Seat Cover Review

GTCovers and Wet Okole are well regarded here, but I didn't want to spend the money right now. I did find a set of EXACT FIT seat covers on eBay that are made by The Seat Cover Factory out of Houston TX. They sell them through their regular eBay store at http://stores.ebay.com/Exact-Fit-Seat-Covers for $59 (I bought mine second hand and bid up to $49 ... but I didn't realize how cheap these were new!) The company should not be confused with The Seat Cover Factory out of Oxnard, CA, which also makes seat covers in Oxnard. The Houston company actually has their covers sewn up in Costa Rica, and I suspect that's the main difference in price. The company's main business is providing these seat covers to car dealers, and some territories are still available if you want a home-based business ... see http://www.businessnation.com/bizopps/page...info.cgi?ID=163

Since this is a mostly positive review, I want to say I'm not affilliated with them in any way, and do not sell these or get a commission, etc. (If I was really blasting them, I suppose I wouldn't need to say that ... but with the positive review, I felt it necessary).

Anyway, with that out of the way, here's the review. I'm impressed with these, especially for the price. Installation required the gunting and pulling everyone's read about, but they fit reasonably well. You can get the straps holding the bucket seat bottoms down between the metal sides and the ulphostry on the side, but it does take some work.

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The cover for the center console is simple enough; two elastic bands simply hold it on. I was skeptical of this at first, but it works well. The cover is just a bit harder to close, but not bad at all. And the back of the bucket seat covers fit OK, although from the back view you can tell there are seat covers on. This might be the area where the more expensive GT Covers have an advantage (I don't know, as I haven't seen any close up!)

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The back seats take some time to put on. The seat bottom pulls up and out if you tug on the front of the bottom about 10" from each side. Then the seat bottom cover is pretty easy to put on. The seat backs are a bit more trouble, as you have to try and line up various holes for the seat belts, release buttons, catch bar, headrests, etc. But they look pretty good.

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The headrests back here, like the back of the bucket seats, look like covers with all the tell tale puckers. The front headrests have velcro closures, but for the back three headrests, the covers are fashioned more like shower caps. They work, but you can tell they are covers. I'm considering taking some thread and making some adjustments myself ....

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The full set includes a little cover for the center armrest that works well, and covers for the side panels as well. Here, you can see that I haven't tucked the edging into the seam under the vent for the batteries in the back on the left side. The fit is to tight, so I need to loosen this panel first. The other side panel is also provided, and it fits well. I did have a time getting the right side seat so that it would latch easily ... the seatback has a cut out for the latch bar, but it didn't seem to line up as well as it should (or I was tugging and pulling a bit too much).

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And finally, the backs of the back seat, where you can see that they are, indeed, seat covers:

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These seat covers seem to be well made, with good fitting components for $59 covers! My local Toyota dealer had them on sale for $99, marked down from $149, which is their regular price at that dealer. They are sold under different names on the web as well, but I think these are the only ones sewn in Costa Rica.

They only seem to come in the velour, and the only colors I've seen are the beige and grey like mine above. So you don't get the depth of choice you do with GT Covers. But I was impressed that the center console, headrests, and back side panels were included, even if the fit for the head rests could be better.

 

I have a 2006, and these covers are for a 2005. I took a chance with them, as the eBay listing was from a guy who had a 2005, so he wasn't sure it would fit. The listing on their eBay store shows them for 2004 - 2006, I think.

 

It is the photos ... I took them in the garage using my digital camera, so the color rendition isn't quite right. The overall look of the covers is good, very close to the original color.

 

You can identify the right from the left by the length ... the shorter one is for the left/passenger side to allow for the vent louvers on that side. Once you have the side of the car it goes on figured out, then place it up against the bolster with the velour side facing the right direction, and the plastic tabs "outbound" (toward the nearest door). Those tabs get crammed into crevice between the door molding and the bolster. The velcro "sticks" to the rear compartment carpet. Maybe these pics will help!

Here is the plastic piece on the left/driver's side that gets crammed into the space between the door molding and bolster:
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Here's a shot of the top portion peeled back a bit so you can see the velcro:
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And another, longer range shot
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Hope this helps!

 

Well, I didn't have instructions, so I didn't remove them. But it looks to me like the little cut out for the seat back latch is there where the velcro sticks to the carpet.

On the other side, with the vent louvers, it might work better to remove it and install the cover. On mine I have the seam across the top of it which looks unsightly.