My wife and I are actively searching for a 350Z.

While doing searching for various things about the Z, I ran across this "Motor Trend" article
http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...3_nissan_350z/
that has, among others, the following observation:

"With little more than 9000 miles on the Z's odometer, we began to detect abnormal seat wear in the cloth buckets, leaving us to question the longevity of the material."

Additionally, when my wife and I were doing a search that led to our present SUV, we looked at several fairly-low-km Nissan Xterras of several model years. All of these had cloth seats and every one of them had not only sginificant wear, but outright tears/penetrations on the driver's seat's lower left of the back bolster, as well as on the leftmost part of the bottom of the seat.

I have only seen one 2003 350Z that has cloth seats and it had roughly 100,000 km and a sort of long-stranded "fur" or fuzz on those aforementioned areas of the driver's seat where it had worn. Penetration of the outer cloth down to the foam would almost certainly be not far down the road.

This experience has shown us several examples of Nissan seats that have seat fabric this is certainly not up to the quality of that on in our 1992 Accord, whose seats had little, if any, sign of wear when we sold it at roughly 240,000 km.

Therefore, I'm wondering what owners of '05 and '06 base and enthusiast cloths seats have experienced with their cloth seats. (Because pictures are worth a thousand words, if it's not too much trouble, photos of those areas along with the number of miles on the vehicle would be great.)

Thanks very much.

 

There were signs of minor wear on my 05 at only 10,000 km and I bought the car brand new. The interior has cheap plastic everywhere. The foam is very soft, too soft that it doesn't feel durable. I swapped out my seats to Sparco seats in 2007. I recently swapped back my oem seats since the Sparco seat fabric is showing wear. Car currently has 57,000 km. It's been garaged it's entire life. I live in SoCal so no extreme weather or much rain.

Are you looking for reassurance? It's no a secret Nissan went very cheap on the 350z and most of it's lineup of that time. Carlos Ghosn was on a mission to save Nissan from bankruptcy. Major cost cutting was part of the plan. Don't expect the seats to last forever especially one that's been used. You will have to spend some money to restore most of the used zs you find. Especially one with more mileage and is 10 years old.

Car companies go through ups and downs, just like the economy. It's almost certain cost cutting will be evident during the downs. Some put more emphasis on interior quality such as luxury brands while enthusiasts tend to care more about a car's performance.

 

My Z has '06 seats with a bit over 90K. No appreciable wear or issues with tears or fabric breakdown. It really does depend on how you enter and exit the car, clean the fabric, etc.

 

I have 95k on my 2006. Passenger seat looks flawless, Driver seat has a huge tear in the bolster, It is my daily, and I am a big guy 6'6" 350#. Tear didn't happen until 89k

 

My cloth seats showed significant wear at 50K. The main wear was on the side bolsters. I recovered with Katzkin leather.

https://my350z.com/forum/exterior-an...nt-orange.html

I did replace the foam (OEM seat structure was cheap) at that time.

The seat frame is excellent, so it was worth rebuilding the foam and recovering the seat.

 

I'll post a couple of photos of my cloth seats in my '03 track with 86k miles tomorrow

 

it is also going to depend on how you get in and out of the car.

 

I bought mine at 90k with a small tear in corner of driver seat...

Why are you so concerned with seat depreciation? Just buy corbeau seats and call it a day.

 

I'm about at 97k right now and my driver's side lower/outer bolster became obliterated through every day wear and tear. Got tired of wiping yellow fuzz off my pants finally and bought some Corbeau's and couldn't be happier.

If you're purchasing a high mileage 350Z, I'd just naturally expect wear in the seats unless it was cared for immaculately or just rarely driven.

 

If you don't mind post some pics of your corbeau please

 

So the "Motor Trend" article was probably telling the truth about the seats.

Yes, I'm looking for reassurance about the seats. I guess the Xterra seats may be typical of Nissan seat quality.

How do you exit and enter the vehicle? I'm tall, so I turn my back to the door opening, plant my G. M. on the seat and lift and turn my legs into the vehicle. I suppose this twisting/rotating/rubbing motion is not good for the Nissan fabric, but this is the way I entered and exited our '92 Accord and, again, there was no noticeable wear, even at over 240,000 km (149,000 miles).

Our daughter came by tonight to deliver some flowers and a card to her mother for Mother's Day, so I took the opportunity to ask her how many kms she has on her black "03 Accord with black cloth seats. 160,000 kms (99,400 miles). After her reply I went to have a look at her seats. Some duist and dirt that could easily be washed off, but I could detect no wear on the fabric, even on the bolsters, so in at least this respect Honda was still making excellent seat covers in '03. I don't know if that's the case today, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is.

Our '10 Mit. Outalander has about 101K km and its leather seats are still perfect. My friend has the same year Outlander with 60k km and cloth seats that are still perfect.

I'm your height but over 100 fewer lbs. I will now assume that I'm going to similarly destroy a 350Z driver's seat cover.

1+1=2
I am now wondering if a used Accord seat could be mated with the 350Z seat frame, but the look of the seat in the vehicle would almost certainly not be stylistically pleasing.

Unless I were to get the vehicle for dirt cheap, I'm not going to buy a vehicle and immediately or soon thereafter replace both seats.

As the thread title suggests, I'm just trying to get a handle on how long the cloth seat fabric will last and asking present owners is an easy way to do that. Like the writer of that Motor Trend article, I am concerned about what I would regard as premature seat degradation because I'd be the person who would have to repair/replace it at some cost.

The thing is, regardless of how great a vehicle looks on the outside, if I open the door and see worn seats, any excitement I might have had quickly subsides.

As you suggest, I suppose that a smart strategy would be to completely ignore the condition of the seat covering (leather or cloth) and just assume that the seat covers will have to be replaced soon after purchase.

Thanks, folks.

 

I've got an 04.5 and the original drivers seat wore out at the bottom of the side bolster around 75k miles. Replaced them with factory 07 Nismo seats and they wore out too but neither was so bad that foam was showing, it was mainly cosmetic. If there is a next time, I would most likely recover them in aftermarket leather.

Part of the problem with this car is how low it sits and that it has deep bolsters. You don't get in and out of it like an Accord, which is more like a chair. If you put Accord seats in a Z, your head would hit the headliner.

For what it's worth, my 03 Pathfinder with 150k miles on cloth seats look brand new.

 

My '07 has 50k miles and both cloth seats look good as new. Probably depends on your weight to some degree.

 

Might be, I'm 6'2" @ 153 lbs.

 

If you only weigh 153 pounds and have worn out two seats then I was apparently wrong, it has nothing to do with weight. I'm around 150.

 

sounds like he is sliding his butt down the bolster when he gets in

 

I'll try and post some when I get home.

 

I'm interested, too, especially the mechanism that attaches the seats to the vehicle, how adjustbale they are, etc.

 

Sorry for the late response, came home last night and just crashed out. These were taken this morning after parking so excuse me if they're a bit blurred. Corbeau sells seat brackets specifically for the 350Z at an additional price and I've included the link below. However, I'd caution you to have a dremel on hand after you remove the old seats.
On the driver's side, there's a small metal spike welded to the floor that serves like a guide or something for the OEM 350Z brackets. The replacements from Corbeau won't clear that and you'll need to cut or file it down to ensure a proper fitment.

Hope this helps?


Seat brackets:
http://corbeau.com/nissan-350z-03-08-seat-brackets.html












** and before anyone asks, those straps on the passenger's seat are attached to a small bag behind the seat for storing crap. Our OEM seats come with some pretty convenient side pockets on the bottom for pens, change, etc.. and the new seats have nothing attached on the sides or rear for stashing small random items.

 

Nice seats. Do they adjust and, if so, how?