S3 Sport Seats vs. Standard (and automatic!) Seats

[sjh13]

I am bummed the Sport Seats are manual, only thing that discourages me from them. For a car at that price, it's hard to go with manual seats.

I've also heard that the Sport Seats wear faster. Any thoughts?

[markn1689]

the silk nappa on the SS seats do wear faster. i personally do not care about the manual adjustment. but i hate the fact that they crease and scratch very easily.

i was dead set on this option because they look so sweet. but, i decided to pull the trigger on the non ss seats and im glad i did (totally worry free). the first sign of a crease would drive me nuts

my GF was wearing jeans with the little rivets on the back pockets- scratched the hell out of the silk nappa on my old s4...

[Alloy07]

We have the SS seats in our S3 and love them. We took a 3700 mile trip last fall and found the seats to be really comfortable even after long hours of driving. For me they are the most comfortable seats we have had in any of our cars. But this is our first Audi. Our car is almost a year old and so far no signs of wear. I know that we are in the minority but the wife and I actually prefer manual adjustments.

One of the only issues we have had with a 20+ year old Lexus was the power seat motors. SS seats seem quick and easy to adjust. We just don't find ourselves adjusting them that much. We test drove a couple of S3's before ordering ours and the standard seats were very nice also.

[will13k7]

love nappa leather, but I couldn't go back to manual seats after getting spoiled. they do look sweet though. ... and the smell of fresh nappa leather is great.

[markn1689]

there will be people that say they don't crease. to those people i say post pics of your seats today. yes they are supple, and great when new.

there is an online petition against audi about the issue. so clearly i'm not alone here.

you can search audi nappa crease and check out the images for yourself. audi has been using the silk nappa for many years. its the same stuff on the ss seats

the side bolsters of my s4 with silk nappa looked just like this:

[ryan_sn]

Personally I am just as happy with the grey/black or red/black two tone leather you can get with the standard seats. I have the grey/black combo on Daytona Grey and I love it. It does tend to get dirty but a quick clean with leather cleaner every week or so works wonders.

[S3Danny]

If more than one person drives the car regularly then I can see power seats being a big deal. If not then who cares. My seats were adjusted when I picked the car up at the dealer and haven't been touched since. Manual seats save you a little bit of weight and give you one less thing to break in the future. I have noticed that my driver seat is more shiny than my passenger and rear seats (Nobody but me is ever in the car), but I've also never cleaned/conditioned the seats so that's probably not helping anything in the wear department. I have driven 22,000 miles in my SS seats in the past year and have no complaints, they're comfortable and look great.

[tateltot]

I have the SS seats and I don't mind the character that comes with a little creasing. Besides, getting upholstery repaired or replaced isn't really that big of a deal. I think the look/fit outweighs the negatives. Also, I REALLY dislike having to use a motor to move my seat back and forth. I much prefer the manual controls.

[selp]

I love my sport diamond stitched seats, and leather trim interior..
could care less about the "automatic" .. I am the only one the drives the car, and in the given occasion that someone else does, it takes me a few seconds to get it back in place.
Not a big deal.

[magnessr]

I will be getting my new S3 in about a month. It will have the manual S Sport seats. I was told just to keep them clean and conditioned, and that should help with the wear people are seeing. The diamond stitching and racecar look far outweighed the automatic convenience in my mind.

[FabianS]

I love my SS seats! I just clean and condition them on a regular basis. Look great after almost one year of ownership.

[Blaine]

I love my sport diamond stitched seats, and leather trim interior..
could care less about the "automatic" .. I am the only one the drives the car, and in the given occasion that someone else does, it takes me a few seconds to get it back in place.
Not a big deal.

No power parts mean LIGHTWEIGHT. I'm guessing the SS seats are a TON lighter. And less power parts to break.

[onequick4door]

One thing I didn't think about when I went with the SS seats, which I do love, is the ability to run a harnesses. The SS design doesn't allow for harnesses to be mounted with a harness bar or the use of a Schroth Quick Fit pro. It spreads the harness too wide and would be worse than the 3pt belt. So I'm on the hunt for some seats for drivers schools.

Off topic question - anyone know how many warning lights will be on the dash when I throw an aftermarket seat in car?

[soulflyer]

Off topic question - anyone know how many warning lights will be on the dash when I throw an aftermarket seat in car?[/QUOTE]

I will certainly let you once I have my Sparco Evo III installed. This will happen in about a month. I am still waiting for the base plate.

[onequick4door]

Off topic question - anyone know how many warning lights will be on the dash when I throw an aftermarket seat in car?

I will certainly let you once I have my Sparco Evo III installed. This will happen in about a month. I am still waiting for the base plate.[/QUOTE]

I appreciate it.

[Blaine]

I will certainly let you once I have my Sparco Evo III installed. This will happen in about a month. I am still waiting for the base plate.

The make connectors to plug into the electronics for the seat side airbags to prevent the error code from removing your seats. Its just the Airbag code that you will get without it. Not 100% if they have something for Audi, but I know they are out there.

The seat position in relation to the air bag deployment will also be off if you don't reuse the OEM seat bracket. With new cars its a major Pain to replace the seats with racing seats.

[ChrisF1]

One thing I didn't think about when I went with the SS seats, which I do love, is the ability to run a harnesses. The SS design doesn't allow for harnesses to be mounted with a harness bar or the use of a Schroth Quick Fit pro. It spreads the harness too wide and would be worse than the 3pt belt. So I'm on the hunt for some seats for drivers schools.

Off topic question - anyone know how many warning lights will be on the dash when I throw an aftermarket seat in car?

I would suggest thinking twice about that. 4pt harnesses are not ideal. Look up submarining and watch the videos. Two the serious bodily injury accidents I've seen on track were caused in large part by 4pt harnesses and submarining during deceleration.

[A3_Yuppie]

the silk nappa on the SS seats do wear faster. i personally do not care about the manual adjustment. but i hate the fact that they crease and scratch very easily.

i was dead set on this option because they look so sweet. but, i decided to pull the trigger on the non ss seats and im glad i did (totally worry free). the first sign of a crease would drive me nuts

my GF was wearing jeans with the little rivets on the back pockets- scratched the hell out of the silk nappa on my old s4...

Make her take them off!! On a related note, wives and girlfriends should also refrain from carrying purses with oversize "hardware", i.e., exterior metal buckles, locks, medallions, etc.; those tend to scratch the paint.

[hbaudi]

there will be people that say they don't crease. to those people i say post pics of your seats today. yes they are supple, and great when new.

there is an online petition against audi about the issue. so clearly i'm not alone here.

you can search audi nappa crease and check out the images for yourself. audi has been using the silk nappa for many years. its the same stuff on the ss seats

the side bolsters of my s4 with silk nappa looked just like this:

The Nappa on my B6 S4 looked just like this after a while, I hated it

[will13k7]

the nappa on my 2012 s4 still looks/feels great, all I did was apply conditioner once a month. leather masters worked great for me. Here's a picture I just took:

[forbiddenbeat]

The SS seats are great, one of my favorite things about the car. I actually prefer manual seats - much finer-grain adjustment of the rear angle and seat tilt (trying to get a power seat to move 1mm is really annoying).

My RS4 seats at 50k miles still looked new. If you keep nappa leather clean from the beginning, while it will crease a little, it shouldn't crack.