I have notice a pattern of small wrinkles or stretched leather in the drivers seat, right at the point were your bottom sits. I have seen the same exact thing in the pictures I have seen of other XJ's so this does not seem to be anything that is unusual.
This is not a big deal as the pattern of wrinkles have not grown in size and appear now to remain the same. I have only notice this with the drivers seat.
My question is, does anyone know why? I ecperience this same thing with the leather on the drivers seat of Hyundai Genesis 4.6. Many owners had the leather replaced or corrected but I left mine alone.
This condition was much worse with the Genesis than I am seeing with the Jag but I am just curious to know why I am seeing this in the Jag. I will say this, the leather of the two cars do seem to have the same feel and softness.

 

MHT, leather is just another form of fabric. When you sit on it, it pulls taut and is strained. This will cause it to stretch slightly and in the weak points, it will pull thin. This is your wrinkle that you are seeing. Unfortunately, there isn't much that you can really do about this other than either loose a lot of weight to minimize the amount of strain the seat sees, or replace the leather periodically to remove any leather that may have stretched.

 

Thank you, as I said it is no big deal. I have owned allot of cars with leather seats and the Jag and Genesis are the first cars that I have owned that I have seen this.
I have seen some other cars that have exhibited this but they are cars that have had at least a couple of years on them.
We have leather suede in the Malibu and after 8 years the seats still look like new, no wrinkles, nice and tight.
I will say this the Jag seats are comfortable and give ample support.

 

MHT, I bet if you look at the Malibu, when you sit in the seat, the edges of the seat curl in pretty good to minimize the amount of stress that is placed on the leather.

 

Good point and you are right, they do, I never gave that any thought. I knew when I saw pictures of the seat of other Jag's that had the same identical wrinkles located in the same area of the seat that this was not a problem but just a natural occurrence.

 

After 5 months I do not know that the wrinkles are any worse but it is just strange that it is only the drivers seat. I have notice that the drivers seat bottom has less padding than the other seats and am now wondering if this may be the root of the problem.
I sent some pictures to the service department and I am suppose to take the car in on Monday so that they can take another look.

 

I too have noticed that sitting in the driver seat it feels the base foam is thinner than the passenger side. It almost feels like sitting on the seat frame towards the rear of the seat cushion. I can't imagine why it would be though, so I put it down to more use/wear on the driver side as mine has done almost 100,000 miles now.

I have not taken the X351 seats apart, but I have worked extensively with the previous generation X350 and X200 (S Type) seats. There was no difference to the foam padding in those seats. Unless they have changed the process completely the leather will have rods or reinforced fabric sewn into the underside of the seams which are then tied to a wire framework cast into the foam cushion with little wire rings. Over time I could see how the wire could separate from the foam with heavy use as it is quite close to the surface. On my car the uncomfortably hard area is where there looks to be two seams quite close together.

Your original question was about the stretched leather. I've not seen any X351 more than a year old that does not have stretched leather either side of the central seam on the standard-design seats. Mine don't bother me enough to do anything about it yet, but typically you can reduce or remove stretches by steaming the leather in-place. There's a bit of a learned trick to it so you may want to get an upholsterer to do it. It is a technique used for restoring leather sofas and is not expensive.

Jaguar have issued guidance for the seat smoothing proceedure which shows the kinds of creasing that can, and cannot, be corrected. Often if a stretch is due to the leather stretching, rather than the fixing rings being in the wrong position, it can be improved.

 

I too believe heat or steam will correct it but if the padding is not corrected it will more and likely happen again. If they order a new seat bottom cover and it to is lacking in padding it will be the same results.
I more and less would just like to see what service says about this issue. For fear that a new cover will not match the covers that are in the car and the possibility that the new cover will have the same padding issue, I doubt if I would have the seat bottom cover replaced.
This is not something that I cannot live with as I had the same issue with a previously owned Genesis and where as some owners had the issue corrected I just left it alone knowing that I would not keep the car long.
It is just a little disturbing that this occurred after only a few months of ownership opposed to a couple of years.
I have seen pictures of other Jaguars that appeared to be fairly new with the same exact stretch leather wrinkles on the drivers seat.
Thank you for your response.

 

I took the car in this morning and after the service manager looked at the seat he said he would send the pictures to the Jaguar Rep. Whatever the decision I will be able to live with it.
It is surprising to me as to how hard it is to get something done under warranty. When I purchased the car there was a scratch on the cup holder cover, service had to pay to have it replaced.
Service had to pay to have the DRL's programed to come on. I have heard of some customers who paid $200.00 to have them programed. We are talking about a brand new car.

 

Are you using the seat warmers a lot? This can cause the leather to expand and contract and expedite leather wrinkles.

 

No, this will be my first winter in the car so the warmers have not been used.
I would say it is more like dimples located were your bottom would sit. It is not all that bad but I have never ever seen this before but on a 2010 Genesis 4.6. I have normally seen this with the leather seat of older cars.
In some cases Hyundai either repaired or replace the seat cover. Some owners reported the same issue after a short period with the repaired or new seat cover.
I choose not to have mine replaced as under the circumstances I felt I could live with. I have not heard back from the dealer and my guess is Jaguar will say it is normal and I will be ok with that.
I have seen several pictures of other Jaguar XJ's with the same dimples in the drivers seat and those cars too appeared only to be a few months old.

 

I spoke with the shop foreman today and he stated that Jaguar considers the leather condition on the drivers seat to be normal.
For those that do not care for the look Jaguar issued a proceedure to help lessen the apperance of these wrinkles. I am going to leave it alone as it is not that bad to where I cannot live with it.
I still believe the problem is the lack of enough cushion in the seat to keep the leather from stretching.