Leather seats?

I am looking for a leather seat cover. I saw you guys mentioned Katskinz and wonder how much does Katskinz cover will cost? I tried their website but couldn't find pricing info.
I found gtcovers.com has genuine leather seat cover for our 2010 Prius for $299 (either 2 front seats or 1 rear bench seat) in genuine cowhide perforated leather. Has anyone used this product?
Thanks for your comments.

 

The Katskinz leather is a replacement for the cloth, and not just a cover for the cloth. One place on line (Shopsar dot com) has the basic Katskins replacement leather for $749. It will cost more if you upgrade the leather (2-colors, piping, etc.)

 

I have a prius that has the dark grey interior like yours and I had the dealership install dark grey leather. I saw a prius with dark grey interior that had light grey leather installed and it didnt look good. Make sure you get the dark grey interior. If you do decide to have leather dont aftermarket, expect 1200-1400....

 

boston prius - you say that adding light (misty) gray leather to a dark gray interior didn't look good. I am thinking about doing just the opposite: adding dark gray leather to a light (misty) gray interior. Have you seen this or have any thougts on how it would look?

When the dealer did the install for you, did they change out the door panels and the console also? What about heated seats? My dealer here says they will change out the door panels, but not the center console (weird, but that's what they said).

 

Katzkins can also be bought here (nice website too) - at a discount ($688 delivered vs $749+shipping). KATZKIN LEATHER OUTLET

They also have a live online link for help ordering etc...

Ordered mine yesterday...

Due to some other posters who thought dirt can get in the perforations, I didn't get em... Our Lexus GX also does not have perforations - so I'm thinking it should be OK...

 

Just make sure that the dark gray leather you choose coordinates well with the dark gray/charcoal center console and it should be no problem. I'd prefer it over the monotone Dark Gray interior.

 

My car is VERY light gray - almost off-white. It is the WORST color to get because it shows dirt everywhere. This is one of the reasons I'm covering the seats - they are *so* light in color.

We went with their "Lt Gray" which really is more medium gray (from the samples they sent). Since everything else is so light, I think there should be a little contrast (hopefully)...

 

$688 is for front seats only or includes rear bench as well?
Thanks.

 

$688 is front seats, front door panel inserts, center console, back seats, center armrest, and back door panels. Attachment spells it out...

 

Wow, looks like a good deal. But I don't think I can install myself. It's way beyond just a seat cover. Are you going to install by yourself?

 

Yes - it should be an adventure...

 

I had Katzkin's put into my 2009 Prius which had the gray cloth seat oem interior. I had it installed professionally after watching part of an installation --- it's definitely a project which will go much faster the second or third time you do it. There also are apparently a number of words one should mutter or shout to get things to go together better. George Carlin gave a presentation on these words some decades ago...

Katzkin is a somewhat expensive alternative, but I found their quality to be very very good.

My plan for the interior includes more than just having had the seats done.

The new Katzkin seats were done in "bone" -- a very light, almost white color. The seats came with covers for the armrests on the doors and also the armrest on the console. [yes, this color will need cleaning more often, but I've had a long-term "test" on that issue in another car, and it's not much of a problem for me.]

My next step will be to [try to] cover the console and another surface with some of the matching bone colored vinyl I bought along with the seats.

I also am going to do two things to the doors (leaving the band of black at the top alone). First, with help from a quality paint store I've already spoken to, I'll get a matching light color paint and the right primer for painting over the interior door panel. The shop says the panel will paint well provided there are no foreign substances (eg, silicone from a protector, etc) on it and the right primer and top coat are used. Then second, I have targeted an area on the doors where I'll try to fit a piece of the bone vinyl to dress it up.

Next, I'll paint the very lowest portions across the dash panel with the bone-colored paint.

I haven't decided whether to leave the plastic part below the seat cushion gray, or to paint it bone as well.

Lastly, I have some gray vinyl from Katzkin which matches the shade of gray used most inside the car [there are actually several different shades of gray, depending on material, which drives me nuts -- and is something I find hard to believe Toyota did, as the matching of colors across different surfaces has long been done to perfection by Toyota & other automakers]. The gray vinyl I'll use to cover some of the existing gray surfaces to upgrade their appearance and make their color more uniform.

Good thing I intend to keep this car a long time! But I've seen a picture of what it more or less would look like, and I like it. My real inspiration is my 31,000 mile 2001 Sebring Convertible whch has a cream interior with dark blue for dash, carpets, and a few other interior surfaces. I love how the interior looks.

The car I traded in for the Prius had a gray leather interior, oem. It was well done. I did, however, occasionally wish I had been able to have the seats in a lighter gray to contrast with the balance of the darker gray interior.

 

OK - that is very adventurous.... *If* it really is possible to paint random plastics with something that won't scratch and wear, stay shiny, keep its look for at least a few years, I'm all in!!! Please post an update if you do this. Probably would be a nice new thread "painting interior plastics". If it really works, you'll probably get a nice cult following (me included). It'll need a strong hardcoat...

 

Who installed the Katzkins for you and how much it charged?
I am not sure to get a Katzkin or a leather cover (easier to install, I guess) such as GT Covers. They cost almost the same. Katzkin for $688 for the whole car vs. GT Covers $600 for all seats.
What do you guys think?

 

Well, I think I'm past the first question -- can they be painted. The paint shop I talked to sells to some customization shops. So, the paint can go on. Second, I would guess that the custom shops wouldn't want to use anything which scratched off too easily. But third, I'm purely guessing, but I expect that a clear coat would be applied over the layer of paint. I'll be sure to post how I go about it and the results.

The paint shop did say that all bets are off if the plastic has been polished over the years with things like silicone products ... they'd all have to be gotten off before any painting was tried, or it wouldn't stay long term. And, getting it all off is said to be quite a chore.

Funny thing happened this AM. Went in for regular service. Service writer sees the new seats, stops, & admires them. Then calls another service writer over to look at it. The leather does add a lot to the appearance of the car.

 

I had the Katzkins installed by an aftermarket shop which my Toyota dealer refers people to for after-market stuff -- Ameristar Auto Outfitters in a Detroit suburb.

They were actually a little higher priced than another shop, but I decided to stay with the shop the dealership recommends to avoid arguments later such as saying the install ruined something. The shop that did the work came close to my lowest bid after we were done discussing price.

My total tab was $1506, but that included other things. I had seat heaters installed on both front seats. I bought extra vinyl in both bone and gray, had embroidery on both front seats, contrast stitching, had a perforated section of the seats, and some other things as well since the car was already in there, plus sales tax. Also, they may have been creative in their allocation of cost to materials vs labor, as here the former has sales tax but not the latter -- which gives an opportunity to lower the total bill a bit.

So, the cost of the seat kit alone is hard to back out of our negotiated package price.

 

I had the Katzkins installed by an aftermarket shop which my Toyota dealer refers people to for after-market stuff -- Ameristar Auto Outfitters in a Detroit suburb.

They were actually a little higher priced than another shop, but I decided to stay with the shop the dealership recommends to avoid arguments later such as saying the install ruined something. The shop that did the work came close to my lowest bid after we were done discussing price.

My total tab was $1506, but that included other things. I had seat heaters installed on both front seats. I bought extra vinyl in both bone and gray, had embroidery on both front seats, contrast stitching, had a perforated section of the seats, and some other things as well since the car was already in there, plus sales tax. Also, they may have been creative in their allocation of cost to materials vs labor, as here the former has sales tax but not the latter -- which gives an opportunity to lower the total bill a bit.

So, the cost of the seat kit alone is hard to back out of our negotiated package price.

When I looked at the various leather interior alternatives, one thing I singled out to be certain of was that they are certified to work with the side air bags located in the outboard side of each front seat. There were a few out there which were not set up for it, though most said they were ok on that score.

 

What color Katskins did you get? And can you please post photos when you get/install them?

I have the Misty Gray interior and am trying to figure out what would be a good leather to go match the rest of the interior.

 

Thanks for the pics; the seats look great and go extremely well with the existing colors. Definitely a nice upgrade to a II.