Driver's seat falling apart!

After noticing a small hole in the back of the driver's seat, I didn't pay much attention to it. When a bag snagged a "wire" and ripped through the vinyl, I noticed!  I went to the local Toyota dealership and they looked at it and said it wouldn't be covered under my extended warranty since its considered damage!  They also stated that I would have to take it to an upholstery shop to get it fixed.  It seems that I wasn't going to get anywhere with them.  I decided to investigate and took the cover off by first unhooking the straps under the seat, taking off the three yellow rings at the bottom and then the two holding the zippers.  This is what I found - 

               Rip through vinyl. 

      Rip again without spring sticking out. 

                  Broken spring!

Broken spring hooked to white plastic piece that didn't keep it in place since there was no tension anymore. 

      Yellow metal rings holding zipper.

            Zipper on right side.

I couldn't believe that a spring had failed. No bend or anything. Seeing that it was dangerous to have a loose spring that someone in the back seat could hurt themselves on, I tried to take the spring off. This wire was extremely hard to bend  and I tried to cut it with no success so I bent it into one of the holes on the side of the seat so that it wouldn't jiggle around. This certainly is a case of metal fatigue!  It makes me worry what other things might happen at a later date. 

So once I bent it back, I decided to look at another issue I had since I bought it - a hole in the foam on the left side where you rub up against entering and exiting. I was able to put my hand through and feel around. All I felt was metal. I had to go and buy some upholstery filler and fill the hole. This made it so that the fabric was no longer in a situation where a hole might tear through it after continuous use of the seat. I've read that a lot of FJs have this problem.

I also had a creaking noise when I bought it but I didn't investigate this issue since I assumed it's probably due to the chair being used for 6 years. 

I decided to repair the slit myself. It didn't turn out very well, but at least the rip won't become larger.  I also contemplated seat covers but it was too expensive for the ones I liked. I did see a few people selling their OEM covers but that was even more expensive since they included all the seats.  I might reconsider at a later time but, for now, it will have to do. 

Overall, I'm not impressed with Toyota quality.  I've hade much cheaper cars for much longer without these kind of issues on the seat.