Hello all,
I have a strange question for you XC90 people. I have a customer who has an XC90. It is has a tan full leather interior. The car has about 60,000 miles on it. It is 2 or 3 years old. The leather was recently cleaned for the first time and after the cleaning it appears that the leather dye has discolored on every single seat in the car in exactly the same pattern. That being where the seat back meets the seat bottom. When you clean it, the dye just keeps on coming out of the leather, but only in that exact spot on the seat. Nowhere else did it discolor. Nowhere else does the dye come out. There is precise cutoff between the "root beer" color and the tan color on every single seat in the car. The seats were all slightly discolored in that pattern before the cleaning, but the cleaning made it worse. The Volvo dealer claims it isn't their problem (no surprice there!!) I want to know what happened? Is this common, was there a recall or a bad batch of cars with poorly dyed seats? Any info or proof of anything would be most helpful. I must get to the bottom of this.

Thank you for your help!

 

I recently bought a used 2012 XC90 with tan leather interior. I have about 2,000 miles remaining on the original factory warranty. The leather is showing wear on the driver side part of the seat under where one's thighs rest. The color is wearing off in patches, but the leather is not torn or ripped. I think I have a good case for claiming a factory defect and not wear and tear. Does anyone have any advice for a strategy when the dealer tells me it's wear and tear, therefore not their problem? I don't see how a car that is less than a year old has leather issue like this unless the previous owner wore sandpaper trousers

Follow-up 12 June 13...Hendrick Volvo Kansas City offered to dye the leather. They noticed it had been dyed once before. I refused since that course of action did not work. I asked to speak with the Zone Manager and was told to call Volvo Customer Service. I called and entered a complaint and will wait to see their reply. I expected the dealer to take the path of least resistance, but I resented the comment "you bought it used" and "you should have bought the interior protection warranty" made to my wife. It's irrelevant if the car is used...it's defective under warranty. It was implied that because the car was bought elsewhere...it's your tough luck. Don't insult me with those phony dealer protection plans.No wonder Volvo is having a hard time selling cars with comments like this. More to follow...I'm like a dog after the mailman when it comes to issues like this.

 

Met with the Volvo Zone rep and he will only re-dye the leather. They're argument is someone else re-dyed the seats before I bought the car which voids the warranty. We continued to disagree over whether flaking and discolored leather is a defect or wear and tear issue. Volvo concedes this is an issue with light colored leather in XC90s. I'm not sure if I will win in Small Claims Court...I guess it depends on whether or not I get a car leather expert to make a statement in my favor. Also, I wonder if it's worth the hassle and the uncertainty of my claim. In the end, I agreed to try the re-dye one more time. I guess I'm not the dog after the mailman, after all.