Usually, just the wear surfaces of the front seats are leather.

 

I've never seen leather upholstery material with a cloth backing. I've never seen vinyl upholstery material without a cloth, gauze-like backing. You're probably looking at the vinyl that is used in side panels or other non-seating areas of the seat cover.

 

You're exact right about the backing or lack thereof, but I'm sure the OP was talking about the sides of the seats.

 

It's not uncommon. I think most of my Corvettes had cloth on the sides of the seats.

 

Our 2011 Acadia had cloth on the inside of the seats. I thought it made the interior feel cheap.

 

This is a new concept to me- all leather / leather appointed cars I've ever owned had leather or leather-like material on the sides. Cloth seems weird, but it doesn't bother me at all. It just seems arbitrary that it's only on one side of each of the front seats and nowhere else.

 

This is a new concept to me- all leather / leather appointed cars I've ever owned had leather or leather-like material on the sides. Cloth seems weird, but it doesn't bother me at all. It just seems arbitrary that it's only on one side of each of the front seats and nowhere else.

Make it happen, if something bothers you make it happen, get a few quotes form an upholstery shop to make the front seats full leather...

It sounds like it doesn't bother him, should he still make it happen?

 

Make it happen, if something bothers you make it happen, get a few quotes form an upholstery shop to make the front seats full leather...

 

Oh, I don't care to change it- this isn't a luxury car by any stretch. I'm mostly just curious.

 

Overall, I believe it's just a case of decontenting to get the price down. My 2011s have no such cloth.

 

The cost reduced materials do matter in this case. This is a photo of nasty wear on my 3 month old MY '17 drivers seat.

From what I can tell, the side of the seat is collapsing when I enter or leave the car and the plastic trim on the outside edge of the seat cushion is pinching and scraping against the simulated leather on the door side of the seat. I weigh about 200 lbs and I don't think I am being especially rough as I get in and out of the car. This is unacceptable for a car this new. I will be taking the issue up with the dealer on my next visit.

Has anyone else seen this pattern of wear?

 

The leather/seat cushioning in the 2017 Volt Premier is definitely on the cheap side. My other car, a Infiniti Q50S Hybrid, has thicker-feeling leather and firmer cushioning.

 

I thought I had read, that the seats, other than having the heated feature, also have AIR BAGS. Would a cloth panel be for setting up the deploy of an air bag should it need to operate???
Would a upolstery shop know about this and how to create a new seat cover to deploy correctly? Just asking..

 

Almost all, if not all, cars have seat airbags...Many automakers use upholstery shops to add leather to the vehicles so its a safe bet you'll be fine...

 

We got our 2017 Volt Premier this past week and I noticed that the front leather seats are cloth on the inside-facing sides. It's the only place (back seats are all leather)- it's like they ran out of leather. 😂

Just acquired a 2017 Volt Premier. Agreed, that tiny inside area on the seats being cloth, when everything else is leather/pleather, is kind of bizarre.