Car Seat Covers

[Bananafish]

I just took a new lease on a 2011 Imprezza five-door and because of an incredible deal that I couldn't pass up on a floor demo (with 0km!) and because of the disasters overseas and serious shortage of vehicles right now -- I went with a black fabric interior. It's the first car I've driven without leather seating and I don't really mind... BUT they pick up every speck of dust, lint, etc and will turn into radiators under he summer sun. I want to find some classy or sporty looking covers online, and don't mind paying for high quality. I've no clue where to look though, as I've never needed to look into this before. Any suggestions or advice to offer?

Thanks!

 

[impolyt_one]

really? If you find cloth unpleasant in the summers, I don't think you're looking for leather seating man.

 

[Bananafish]

I've had lather seating for the past (almost) ten years, but always in light colors - tan, cream, grey.

This is the first car I've owned with a black interior. This past weekend was really sunny and warm, but I could already feel that it will be sweltering in the hot months. I'd like to find some kind of contrast covers to place over the seats. Nothing customized or outrageous as it's still a lease... but something that would work. The fact that it attracts dust, lint, hairs, etc and EVERYTHING shows because it's black fabric, is also very annoying. For the sake of keeping the interior clean looking without brushing down the fabric every week, I think covers would be a good idea.

 

[Joffrey]

Buy one of those foil looking covers for your windshield. Crack open your windows during short term parking and while in a decent neighborhood (as long as you're not the type to leave a lot of things lying around in your car).

 

[Bananafish]

Those foil shield covers look dreadful though and must be a pain to lug around and pull out all the time.

90% of my looking into seat covers is also as mentioned, because the black fabric that I currently have is a magnet for dust, lint and hair. I was looking at Coverking and they seem to offer beautiful full seat, head and arm rest covers in the $200-300 range, which is exactly what I'm looking to spend. I don't mind paying in the range of $400 to have the front seats done up. I just wanted to get some feedback from others as I know nothing of what's available and considered to be of quality on the market..

 

[turboman808]

Sounds like you made a very poor choice. Just leave the car alone, you don't own it and it's going to cost you 3k-5k to do all this and then put it back to stock once done.

 

[Bananafish]

Why did I make a poor choice?

I don't want to spend a thousand dollars... are seat covers not relatively easy to have fitted and placed over existing fabrics?

I certainyl don't intend to do any sort of modifications on the vehicle. My understanding are that these are purchased and sized to fit your car's model, based ont eh type of current seats you have installed. So a neoprene cover could essentially be fitted right over yoru seat rather easily. Isn't this the way it goes?

I don't intend to mess with the stock seats or put anything in that can't be easily removed. I have the car for 3 years and if I can get two front seat covers for $400-600 max. (I wouldn't pay more on this vehicle) then it would be worth it, for added comfort and convenience. They would not be custom installs.

 

[j]

You can get decent sheepskin covers for that much and they are very comfy in hot weather. I'm not sure if they are considered classy or whatever, but my HS friend had them in his old BMW and they were nice to sit on and looked pretty decent IMO.

 

[Douglas]

In China everyone pimps out their cars with various seat coverings, and I've actually considered doing it if I get a minivan or something (which I am sort of considering). I think they're really cheap - just simple cloth coverings can be done relatively tastefully and would certainly keep things cooler.

 

[impolyt_one]

People in Asia literally put men's XL-sized tee shirts on their seatbacks - take the headrest off, put tee on, put head rest back on through the neckline.

Me and my friends all had old Europeans cars when we were in high school, and those lambskin shearling seat covers that j talked about were the ****! Those were the height of class, like $400 each or something for the nice ones that were custom fitted to all 3 parts of the seat. If you had those, you were ballin, and they lasted forever so they just stayed with the cars. They'd look nice in something like LabelKing's 450SL.

 

[pgd3]

No seat cover is ever classy, its just like having a futon.

And cloth doesn't wear as well as leather (duh).

As far as heat that's a regional thing, shaded parking spots, window covers, cracking a sky light etc. are all acceptable.

what are the terms of the lease in re: seat damage?

 

[Logan]

 

[Rambo]

I happen to like the neoprene seat covers myself. They're relatively cheap, easy to clean, absorb sweat, and you can slide in and out of them easily.

 

[tsacain]

I have factory neoprene seats in my truck and I love them. But http://www.katzkin.com/leather-interiors/ is something to look into.

 

[turboman808]

Originally Posted by pgd3

No seat cover is ever classy, its just like having a futon.

And cloth doesn't wear as well as leather (duh).

As far as heat that's a regional thing, shaded parking spots, window covers, cracking a sky light etc. are all acceptable.

what are the terms of the lease in re: seat damage?

There are 2 types of seat covers. Those that you slip over the seats and those that are a replacement for the seat. In other words it repalces the fabric on the seat. THe fabric on the seat is called a seat cover. So it's confusing when they are both used to describe the same thing.

If you really wanted to do this just order the covers from Subaru. I still don't see how it will be as cheap as everyone makes it sound but good luck.