was nuts, sitting at a stoplight feeling up the sides of the seats) and you're right, its a very high quality material. In fact it might just be softer than the leather itself!
 
wow.. u guys are really passionate about your toyota/lexus seats... :D :rofl :lol



i wonder if my seats have vinyl? anyone wanna analyze them?
 
About the vinyl, from what I understand, it was more of a wear issue and customer complaints that the industry shifted to mixed leather/vinyl combinations. For high end vehicle that are seldom driven, having full leather is fine. However, for a daily driver, the leather would wear extremely quickly in the "high traffic" areas of a seat.



So the cushion, head rests etc would remain fine while the seat bolsters would crack, split and dry out quicker. Hence the decisions to use a more durable product.



Remember, we are a minority here that really spend time taking care of vehicles. 99% of the people don't care, lack the knowledge to maintain true 100% leather. Even those that care, it can be a problem. I remember a girl on the board how drove a beautiful Audi TT (blue with very light beige leather interior) and in no time flat, jean marks where happening on her seats!
 
paco said:
About the vinyl, from what I understand, it was more of a wear issue and customer complaints that the industry shifted to mixed leather/vinyl combinations...
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Nah, it was all about the money to be saved. Your seats are only warranted between 1 and 4 years (depending on brand) with the majority being the 1 year warranty. Although leather might be a $2,000 option try replacing an entire cover from the OEM. I fixed a guys BMW drivers cushion for him (by replacing the damaged panel) for $100 but the dealer wanted $2,000 just for the ONE seat cover!



A little change (reduction of ¼" of cloth per seat) amounts to a lot of money with the volumes that the car industry deals with. Part of my job was to generate cost saving proposals. With Honda volumes of 200,000 cars per year (on 4 door alone) and that my change might go across the board to the 2 door and maybe even back to Japan for cars made there and sold elsewhere our typical cost savings target was $10 million per YEAR.



If you are familar with old and new style Jeep Grand Cherokees in the early 90's the seats had a very pillow appearance. I changed the design in 93 or so to a flatter appearance which reduced labor and amount or leather required and allowed use of a less expensive foam substrate. That alone saved Jeep $6 million a year.
 
Autoeng,



So we have you to blame then! I'd personally rather pay an extra $1,000 per vehicle and have a much better grade plastic, leather etc. The new Mazda 3 is an awesome value but the freaking carpet and plastic in the vehicle is just bloody aweful. To the point where I wouldn't buy one (my mother did).



I guess the general population is less concerned with interior quality as the 3 is selling unbelievable numbers of them, hence why you can get away with it. :down
 
Nope, can't lay the blame on me. The OEM's issue their cost reduction requirements to the suppliers and the supplier makes proposals to meet the requirement. It's up to the OEM to accept or decline the proposals.
 
At the same time, isn't part of the problem with the OEM's killing the supplier market in the US/Can as they continually bring down the quality/cost and causing suppliers to not have a sustainable profitable business model.



In a way, are the suppliers not shooting themselves in the foot but continually decreasing the quality of the end product and producing poor quality/low margin/high volume products. :rolleyes:



If customers are willing to buy the vehicle with poor materials I would understand but if you looking at the decline sales figures, it's probably worth OEM improving their products rather than cutting quality to improve margins.
 
Excellent point Paco but you could actually push the drive for reduced cost parts to the consumer. The consumer, as a stockholder of the OEM, requires better profits. We're shooting ourselves in the foot.



I've done it myself. I receive my 401K statement and say "that fund didn't do well enough, I'm going to move my money into another fund". I just sold my stock in and OEM which reduced their value which required that they reduce cost to stay profitable.
 
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Whoa!!!



Nice work, that color cleans up nice!
 
Lee- I was feeling the sides of the lseats in my car today as a result of this discussion (my fiance thought I was nuts, sitting at a stoplight feeling up the sides of the seats) and you're right, its a very high quality material. In fact it might just be softer than the leather itself!
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LOL. I did the same thing yesterday. On the left side of my seat there is a vinyl-like material but on the upper left side, they are using real leather from what I can tell.



I'm sure it is a mixture of cost savings and durability factors. Even so, as long as it is done well, it is very hard to tell. In my black interior you cannot tell the leather from the vinyl without touching the seat. :xyxthumbs
 
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