Adding Aftermarket Leather Seats and Wood Trim

[alimoalem]

Hey everyone, my dad's looking to get a new (used) car SOON (like in the next 2 days). He's really interested in the Avalon right now. The Avalon XL (base model without leather and wood trim) with good miles is in his price range. He would really like leather, and preferably wood trim, though.

Do any of you have experience with aftermarket leather seats or wood trim? One of the salesmen said it costs $400-800 to add leather to the seats. Is this true?

Your help is appreciated.

P.S. he's pretty fixed on getting Avalon, so please no car recommendations.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Buy the leather seats used from a junk yard. The wood trim, those dash kits are usually horrible quality.

Leather seat covers installed is a good $800.

 

[JMapleton]

The aftermarket wood does not look nice IMO. Looks very cheap.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Hey everyone, my dad's looking to get a new (used) car SOON (like in the next 2 days). He's really interested in the Avalon right now. The Avalon XL (base model without leather and wood trim) with good miles is in his price range. He would really like leather, and preferably wood trim, though.

Do any of you have experience with aftermarket leather seats or wood trim? One of the salesmen said it costs $400-800 to add leather to the seats. Is this true?

Your help is appreciated.

P.S. he's pretty fixed on getting Avalon, so please no car recommendations.

Probably more than $800 actually. You can buy decent leather re-skins for $600-700 but the labor to install them is going to add a few hundred dollars to that. IMO, he'd be better off buying it with leather.

 

[alimoalem]

Thanks for the quick replies everyone.

Jules addressed this, but I guess the real question is: realistically, how much would it cost to convert the seats from cloth to leather, and how much to add wood trim?

Also, we are in Northern California (specifically, the San Francisco Bay Area). Does anyone know a shop that does this? I'd like my dad to be able to contact them for pricing, and have my dad look at their handiwork to see if he likes it.

 

[herm0016]

find one already with leather. you will probably spend more re-doing the cloth seats than you would finding one with it already.

 

[alimoalem]

herm0016, that's my goal. Instead of a base 2008 Avalon XL with 50k miles, I'd like him to get a higher model 2006 Avalon with 80k miles that has everything he already wants in it. I just need all the facts when I talk to him to convince him it's a better idea to buy a car that comes with leather/trim/etc. rather than add it later.

On another note, are there any recommendations for 3rd party companies that extend warranties? I believe GE is the company he wants to use.

 

[brblx]

factory leather seat covers are probably 800 bucks by themselves, if not more. and installation could be quite a bit.

just find a car with the features your dad wants and don't let the salesman push you around.

as far as warranty, go certified pre-owned or go home. most third party warranties might as well be written on toilet paper.

 

[alimoalem]

brblx, certified pre-owned is out of the budget. My dad knows about CPO cars, and I know he won't get one if it costs $5k more.

Is there a site that compares CPO to 3rd party companies?

 

[IcePickFreak]

Just an FYI, I'm not a fan of them either but this place offers some good quality dash kits from what I hear http://www.carid.com/

And I agree, he's better off finding one with leather but they are rather common cars so checking a local salvage yard may be an option. A friend of mine had a grand prix with cloth interior and was able to pick up leather seats & door panels from a salvage yard for less than $200 and they were all in excellent shape.

 

[ElFenix]

i'm thinking of picking up leather seats from a salvage yard for my car. first i thought of seat covers but a) they almost never look as good or fit as well as the OEM stuff; and b) they might interfere with the seat-mounted airbags.

 

[evident]

herm0016, that's my goal. Instead of a base 2008 Avalon XL with 50k miles, I'd like him to get a higher model 2006 Avalon with 80k miles that has everything he already wants in it. I just need all the facts when I talk to him to convince him it's a better idea to buy a car that comes with leather/trim/etc. rather than add it later.

On another note, are there any recommendations for 3rd party companies that extend warranties? I believe GE is the company he wants to use.

i recommend warrantydirect.com for a 3rd party warranty. it's in fact one of the only places i trust.

as far as aftermarket leather is concerned. i heard these guys were decent.
http://www.katzkin.com/main.html

i wouldn't go with aftermarket wood trim though.

 

[Mermaidman]

If you ever go with aftermarket wood trim, do it in moderation. The worst thing is to plaster the entire dash in orange "wood."

As for aftermarket leather upholstery, one question I have would be how it affects side airbags. (Some cars have airbags built into the seats.)

 

[Mide]

Aftermarket stuff will never look good as buying a car with all of the extras

 

[PricklyPete]

Terrible idea. Just wait until you find the car with the options you want at the price that is acceptable. Going aftermarket is almost guaranteed disappointment.