Any recommendations on aftermarket leather seats?

[icarumba]

I've heard great things about Katzkin aftermarket leather seats, and would like to upgrade to heated leather maybe next year. I got a quote from a local installer for $1100 w/o heat, and $1600 w/heat.

This is also the brand that Carmax offers as an upgrade when you buy a car there.

Does anyone have firsthand experience with going this route? Any other brands you would recommend? Any feedback, good or bad, is appreciated!

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[Five Oh Brian]

You can get factory "take off" leather seat covers quite affordably. Companies like Roush, Saleen, and Steeda often take regular Mustangs from Ford, then reupholster them during their upgrade ritual and sell off the factory stuff.

 

[icarumba]

Great tip!

 

[Apwrx]

I've used katskinz before and they were great. Redid the interior of a tt stealth,fit perfect and seemed better quality than oem.

 

[Jason Richardson]

If you go Katzkin, there are different levels of quality. The basic kits have vinyl sides and backs and vinyl rears, the premium has vinyl sides and backs but leather faces front and rear. The ultimate packages are 100% leather including sides, seat backs, and rears. No vinyl at all. And then the ultimate quality add on to that is Tuscany leather faces and full leather eveywhere. Tuscany is very high quality leather. Like BMW Nappa leather. Im going 100% leather on my Katzkins.

 

[mkenny28]

I've heard great things about Katzkin aftermarket leather seats, and would like to upgrade to heated leather maybe next year. I got a quote from a local installer for $1100 w/o heat, and $1600 w/heat.

This is also the brand that Carmax offers as an upgrade when you buy a car there.

Does anyone have firsthand experience with going this route? Any other brands you would recommend? Any feedback, good or bad, is appreciated!

To add to what everyone else has already said, I have dealt with Leatherseats.com before. I redid my 2005 Mustang GT Convertible leathers last year. The original red leather seats were cracked and faded and I decided to change the interior to all black/charcoal with silver stitching. I decided to go with leatherseats.com instead of Katzkins for multiple reasons: 1) Leatherseats.com will ship them directly to you for you to install yourself whereas Katzkins seemed to require an authorized dealer or shop install them 2) After researching that they both used the same leathers/manufacturers based on identical product numbers and LS was cheaper.

I wanted to do the seats as cheaply as possible so I could get more when I sold my car but not take t0o big of loss on fixing the seats. Now, if I were going to change out my leathers, I would likely go top of the line Katzkins and get them professionally installed. The Leathers are relatively easy to install but it is time consuming and takes a lot of elbow grease.

 

[Jason Richardson]

Oh and as far as past experience. I have put in multiple Katzkin kits and they are absolutely superb. Much, much better than stock leather, even in the basic packages. I would always get it professionally installed though by a Katzkin installer who's done many of them before. A good install will blow your kind.

 

[mkenny28]

Oh and as far as past experience. I have put in multiple Katzkin kits and they are absolutely superb. Much, much better than stock leather, even in the basic packages. I would always get it professionally installed though by a Katzkin installer who's done many of them before. A good install will blow your kind.

Please don't blow my kind :lol::lol::lol::lol:

 

[Jason Richardson]

Here is the 2015 Mustang brochure from Katzkin. You can see some of the options there. The main thing to take away from this is the seat patterns. You can see they follow the Premium trim option and you can customize any portion of the seat sections shown to any color.

http://www.katzkintoolbox.com/download?f=EBrochure_FordMustang.pdf

 

[Mustang Convert]

Oh and as far as past experience. I have put in multiple Katzkin kits and they are absolutely superb. Much, much better than stock leather, even in the basic packages. I would always get it professionally installed though by a Katzkin installer who's done many of them before. A good install will blow your kind.

About how much did you pay for the installation? I cannot believe how inexpensive these kits are. Almost makes me wish I didn't get the premium package, as I was mainly interested in the heated leather seats.

Do you know if leatherseats.com or katzkin will sell just a single seat or part of a single seat? The bottom part of the driver's seat in my wife's Murano is looking pretty bad and I'd like to replace it, but obviously don't want to buy a whole interior kit just to fix one small part.

 

[Jason Richardson]

About how much did you pay for the installation? I cannot believe how inexpensive these kits are. Almost makes me wish I didn't get the premium package, as I was mainly interested in the heated leather seats.

You can go anywhere from 500-750 for a basic 2 row kit upto 1500-2000 for a premium 100% leather kit. Then factor in 500 for installation though you can do better if you shop around from authorized katzkin installers for a bundle. Seat heating is only around 100 for both front seats. I got those.

 

[mkenny28]

About how much did you pay for the installation? I cannot believe how inexpensive these kits are. Almost makes me wish I didn't get the premium package, as I was mainly interested in the heated leather seats.

Do you know if leatherseats.com or katzkin will sell just a single seat or part of a single seat? The bottom part of the driver's seat in my wife's Murano is looking pretty bad and I'd like to replace it, but obviously don't want to buy a whole interior kit just to fix one small part.

I don't think Leatherseats will sell just one part of an individual seat because they likely buy these in full kits. Not sure about Katzkin but you could try calling both of them. I spoke to both on the phone before I made my purchase and they were both great to deal with and very knowledgeable.

 

[zackmd1]

To add to what everyone else has already said, I have dealt with Leatherseats.com before. I redid my 2005 Mustang GT Convertible leathers last year. The original red leather seats were cracked and faded and I decided to change the interior to all black/charcoal with silver stitching. I decided to go with leatherseats.com instead of Katzkins for multiple reasons: 1) Leatherseats.com will ship them directly to you for you to install yourself whereas Katzkins seemed to require an authorized dealer or shop install them 2) After researching that they both used the same leathers/manufacturers based on identical product numbers and LS was cheaper.

I wanted to do the seats as cheaply as possible so I could get more when I sold my car but not take t0o big of loss on fixing the seats. Now, if I were going to change out my leathers, I would likely go top of the line Katzkins and get them professionally installed. The Leathers are relatively easy to install but it is time consuming and takes a lot of elbow grease.

So are leatherseats.com's patterns the same as katzkin? I am really interested in leatherseats.com because of the fact that they ship directly to you. I'd much rather tear my own car apart and have a trusted family friend or myself do them rather then some "authorized installer". That being said I like how katzkin follows the premium interior stitching patterns.

 

[mkenny28]

So are leatherseats.com's patterns the same as katzkin? I am really interested in leatherseats.com because of the fact that they ship directly to you. I'd much rather tear my own car apart and have a trusted family friend or myself do them rather then some "authorized installer". That being said I like how katzkin follows the premium interior stitching patterns.

I can only speak for the 2005 seats I bought; The patterns were identical as were the options and the quality. They actually have much more configuration options online than Katzkin does (Calling Katzkins will get you a ton of options). I actually configured my seats online but then called them (Leatherseats.com) with configuration just to make sure everything got put in how I wanted. They were a pleasure to deal with.

 

[mkenny28]

I will add that the biggest difference between Leatherseats.com and Katzkins is the name. The Katzkins name adds value to your car on the market, in my experience.

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