A new EV forum = The inevitable Bolt EV seat complaint thread!

God/Bacardi said:
...A fair solution is to have a campaign that advertises current MY17 owners can buy the new seats at cost...find a way to charge seat swap labor as a warranty work...
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You seem to be suggesting that Chevy dealerships might do this; at least, I can't figure out any other way for the labor to be paid for under "warranty work".

Is there any precedent for this? I'd love to think that this might be possible, but based on my admittedly limited knowledge of the auto industry, I seriously doubt that any legacy auto maker would authorize such a thing. To qualify under "warranty work", Chevy/GM would have to admit there was a fault in the seats, wouldn't they? I don't see that happening. If they did admit that, then they would have to replace them under warranty at zero cost to the buyer. Is there any precedent for a "meeting the customer halfway" measure of selling them a new part for the car at cost and doing a replacement without any labor fee for the customer? I know there have been individual cases where the auto maker will waive a fee as a "good will" gesture, but I've never heard of such a thing offered to every buyer of a car from a major auto maker such as Chevrolet.

I can easily believe a smaller auto maker, perhaps Rolls-Royce or Ferrari or Tesla might do that, to maintain their very high reputation; but I can't see Chevrolet doing such a thing. However, I'd love to be proven wrong!
 
They (the seats) really aren't very good and I say that having set my expectations low. Bolsters are too hard, and the seat is too narrow. I'm used to firm bolsters in sporty cars, but at least the seat is wide enough for your butt to fit into. It's like these seats were designed to fit a 12 year old boy.

Other than the seats, I love the car, and seats alone were absolutely not a deal-breaker for me. Part of the reason I leased my Bolt is because I knew i could live with the seats for a few years, but also knew that I didn't want to commit to them long-term and that there would likely be other EV options in a few years.

I argued with somebody a while back that this would not be an advertised change (vs a running change). Not sure why people expected some grand announcement that the "terrible seats of 2017" were going to be replaced with better seats for 2018. Unless there is a safety issue with the 2017 seats, you won't see any type of service bulletin or "exchange program" for 2018 seats. Just not going to happen.
 
JeremyK said:
Not sure why people expected some grand announcement that the "terrible seats of 2017" were going to be replaced with better seats for 2018.
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I wasn't expecting any "grand announcement" of improved seats for 2018. I was certainly hoping for a mention of something like "Wider front seats" or "a change to front seat padding" included in a list of changes for model year 2018. I agree that Chevrolet would not want to publicly admit to a problem with the car for which it isn't going to issue a recall, but announcing an improvement doesn't require the company to admit there's a fault with the older model.
 
Pushmi-Pullyu said:
You seem to be suggesting that Chevy dealerships might do this; at least, I can't figure out any other way for the labor to be paid for under "warranty work".

Is there any precedent for this? I'd love to think that this might be possible, but based on my admittedly limited knowledge of the auto industry, I seriously doubt that any legacy auto maker would authorize such a thing. To qualify under "warranty work", Chevy/GM would have to admit there was a fault in the seats, wouldn't they? I don't see that happening. If they did admit that, then they would have to replace them under warranty at zero cost to the buyer. Is there any precedent for a "meeting the customer halfway" measure of selling them a new part for the car at cost and doing a replacement without any labor fee for the customer? I know there have been individual cases where the auto maker will waive a fee as a "good will" gesture, but I've never heard of such a thing offered to every buyer of a car from a major auto maker such as Chevrolet.

I can easily believe a smaller auto maker, perhaps Rolls-Royce or Ferrari or Tesla might do that, to maintain their very high reputation; but I can't see Chevrolet doing such a thing. However, I'd love to be proven wrong!
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I'm entirely unsure with if there's any precedent...If I could make a bet in Vegas to whether Chevy subsidizes a seat swap, I'd bet they would not...However, I do see slightly better odds for the Bolt EV getting subsidizes compared to other models...This is because there aren't that many and of that number not everyone will want to swap...There is also a social media team, chevy electric which is very active on facebook, a lot of people are going to ask about seat swaps...
 
God said:
MY18s are out, looked at cars.com, found some listings that had photos taken of seat frame, found a MY17 and compared it to the MY18 seat frame and it ultimately LOOKS the same...Not to say they didn't makes changes to the foam but who knows...If you'd like to compare for yourself:

Both listings have seat frame photos, most listing didn't...
https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/detail/724793434/overview/
https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/detail/716777345/overview/
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Yeah, they look similar... although hard to say without sitting in them!

2018 is going to be a short model year though. So any update might come for the 2019 MY.
 
SWAMPLIFE said:
seats are fine without any problem for driver or passengers
2018 Premire
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I have no doubt that some people find them uncomfortable but I always jump at the chance to take someone for a ride in my Bolt.

Yeah, I've yet to have anyone mention any discomfort with the seats unprovoked. A few mentions by people at last years drive electric week that said my seats were actually better than they expected considering the wailing and gnashing of teeth online lol.

Of course no one is jumping to call them particularly nice either. I consider them very much "ok". But I'd rather have the ride height and leg/head room of the Bolt put together with the seats from the Volt! Then it would be perfect. ;)
 
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