Hi guys - just bought an 2005 A6 quattro from a family member who purchased the car new and babied it, its a really slick car. The car is in absolutely mint condition with the exception of a couple nicks here and there on the exterior. Interior is perfect. Oyster grey metallic with dark grey leather interior, it's got Nav, premium, convenience, cold package, and some other stuff.

Anyway, I found a very small slit / rip / tear in the leather on the drivers seat bottom, right above where the seat controls are. Oy ! It is clearly the result of the material being in contact with the plastic seat trim right above the seat control buttons.

So I did a bunch of searching here and it seems a number of other people have had this problem on 2005 and 2006 A6 models. It seems everyone "talked to their dealer" but didn't see any resolution.

The car still has another 20K and 12 months of factory warranty left. I'm not the original owner but what do you think? What's the best way to have this fixed under warranty. I would be going to Audi in Nashville.

By the way, I don't need an entirely new seat cover... I would be very happy with a very very good upholstery shop just redoing that side panel of the leather which I'm sure would cost Audi less.

Thoughts? Best practices?

There have been several posts regarding this problem with the non-upgraded leather. A few have the posters have been able to get Audi to replace it for free.Unfortunately for you, those posters have been original owners, and loyal Audi purchasers, with several Audis under their belts. I suggest that you have the family member who purchased the car originally go to the dealer and see what they can get the dealer to do.

That's a bummer thanks... wasn't sure if anyone had successfully had it replaced. Yes, correct, my first Audi... but I've had Land Rovers, Saabs and other european cars that get panned for poor dealership experiences... and with all those, I've successfully navigated warranty claims. Unfortunately the PO/my uncle lives in Pennsylvania and the car's already down here... so its probably a long shot getting his dealer to do the repair. (ps, he traded it in for a black 2008 A8L so he probably does have some juice with them).

The good thing is that this seat rip is very minor. The bad thing is that I am sure it will get worse and become not minor. I'll try and post a pic. The edge of the plastic seat control is a little sharp and it literally just cuts into the seat, over time, abrading it. The design wasn't quite optimized.

I guess what I will try and figure out is whether this is technically covered or not covered by the warranty. It probably sits in some sort of weird grey area... but its my understanding that this type of stuff, broken ashtray clips, broken center console clasps, etc... is covered under the 4yr / 50K warranty (which I still fall under).

Anyway, I'm really enjoying getting to know this car. It's super slick.

My "leather" ripped just over the controls. too. Since the car was well out of warranty, I had an upholstery shop in upstate NY patch it. That's when I discovered the only leather on my leather seats was the center sections. The outsidetrim piece that goes around thebreathable leather centeris leatherette and that's what ripped.

I deduced it ripped because the previous owner and then Islid over that section of the seat getting in and out of the car. Now I try to plop my ass in the middle and then swing around rather than sliding in. So far the patch has held. It's not perfect, but it blends in well enough to save $300+ that a whole new cover would have cost me.

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2003 Audi A6 2.7T MT6
Premium Package-Cold Weather Package-Bose
GIAC-Bailey DVs-Samco TBB
AWE Stage 2 Clutch+Lightweight Flywheel
235/45 R17 Pirelli P6 All-season; OEMs
235/40 ZR18 ContiExtremeContact;
Velocity RS4 Replica Rims

PPGoal is correct the problem is usually with the leatherette, that is why the drivers who upgraded to full leather have not had the problem.