[coolkurt]

Originally Posted by pavi

How much old/young is your car and how many kilometers have you covered till now? It all depends on the usage too in my opinion, not just the age.

My car is just a few months old. Ran about 5000 KMs. I agree. I'm just hoping it'll not wear out very soon. The leather steering cover on my Civic lasted all of 9 years.

[pavi]

Originally Posted by coolkurt

My car is just a few months old. Ran about 5000 KMs. I agree. I'm just hoping it'll not wear out very soon. The leather steering cover on my Civic lasted all of 9 years.

Wow! Nice to hear that you own a Civic, such a dream car. But what we need to notice is, civic has a 9 year old genuine leather and Baleno has a ‘who uses a steering wheel cover more than 4 years’ kind of genuine leather. It can be seen in almost all products, the use and through mentality of our market has definitely made the manufacturers to make less reliable products.

[d_himan]

Originally Posted by Dr.Naren

My car has run around 54k kms in 3 years. I had noticed minor scratches / peeling of steering wrap and had posted the same here.

My 6 year old / 88k kms run Grand I10 has no peeling whatsoever. Also I don't think it's genuine leather in S-Cross.

If it's of any consolation Dr.Naren, the exact same thing happened to my i10 factory leather steering in it's 6th year...

[gaurav.kokra]

The pics shows great damage in just 54000 kms and 3 years.

You should get it replaced soon as it seems it might pinch the palm as well while turning the steering.

The following link is great learning experience for wrapping the leather around the steering.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sStxk4mv_DY

Even if one doesn't do it himself, he can make sure that the other person is doing it properly.

I have attached some pictures of my 2013 vent after approx 129000 kms. Signs of gradual wear are there. But not a sore eye though.

[5kmiles]

Originally Posted by Dr.Naren

Few More Pics:

Attachment 1910966

Attachment 1910967

Do note that all the pics I have posted are from different cars. Maruti provides leather steering in many cars and I wonder how only S-Cross is affected. I did a quick search in Baleno groups, couldn't find this issue. I own a Baleno too which doesn't have this issue. Leather wrap on S-Cross feels thin and looks shiny compared to Baleno.

My Scross has done 71k. Got a premium version of autoform steering. It is holding up very well. Minor chipping has started on the gear lever.

Also attaching the pics of my 94k done Xuv. I believe Indian car makers also provide decent quality. My Manza held out alright for about 125k KMS. These wear and rear issues cropped up very late.

[greenhorn]

Originally Posted by iron.head

I recently met an employee working for one of the part/component suppliers of Maruti. He shared that Maruti has been giving an yearly target of 2% price reduction to all part suppliers for all parts that are supplied to Maruti and that too after a very competitive bidding between the suppliers.

From what I know, this is an industry standard practice, and this happens with most mature auto manufacturers. Not sure why maruti is being singled out and shamed for this. This is supposed to be a consequence of the continuous improvement philosophy which delivers productivity improvements and defect reduction with time.

[swiftLife]

Man, the quality of the steering wheel wrap is absolutely pathetic and downright unacceptable.

If a manufactures say something is Genuine Leather then it should be genuine, and not the cheap PU stuff. Also how can Maruti skimp on something that will face the most wear and tear amongst all the interior bits.

[iron.head]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

From what I know, this is an industry standard practice, and this happens with most mature auto manufacturers. Not sure why maruti is being singled out and shamed for this. This is supposed to be a consequence of the continuous improvement philosophy which delivers productivity improvements and defect reduction with time.

That was just an example to show how Maruti operates. I should have added it in my earlier post that the same person who shared this detail with me also said that Kia for example has provided them with much better price brackets for manufacturing components for them. This was all verbal communication so can be considered or discarded as per individual preference.

Furthermore, Maruti is the flag-bearer of using extremely thin metal sheets for the doors, etc and cutting down on production costs to very high levels. Other manufacturers following suit is a result of Maruti exemplifying this practice via their sales charts.

This thread is another testament to Maruti's approach on building cars for India:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...r-failure.html (Ertiga, Dzire & Swift: Gearbox Synchronizer Failure)

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-...tatements.html

This is just my opinion and I respect other opinions as well. Cheers!

[coolkurt]

I think the dealer equipped steering wheel cover holds well. It's the variant version that's the problem.

[laluks]

Approximately 2 years and heavy usage on the steering wheel. Nothing Amiss, nor quality issues for the steering at least



I guess almost all the issues would have cropped up due to the "heavy detailing" with god knows what chemicals. Why blame Maruti for that! My cars never see a 3M or such fancy outlets!!

I would not blame Maruti here!!

[Sanidhya mukund]

While on the S-cross, it's still understandable because the leather is peeling at places where you actually hold the steering wheel, but on my mercedes W204 C200, that's run only 20K Kms, the paint is peeling off at places where you don't even hold the steering wheel!

It is also peeling off at various other places on the dashboard and center console. I have never even used any chemicals for detailing, ever!

Would really appreciate suggestions, as it is a huge eyesore, and makes my car look wretched!

[coolkurt]

Originally Posted by Sanidhya mukund

It is also peeling off at various other places on the dashboard and center console. I have never even used any chemicals for detailing, ever!

This is appalling. The steering wheel cover on my Honda Civic got worn out after 11 years and 1.85 lakh kms in service so seeing this quality in a Merc is surprising.

Any dash polish or cleaners being used by your car cleaning guys?

Did you talk to the people at Mercedes? I couldn't find people with the same issue on the forum.

[Sanidhya mukund]

Originally Posted by coolkurt

This is appalling. The steering wheel cover on my Honda Civic got worn out after 11 years and 1.85 lakh kms in service so seeing this quality in a Merc is surprising.

Any dash polish or cleaners being used by your car cleaning guys?

Did you talk to the people at Mercedes? I couldn't find people with the same issue on the forum.

No, I have NEVER used any chemicals at all. My car does not even stay parked in the sun- it is parked inside it's garage 100% of the time! When I spoke to the Merc guys, all they said was replace the steering wheel( including the airbag), which is very expensive. It is indeed surprising to see such quality issues in a Merc. For now I have ordered a black viny to wrap the steering wheel and the centre console. Here is a link to a discussion about the same issue at the MB forum. Even the steering wheel type in question is the same as the one on my car:

https://mbworld.org/forums/detailing...l-peeling.html


The Honda civic has great interior quality. I recently sat in a 2007 civic with close to 2 lakh km on the odo, and yet everything looked good, except for the chipped Honda logo on the steering wheel and a little bit of wear on the driver's seat.

Regards
Sanidhya



EDIT:
So the vinyl I ordered is not sticking on the steering wheel or the centre console, because the surface is essentially peeling paint.

[coolkurt]

Originally Posted by Sanidhya mukund

The Honda civic has great interior quality. I recently sat in a 2007 civic with close to 2 lakh km on the odo, and yet everything looked good, except for the chipped Honda logo on the steering wheel and a little bit of wear on the driver's seat.

Regards
Sanidhya

It's pretty depressing to read about such quality issues when you've already paid a bomb for the car. The Civic was in a league of it's own, and I guess a lot of it has to do with the fact that there wasn't any localisation. It's been almost 13 years and the rubber beading of the doors is intact, I've only changed one brake bulb and one indicator bulb in all these years of ownership. The Honda City doesn't have that kind of quality. It's actually scary to see global cars having a high localisation percentage which only means quality has taken a hit.

[Dr.Naren]

I got a custom leather wrap done on steering. It looks better and feels nice and grippy to hold compared to OE.