2002 Chevrolet Corvette Z06: The Downside of Lateral Bolstering

The fancy motorized seats can slide back automatically to let you in or out, how about a bolster that folds out to make it easier :)

the worn area does look a bit vinylish.

Instead of going in the normal way (butt slides across the bolster), face away from the seat, sit down, then turn your legs into the car, the way a woman with a tight dress does. I use this method, although I don't look anywhere near as good doing it as a woman with a tight dress does ...

The quality of the upholstery is a secondary issue. Corvette seats have been a joke for GENERATIONS of 'vettes.

There is such a huge amount of quality engineering the the C5 & C6 Corvettes - I just can't fathom why it is that they refuse to use decent seats. ... it's not like they're unaware of the issue.

Happens on a number of AMG cars as well. I've tried the same method that sgude mentioned, but found it much easier to just move the seats before getting in and out. Some people like to prop and lift themselves in like drivers do with fixed after-market bucket seats (ie. Recaro)

Have you ever seen an 8+ year old leather seat in a pickup owned by a fat guy? Talk about damage! And they don't have the luxury of blaming the damage on big bolsters. Those seats are flat like the plains, but that broad flatness combined with the high step in/out height and the drivers girth contributes to a whole lotta heavy butt dragging both getting in and out. Some of those truck seats look old and worn after only a year.

Pronounced bolsters and the habit of sliding in and out of the seat will almost always result in increased wear. BMW sport seats also suffer similar wear. That said, supportive buckets beat the "sitting on a park bench" feeling- whether they are in a BMW, a Chevy, a Mazda, or whatever.

This is a non issue.

The side bolsters on the Vette seats are vinyl. This was an early change on the C5 due to complaints about wearing of the leather on the side bolsters, and IL's seats look to be the vinyl versions. Looks like the vinyl isn't immune to wear there either, and given how durable vinyl is that's saying something. I have a C5, and don't recall hitting the side bolster getting in and out. I do have a little bit of wear on the bottom cushion, however, which is still leather, after almost 20K miles. Note that on the uplevel sport seats, the side bolsters are electrically adjustable for how much squeeze you get, with two separate areas of adjustable lumbar support as well.

The vette seats are not as bad as the whiners make it sound, in fact for long trips they do the job nicely. I've done multi-long-day trips in the vette with great comfort. They are not usually rock solid in their mounts, however, and that's a legit complaint where you can sometimes feel a little movement fore and aft under hard acceleration and braking. The seats in my '04 are somewhat different and look nicer than these Z06 seats, though, so I'm not sure they're exactly comparable.

another cheap chevy!$45000 plus doesn't even give you quality seats! Untop of worst fuel milage than the viper! Inferior!!!

The seats look cheap and ugly but the wear does not seem bad at all.

To theodore2, perhaps after you learn written grammar and spelling better than a good 3rd grader, you can work on getting your facts straight. The Vette has always gotten better fuel economy than the Viper. My C5 gets 30 on the highway at 80 MPH, beating its EPA estimate by a few MPG, which themselves beat Viper's EPA estimates by a few MPGs. And while Corvette has often been called a "world class sports car" by the press, as much as I do like the Viper I don't think it's ever been accused of the same thing.

So I have to wonder if this is what IL intended all along, to drum up negative GM comments using an 8 year old, arguably abused used car, which was mostly designed in the mid-90's. Brilliant.

BTW, here's what my C5 Corvette seats look like:
http://picasaweb.google.com/yamahr1/CorvettePhotos#5465333450403182498

"The fancy motorized seats can slide back automatically to let you in or out, how about a bolster that folds out to make it easier :)"

The BMW M5 (E60) does this - when you open the driver's door, the bolsters immediately unsqueeze to make ingress/egress easier. When you shut the door they squeeze back into place.

[sgude says - Instead of going in the normal way (butt slides across the bolster), face away from the seat, sit down, then turn your legs into the car...]

That is exactly how I get in and out of my car. Works like a charm...

Just toss these seats out and get some real racing buckets from Sparco or Recaro.

If it has not been mentioned before, the future is inflatable bolsters that only fill in when somebody is already seating.

I think you guys are just too fat for the seats.

Stop telling us what a piece of shit the interior is and put some new tires on the car and drive it. I'm tired of reading about the next little plastic piece that broke off. It's almost a joke this car is still driving on bald tires.

sodiezl350

+1

I don't know anyone that buys a Corvette for its seat bolsters or for any feature of the interior except the bits that connect the driver to the engine.

@bimmerjay
My Wife and I looked at a used M5 and the seats were flat and extremely worn on the bolsters, not sure if it is normal or just that particular owner that abused them.

@theodore2

If you are going to bash the Vette, at least get your facts straight. As I pointed out in another Z06 blog post which you made the same exact claim that the Viper gets better gas mileage, the facts of the matter are below.

From the factory, MPG ratings are as follows:

2002 Z06 - 19 / 28 mpg
2009 Viper SRT10 - 13 / 22 mpg

I drove my C5Z conservatively for a week and was able to manage over 24mpg combined on my daily 50 mile roundtrip commute. 75/25 Highway/City miles.

Driver is too fat.

Sliding butt into bolster and falling into seat is no proper way to seat into a sports car.

Sell Corvette and buy appropriate white Buick Lucerne with dealer installed optional fake soft top. Go golfing in Florida.

Sounds like 50000 miles on any GM product - of course it's wearing out. How does this surprise any of us that aren't GM fanboys?

"For that many miles and years, that seat looks good to me."

+100

I think it's too bad that IL bought an 8 year old top of the line corvette (or it was at the time, anyway) and then just a few weeks later got a brand new Viper. Sure the Vette looks worn out and beat up, especially when you go back and forth between looking at pictures of the new Viper. It's hard to keep reminding yourself that you're looking at a $20k hole in your checkbook vs a $90k hole.

It would be great if IL got an 8 year old Viper and could compare it directly with the Z06.

In regards to the seats, I've found that while some cars do have a tendency to wear in certain places (try to find a used Jeep that doesn't a a vertical tear on the left side of the driver seat cushion... I couldn't) it also depends greatly on who the previous owner was and how the treated the car. If they regularly cleaned the seats, of course the leather will look better. If they weighed 180 lbs, the seat bolsters won't be as worn out if they weighed 250 lbs.

I fear the future where anything inflates when I sit on it.

I thought you guys were planning on modifying this Z06. I remember early on one of the editors was asking for aftermarket seat suggestions, which I provided, along with a bunch of others. Weren't you going to do some engine mods too? Seems like the poor car can't even get a new pair of shoes from Edmunds.

YAMAHR1 I guess you can't take the truth! How come edmunds car gets inferior fuel mileage? I guess you must of been dusted by a VIPER recently!!! So is that 30 mpg down hill with the engine off!? Fiber car!!!