Is your SofTex peeling off?

Pictures?

 

Yikes! X2 for the pictures.

The only thing my wife and I have noticed is the softex on the DS arm rest getting stretched out/wrinkled because we tend to rest our elbows on it.

 

Sew a big patch on it, maybe shame 'em into doing something!

Off topic, but our drivers floor mat blew a hole right through, at about the one year mark. Sewed in a rubber panel, what any decent car mat would have had to begin with.

 

Yipes! I can't wait to see what they say about this.

 

I wonder if that seat belt buckle (see your picture) has anything to do with the delamination. I have to admit that I don't really even think about it when I get out of the car, but it's likely that buckle hits nearly the same area occasionally when you leave the car. Over three years… Well, you can see a smaller but similar delamination on my seat. This is very likely due to the friction of the seatbelt against the material over time. Not sure how to deal with it, though. Maybe some kind of sealant or plastic coating?

 

This is disappointing. It would be natural to assume Toyota would create an upscale artificial material with outstanding durability. Here's what the literature states:

Cloth and vinyl still are the most widely used "basic" seating materials on lower-priced cars. One characteristic most motorists have learned about vinyl is that in warm, humid weather the passenger's back becomes sweaty and clothing sticks to the seat back. That's because vinyl is nonporous—it doesn't "breathe." And there's a second issue: in time, vinyl can dry out and crack from exposure to sun. Even many natural leather seats eventually may crack, particularly at the bolsters.

Although Softex releases moisture more quickly, so that in effect it dries faster, the material's characteristics are such that, unlike vinyl, it is highly resistant to dry-cracking, according to Toyota. Softex also reportedly has good strength-to-weight and surpasses natural leather in seam fatigue, abrasion, and scratching tests.

The tensile strength of Softex is only slightly lower than natural leather. Although the material does have some limits in forming and sewing some trim patterns (as noted for Avalon, for example), Toyota said it is rated higher in these same areas with other patterns. Toyota added that Softex passes its durability tests, of which a spokesman said "there's a complex battery in a variety of environmental conditions."

 

did you call toyota?

 

Wow, sorry to hear about the Toyota SofTex issues and that 2015 C class! The vinyl "leatherette" on our 2002 Audi A4 cracked a couple of years ago on the driver's seat. No other issues with the upholstery.