Has anyone else received their GLE 53 or 63 S with the Red/Black leather seat option? If so what color are your seats and do you have the Napa or Exclusive Napa?
I’m meeting with my Dealer Service Manager to have my defective ones replaced. The poor stitching is not acceptable. Also the color is in no way red.... Apparently they have at least two suppliers-a good one that can’t produce them in sufficient quantity and a new one that can’t produce a quality seat. I’m thinking I got the latter. They might have more than one leather supplier? My similar seats in my 2020 GLE 450 were perfect and the other 5 at my dealer are also perfect. My rear seats are also perfect except for the color.
I’m wondering if the Exclusive Napa in Red/Black might be more of a true red vs my orange shaded seats. I would demand that change if it provides a true red, the price isn’t that much more.
Here’s a picture from the online Configurator and a couple of mine. Mine are a deep orange in low light but in sunlight look light orange.

Configurator-




My seats-

 

Initially I thought that Mercedes should have seen these defects but I forgot that the seats are shipped wrapped in plastic. The Dealer chould have caught this but I'll admit I didn't notice at first either.

 

Seems quality control on the US-made seats (Lear, I assume) is pretty variable. Not sure what effect the pandemic has had on materials and labor, but it can't be good.

 

I didn’t post most of the defects but there are at least 10-more if I get picky. I hope a Company like Lear wouldn’t mess up this bad and compound the problem by shipping them. Not only are they stitching, wrinkles and loose corners but the center seats both have a hole like the material was squeezed too tight. It doesn’t show now but I can press the cover down about 3/8” before the leather contacts the cushion. Looks to me like a new vendor that has been making simple seats in the past.

 

That is NOT red. It actually looks like the seats I used to have in my Tundra.
Good luck.

 

Surely someone else has the Red/Black seats...Need a pic of the Exclusive Napa please.

 

Take the photos in daylight. Clear blue sky, without direct sunlight on the seats, for example in shade behind a building and exposed to the sky. Not in a dark alley. Disable filters on the camera/mobile device.

No electric lights (incandescent, LED, fluorescent, halogen, etc.).

 

Another possibility is that Mercedes has contracted with an additional source because Lear can’t ramp up for the volume required. It’s hard to believe that Lear would let out a premium seat in poor condition but it’s possible. Lear also produces the leather at another subsidiary. What are the odds that a premier seat manufacturer would produce leather with a poor dye job and seats with numerous defects and I got both?
I am going to request that my replacement seats be changed to the Exclusive Napa Red/Black hoping that they come from Lear in actual red like the GLE in the Configurator. That might be a tough sell since it’s not SOP.

 

The odds are high if the contract between supplier and carmaker includes financial penalties against the supplier for failure to deliver. Lear and Mercedes are each doing their own calculus in this situation.

Lear: do I ship bad quality to Mercedes?
Mercedes: do I ship bad quality to the consumer?

Answers from both companies to themselves: Yes, if the likely financial outcome is acceptable.

"Quality" is well defined and quantified between Lear and Mercedes. They both have documentation they can argue behind stating that their actions are in compliance. Of course there is gray area in the documents.

The consumer has no such document, in this case for color specification of seating materials.

 

You make a good point. As it turns out it’s probably Johnson Controls rather than Lear...they built a facility in Alabama at or near the factory. Mercedes has numerous suppliers and they even make some seats themselves in Europe...or they did. Last year Mercedes commented to Stock Analysts that they had to change a GLE seat supplier over inability to build the seats in quantity/quality required. I read something like that, but that was when they were blaming suppliers for various shortages causing production issues.
The number of mistakes on mine (not counting color) is an indication that someone new built my seats. I have 5 significant flaws and at least that many more minor ones. That’s being generous counting minor as areas where stitching causes one side to wrinkle. Some of it might be equipment and process rather than a new employee. Mercedes and xxx will take a big hit by the time they pay to ship new seats and the labor to install them. I may have some leverage on color since they have to give me new seats and mine are not in any way a shade of red. Red is a Primary color and the picture on the Configurator is taken in sunlight-as can be seen by the washed out black & the larger picture. Even then, the seats still look red not orange. I’m going insist on red but might not be successful.
I doubt that mine is the only one with seats like this.

 

Did you ever get a remedy for this? Has anyone else had the problem and got it fixed? I just test drove my 580 and walked away from it till they can all fix the wrinkles in the front and rear seats. They have also gone to a pebble leather look on the outsides.
For 96k it was pretty embarrassing.

 

I provided pictures and a formal letter to my Dealer...I find that I can explain things better and have accurate documentation that way. . We met Wednesday (Service Mgr & the General Manager) so that they could take a look and they agreed that my seats are Orange and have numerous defects. They are sending my letter and pictures with their additional info to the District Rep rather than go through the warranty claims process. I agreed to pay the upgrade from Napa to Exclusive Napa hoping to get actual red with the different leather. G.M. said I shouldn’t have to pay any more. They brought a newly arrived 63S around and it also had the recessed seat bottoms but only one small flaw in a corner where the top and bottom seats come together. I told them that I would rather wait a few months for a replacement if that would mean a better quality product.
I keep thinking that a secondary supplier built my seats but can only find Johnson Controls as a supplier. With COVID and other shortages they might have employee turnover issues because the Exclusive Napa seats in the 63 were better but not as good as my 450 seats that were flawless.
The vaccine can’t come soon enough...maybe next year will be better.

 

I just saw a new GLC63 with the same colored seat inserts. It was called "red pepper" or something similar on the window sticker. It was definitely an orange hue. What does your window sticker say?

 

I think Johnson Controls spun off their seating division a few years back - https://www.adient.com/about-us/heritage
Lear is more likely, and they have several plants in Alabama.
Our local Lear facility closed after 911, but I never knew why (they were building a secure cockpit door to replace the types breached in the terrorist attacks). https://www.lear.com/Site/Contact/Global-Locations.aspx

Building a seat requires experience and strong hands. There may be a shortage of craftspeople with those attributes. If it's sewn right (another possible point of failure), the cover can be re-stretched permanently by somebody with skills.