[Wild Blue]

Originally Posted by tellch00

Order for my car was placed Feb.2 picked up last Monday. Zero wrinkles on seat back of rear seat, and virtually nothing on seat bottom itself. if not for this thread i would say no wrinkles at all (and none on steering wheel LOL).

Black Merino with luxury seats for what it's worth.

Oh, man, I'm so sorry to hear that. Thread posers here will tell you they must be uncomfortable as hell!

[sygazelle]

We are almost to 1,000 comments on this thread. It's so old now I'm beginning to get wrinkles myself.

[Marty in NY]

In an effort to solve the mystery of whether the rear seats on the G05 are intentionally wrinkly when ordering either Vernasca or Merino leather, I wrote to BMW's USA CEO Mr. Kuhnt and the USA head of Marketing Mr. Dreher. I sent pictures from several different BMW websites and publications showing the perfect wrinkle free seats they advertise along with pictures from this forum, from BMW dealer sites and pictures I took myself that showed the wide variation in wrinkles that are coming out of the factory.

My questions to Mr. Kuhnt and Mr. Dreher were as follows:
1. Are the wrinkles/pleats intentional?
2. Are they here to stay or is change on the horizon?
3. Is what you see in the owner pictures acceptable to you?

This has been a very long standing topic of debate on this forum and I know some of you have said you were going to hold off buying and wait and see if the wrinkles were a mistake for 2019 models since a new seat supplier had been chosen for the G05 and possibly the 2020 models would eliminate the wrinkles. However, as the 2020 models rolled off the assembly line, we knew many still had wrinkles. The controversy was fueled by the fact that not all G05 had wrinkles, we saw some that were totally void of wrinkles, pleats, etc yet some had severe wrinkles, further fueling the debate.

After not receiving any reply to my Dec 22, 2019 email, I sent another one on Jan 26, 2020 to which I received a reply. This reply did not come from either Mr. Kuhnt or Mr. Dreher, rather it was penned by a person whose title is Executive Customer Care, Customer Relations and Services, BMW of North America, LLC

The reply was this..."Our CEO Mr. Kuhnt has authorized me to respond to you on his behalf. Your feedback has been shared and our BMW engineering department has reviewed your inquiry regarding the rear seat aesthetics of the new 2020 BMW X5. The seat concept was intentionally changed to a less tight and softer look which ultimately adds to the comfort of the seat.
We are sorry to learn of your dissatisfaction with the seat concept and hope that you will consider a new BMW vehicle in the future.
Thank you and have a good day."

As can be seen, this was a very pat reply that only answered question #1. So for those who may still be holding off on their purchase awaiting smooth leather like the pictures BMW uses to advertise with and they show on their build sites, it appears there's no hope for you. For those who refused to believe the wrinkles were intentional, behold BMW's confirmation that they are. For those of you that refused delivery of your wrinkled seat car and for those who managed to get your dealer to resolve the issue for you, congratulations and finally for those who stood by their word that the wrinkles were in fact intentional, congratulations on your insight.

[Wild Blue]

Thanks for that, Marty! As you point out, that reply is a bit canned, but I would have to point out that in that reply, BMW does not state, "we intentionally designed and implemented wrinkles into the seats." They say that they "changed to a less tight and softer look." Far from being intentional, the various and inconsistent degree and types of wrinkles seem to be an unfortunate result of this "less tight and softer look". Booo......

[TurtleBoy]

^ LOL that is funny. Obviously there have been many, many poor seats with too many wrinkles. That was never a question as to them not being intentional.

[LexxM3]

Originally Posted by Marty in NY

In an effort to solve the mystery of whether the rear seats on the G05 are intentionally wrinkly when ordering either Vernasca or Merino leather, I wrote to BMW's USA CEO Mr. Kuhnt and the USA head of Marketing Mr. Dreher. I sent pictures from several different BMW websites and publications showing the perfect wrinkle free seats they advertise along with pictures from this forum, from BMW dealer sites and pictures I took myself that showed the wide variation in wrinkles that are coming out of the factory.

My questions to Mr. Kuhnt and Mr. Dreher were as follows:
1. Are the wrinkles/pleats intentional?
2. Are they here to stay or is change on the horizon?
3. Is what you see in the owner pictures acceptable to you?

This has been a very long standing topic of debate on this forum and I know some of you have said you were going to hold off buying and wait and see if the wrinkles were a mistake for 2019 models since a new seat supplier had been chosen for the G05 and possibly the 2020 models would eliminate the wrinkles. However, as the 2020 models rolled off the assembly line, we knew many still had wrinkles. The controversy was fueled by the fact that not all G05 had wrinkles, we saw some that were totally void of wrinkles, pleats, etc yet some had severe wrinkles, further fueling the debate.

After not receiving any reply to my Dec 22, 2019 email, I sent another one on Jan 26, 2020 to which I received a reply. This reply did not come from either Mr. Kuhnt or Mr. Dreher, rather it was penned by a person whose title is Executive Customer Care, Customer Relations and Services, BMW of North America, LLC

The reply was this..."Our CEO Mr. Kuhnt has authorized me to respond to you on his behalf. Your feedback has been shared and our BMW engineering department has reviewed your inquiry regarding the rear seat aesthetics of the new 2020 BMW X5. The seat concept was intentionally changed to a less tight and softer look which ultimately adds to the comfort of the seat.
We are sorry to learn of your dissatisfaction with the seat concept and hope that you will consider a new BMW vehicle in the future.
Thank you and have a good day."

As can be seen, this was a very pat reply that only answered question #1. So for those who may still be holding off on their purchase awaiting smooth leather like the pictures BMW uses to advertise with and they show on their build sites, it appears there's no hope for you. For those who refused to believe the wrinkles were intentional, behold BMW's confirmation that they are. For those of you that refused delivery of your wrinkled seat car and for those who managed to get your dealer to resolve the issue for you, congratulations and finally for those who stood by their word that the wrinkles were in fact intentional, congratulations on your insight.

Commend you for trying to get a useful answer from corporate marketing drones. Futile, of course, but commendable regardless. No sarcasm. But they are corporate marketing drones, after all. One of the functions of marketing (that I know the good amongst marketing folks hate, but still have the responsibility) is if you screw up big time and it would seriously undermine profitability to fix the screw up, you direct marketing folks to PR the shit out of it exactly like that.

Unconvinced that it was intentional originally, but it is "intentional" now since BMW now has no choice.

[BMPHIL]

They would never say that the wrinkles were unintentional, would cost them a fortune to replace them.

[Heavyd]

I would be happy to get a G05 delivered even with wrinkels

BTW they look very intentional and comfy

[GTF]

Thoroughly predictable response.
I guess the team designing the front seats decided against the "less tight and soft" construction.
And I guess the "left side/right side" teams decided to vary their approach on occasion to "more soft/less soft" approach, so unfortunately they were often inconsistent.
Gimmeabreak.

The correct answer, of course, is:

We addressed margin opportunities by moving to a significantly less expensive contractor, and were willing to accept resulting quality degradation. We hoped it wouldn't be a significant problem given the overall excellence of the new G05. We of course assured that all launch vehicles as well as all photography did not show the "less tight, soft" appearance because .... well, for obvious reasons. So deal with it.

So that's what I did. I accepted the rear seat compromise because the total package was (IMO) the best choice. And when my X5 arrived, the rear seat was acceptable. The Cayenne S was my first choice, but couldn't justify the huge cost premium.

[polychromatic]

Originally Posted by GTF

The correct answer, of course, is:

We addressed margin opportunities by moving to a significantly less expensive contractor, and were willing to accept resulting quality degradation.

My thoughts on all points.

[Marty in NY]

Originally Posted by LexxM3

Unconvinced that it was intentional originally, but it is "intentional" now since BMW now has no choice.

It would simply be good if what we saw on line (build site, marketing pix, their Munich museum G05, sponsored articles) was what we get when we buy. Since we now know wrinkles are intentional, then why do they continue to show us wrinkle free seats on line?

I'm not saying I am a total advocate of the wrinkle free iron pressed look. However, intentional should mean each G05 is uniform/symmetrical and subtle from seat to seat, car to car. Instead, its a crap shoot as to what you will get delivered to you.

[Jmpascual]

I finallly got an X5, so I've gotta post my obligatory backseat wrinkle pic. Irl I really don't notice them so they don't bother me.

[thereef510]

serious question: has any guest or someone new to your car absolutely refused to get into the back seat because the seats had some wrinkles? why is this thread still continuing honestly

[Marty in NY]

Originally Posted by Jmpascual

I finallly got an X5, so I've gotta post my obligatory backseat wrinkle pic. Irl I really don't notice them so they don't bother me.

Ha ha ha, the immortal wrinkly seat topic! Actually, yours look ok from what the pic shows.

[homerrr]

Originally Posted by thereef510

serious question: has any guest or someone new to your car absolutely refused to get into the back seat because the seats had some wrinkles? why is this thread still continuing honestly

I think it's important for us to continue the tread, we owe it to ourselves and to each other, especially during these times, to remember what is really important!

[mcsa]

Originally Posted by homerrr

I think it's important for us to continue the tread, we owe it to ourselves and to each other, especially during these times, to remember what is really important!

Funny 😀

[mobilejo]

You guys do realise that Coronavirus survives for longer in wrinkles than in stretched leather don't you?

I would say this is potentially a matter of life and death...

[TurtleBoy]

Originally Posted by mobilejo

You guys do realise that Coronavirus survives for longer in wrinkles than in stretched leather don't you?

I would say this is potentially a matter of life and death...

I sure hope not because my leather face mask was made in similar fashion to the rear seats.

[videoman535i]

Go watch the X5M Competition review from TheStraightPipes. There are shots of the back seats at 13:48.

You may talk amongst yourselves.

[Auricom]

Just when we thought this thread was forgotten... it's back on page 1

[sygazelle]

Originally Posted by Auricom

Just when we thought this thread was forgotten... it's back on page 1

I'll be right back. I need to go make some more popcorn!

[floridaman100]

Nothing is going to change with the wrinkles in the back seats. This is an intentional design by BMW. The seats are wrinkled in my X5 and personally I like the look. There other things to be worried about than wrinkles in seats. If one car had this problem and none of the others did then yes I would say that is a design flaw.