BOLT SEAT ISSUE - no DATA thread

[GernBlanston]

Dangit. Why do they do that.
I always vote with my wallet, so after our poor experience at the 1st dealership, we
googled Chevy dealerships & found 20 within 100 miles. The 3rd closest one to our house
had the guy we wanted to deal with & the car we wanted to buy.
1st dealership guy called to ask when we were coming in to get our car and we told politely told
him we might see him if we brought our new car in for service, since his dealership
was a lot closer to our house than where we bought it. Sorry, Dude.

 

[astroboy]

I am 5'7" and 165lb.
I told the salesman about how people are complaining about the seats on the internet forums and he told me the seats are a problem for people who are about 220lb but he added people with that weight pretty much have problems in any type of seat like an airplane etc.

Hopefully I can test drive the Bolt to see how it feels after sitting in it longer.

that is absurd. i am 6'0" and when we bought the bolt, i weighed about 230lb. the seat hurt my left hip/butt.

now i weigh 203lb. guess what, it still hurts.

so i think this has to do with the width of your hips and the exact geometry of your body.

the seats are definitely too narrow in this car. it was not noticeable on the test drives that i took... it only creeps up on you after sitting in that seat for a prolonged period.

 

[elpwr]

Buy a $5 piece of foam and spend 15 minutes installing it. Your seat will feel better.

 

[portable]

https://onpurple.com/seatcushions/buy?type=Simply
https://www.amazon.com/FH-FH1006-Multifunctional-Fitness-Color/dp/B071NPVXQN/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1506176435&sr=8-3&keywords=terry+cloth+car+seat+covers

I use my bolt for a work car and had to cover the seats to protect the leather. I got a couple of the purple seat cushions, put one on the back of the drivers seat and one one the bottom. Then i covered them with the terrycloth seat cover. I've had my bolt since Jan 3rd , and i have 9000 carefree miles on it now. I can't even remember what its like to lay under my car and have hot oil run down my arm while i change my oil. The only time i stop in a gas station is to by coffee and a lottery ticket.
Chevy had its best month ever selling Bolts(2019 units delivered) they must be doing something right !
90% of the people bitching on this forum don't even have a bolt, they are just here to "Stir" the S**T. Those poor souls need to get a "Hobby"
Just Sayin !

 

[Allelectric]

So you agree that the seats as supplied are not comfortable.
I have a Bolt, the first sold in British Columbia I'm told. It has 14,000 Km's on it. I also own a Kia Soul EV.
I have a $25 foam base cushion and $25 padded seat cover on the drivers seat. My car is waiting for warranty repair of the seat.
I don't have time for a hobby, I work full time and I've got 3 teenagers in sports every evening and weekends.
My opinion is that the seats are too narrow and not padded enough.
Just sayin !

 

[iletric]

90% of the people bitching on this forum don't even have a bolt!

The "bitching" relates to my spending, unnecessarily, $900 to bring those lovely seats up to industry standard of reasonable comfort.

they are just here to "Stir" the S**T.

Yes. Absolutely. In order to force GM to take notice and do something about the seats for the benefit of future Bolt owners. And, believe it or not, GM as well, as certain percentage of potential buyers actually walked out on the car because of the seats. I'm sure GM's bean counters don't like that one bit.

Those poor souls need to get a "Hobby"

Many do, using their newfound creativity to fix those seats on no budget. I chose to throw money at it because my time on earth is already filled with wide range of other hobbies, a small one of which is contributing to this forum.

"Just Sayin"

 

[Anonymous]

I put a folded up towel on the seat and that raises me enough to avoid the edges. Try it.

 

[k0an]

I bought my car on 9/23/2017 and had to drive it home 2 hours from the dealer. I had test driven the car before with no problems. But about 1 hour into the drive my left leg/hip started to hurt and then went numb. A couple days later now I still have some hip pain but hopefully it will go away soon. I put a seat cushion on which helped a lot and now I'm going to find a cushion to put on the back rest. I'm pretty depressed that I bought a car with such a serious flaw. I emailed GM and will reach out to the dealer too to see if they have any ideas (maybe switching with a slightly better version of the seat off another car).

I'm 6 feet tall and 185 pounds. This is the 8th car I've owned and this is the most serious flaw of any of those cars by a significant margin.

 

[scooter123]

There is no way around it, my left hip started hurting and was getting a nerve pinch there.
http://a.co/1a2mDbZ

I had to buy this one which was wide enough to bypass the left and right lips.
What ashame I had to do this. If I can figure out how to insert this UNDER the leather I will.

Are there any pics for the permanent mod? The mod would have to have foam to over-lap
the edges... otherwise just raising your higher will not do it.

 

[elpwr]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2dgxWTOnVn8

I cannot, for the life of me, understand why people don't do this simple mod. It only takes a few minutes and costs maybe $5. If you can't do it, I'm sure an upholstery shop could follow the YouTube video and do it for you.

I used only one 1/2 inch layer of high density foam. You can use more if you want. It raises the center section of the seat closer to the height of the bolsters. This effectively widens the usable seating surface and improves, or completely eliminates, the problem.

I sure wish the uncomfortable seats in my older Tesla MS could be modified as easily. The Tesla fix is to buy the improved seats for $6500 and have Tesla installed them for $1700. Tesla never offered any fix, other than this, for the first 2 1/2 years of production in the Model S. Maybe in a couple of years Chevrolet will offer a similar $8200 fix for the early Bolt seats. In the meantime, you might want to try this five dollar solution.

 

[k0an]

I cannot, for the life of me, understand why people don't do this simple mod. It only takes a few minutes and costs maybe $5. If you can't do it, I'm sure an upholstery shop could follow the YouTube video and do it for you.

How about the seat back? That is poking me in the back and I'd like to put padding there too.

 

[k0an]

I've started a Change.org petition so we can all consolidate our feedback into one place to maximize our visibility. Please sign and spread the word!
http://chn.ge/2xwEBVx

 

[iletric]

Maybe in a couple of years Chevrolet will offer a similar $8200 fix for the early Bolt seats.

Ha-ha! Gotta love it...

 

[boltage]

How about the seat back? That is poking me in the back and I'd like to put padding there too.

Yes, there can be a strange feeling in the seat back, depending on how you sit in it.

Try adjusting the seat back angle slightly. I noticed that being slightly too reclined makes it feel strange, but moving it one notch more upright makes it no longer feel strange.

 

[elpwr]

There’s also a YouTube video on how to add additional padding to the seat back. It’s a little more involved but not really that hard to do.

I sat in two recent build (October 17) Bolts at my dealer. They both definitely have more padding in the seat cushion than the earlier cars. Maybe Chevy has made a minor running modification. The “seat complainers” probably should try a newer one for comparison.

 

[Collimare]

I have had mine a week now with a couple hundred miles in the seat. I am 6'2" 185 and while it is not the best seat I have been in I don't find it that bad. I have over the years swapped out a number of seats in old VWs. There are a plethora of aftermarkets seats (Recaro, Corbeau etc.) and well as used seats that with the right motivation could probably be adapted to the Bolt. I usually found a used Porsche seat (914, 912, 911) that I really found comfortable, had it reupholstered and made made adapter rails for it. Remove the Bolt seat and take it to a good specialty upholstery shop and have them pad it the way you want. In Denver I would suggest Auto Weave Upholstery as they have done really good work for me in the past. If it was that big and issue or gets that way for me the car is worth it to just have the seat replaced or re-padded. Maybe GM will come out with a better seat and provide a cost effective upgrade path. NOT

 

[DesertSprings]

Where do I find the build date? I just picked mine up yesterday and put 60 miles on it today, no issues with the seat other than the back being a slightly weird shape so I had to recline the seat slightly further back than I would have preferred? 5'11", 190lbs, wide hips.

Update: 10/17 build date.

 

[SeanNelson]

Where do I find the build date?

It's on the "B" pillar (the pillar between the driver's door and the rear passenger door). There should be at least two stickers near the bottom of that pillar - one that shows the recommended tire pressures (on my car that sticker is on the forward-facing part of the pillar) and one that shows the gross vehicular weights (on my car that sticker is on the side-facing part of the pillar). The latter sticker has the build date in month/year format (i.e., "09/17") on the third line, below "Manufactured by General Motors LLC".

If you give your VIN to the service or parts department, they'll be able to tell you the actual date that the vehicle was built, not just the month and year.

 

[DesertSprings]

Thanks. 10/17 build date.

 

[Chargeit]

We just got our Bolt last week and I was a bit surprised to see all the negative comments about the seats. I'm 5'11", 190 lbs and they seem OK to me. Could they be a bit wider? Yes. I can feel the side wings pressing my shoulder blades but it's nowhere near a deal breaker. Maybe Chevy listened to the complaints and added more padding. Our build date was also 10/17 and we have the cloth seats.