Clazzio Leather

I would love to see a pic of the Katzkin covers. I am shopping for a pirus right now and am trying to figure out if i want to get the 1499 "leather faced" seats.. or get the Katzskins off ebay. They look good. I looked at some added leather on a 2007 prius at the dealer and it looked cheap. It really felt like PVC.... even on the top. I have a friend that has a 2008 accord with factory leather and it feels and looks great. I guess that is the look/feel that i am looking for. I have looked at the clazzio covers on this thread... and they look good, and relatively easy to install. But if the Katzkins are better, i don't mind putting in the extra hours to install them. I have pretty good mechanical skills.

 

Unless you pay more, most of the "covers", OEM seats, and replacement covers such as the Katzkin are leather only on the seat bottom center panel and seat back center panel. The side bolsters are vinyl, as is the sides, backs, and front. Most of the vinyl looks very close to the leather, so it's hard to tell unless you take the cover off and inspect the bits left after sewing. They seem to even impregnate the vinyl with the leather smell!

My experience is the solid leather tends to be hot (read "sweaty"). Perforated leather is ok, but that does weaken the leather. I've had the leather seat bottom torn in a "V" from a perforation towards the two other next ones by a passenger with something in their rear pocket. The tears were about 1/4" long each. But only one in seven years, so judge the danger accordingly.
You can order the Katzkin with full leather and with perforations, both extra cost, of course.

 

Clazzio or Katzkin? Which is easier to install? I hope my wife looks at this thread and is thinking about what I would like for Christmas.

 

The Clazzio is a seatcover that goes directly over the existing cloth upholstery. Thus it's the easier to install BY FAR, and can be done by almost any PriusChatter with a few hours work.

I believe the Katzkin requires some disconnecting of wires, some disassembly of the seats, removal of the existing upholstery and hog rings and then installation of the Katzkin with new hog rings. For almost any PriusChatter, it's a job best left for a professional auto upholsterer.

Unless your wife is loaded and generous, Clazzio is a good, relatively inexpensive (around $500) choice.

I think the Katzkin will cost over $1000 for the covers alone, plus another thousand or two for professional installation.

 

thanks

 

I'm quite new about speculating these stuffs. What I wanted is to have some comfy seats during a very long trip. What can you suggest bout that?

 

Cloth seats tend to be more "comfortable" as they breath the best. The problem with cloth is it wears a little faster and is often difficult to keep clean.

Leather seats are easy to clean but you MUST ensure you treat them at least once a year, more in hot climates. This is to keep them from drying out and cracking. In my experience perforated leather in light colors is not bad re breathing. I don't live in a "hot climate" however. Max temps I see are in the high 80s/low 90s in F. I don't know what happens when the temperature goes up to 100s. Perhaps someone in Arizona or Texas will let us know how leather works there.

If you go with the Clazzio covers of this thread you are stuck with the stock seats under them. If you go with Katzkin you could have an upholstery shop add padding. There is a thread on an owner who has had this done and is very happy with it. You can also have them add seat heaters.

Clazzio is under $500. Katzkin is over $1000.

Choose your poison.

I haven't done my car...yet. I'm still contemplating it.

 

Sorry to bring up an old thread, but I recently bought a Package 5 and I've been kicking around the idea of adding the Clazzio leather.

1. I just wanted to confirm that it does come with the center console cover. I believe this thread mentions it does in a couple places, but I don't see it mentioned on the ebay auction, so I just wanted to be sure.

2. I have a Magnetic Grey '09 that has the grey cloth. Should I go for the grey or black covers? If you take everything else out of the equation, I think I like the black better, however I would think the gray would match the rest of the interior better, as well as handle the heat during the summer better as well.

3. I've seen a couple people mentioning issues about where the battery vent covers are. What exactly is the issue, I tried to see from any of the attached pictures, but there were no closeups of these areas.

4. Is there a Clazzio logo on the front seats? I see it mentioned, but can't see it from any of the pictures. Would rather them be plain, but I am probably just being picky.

Thanks in advance!

 

Well, I installed the Katzkins and wow it took me a while, but i got ur done! It's not for a person who doesnt know how; it took me about 9 hours all together and it included the arm rest and side panels. I only paid 250.00 for my Katzkins on ebay they were a SUPER deal! I was planning on buying the Clazzio, but found these cheaper. They rocked and look like factory.. The only thing was the steering wheel; in which I bought a new steering wheel off ebay that was leather and am waiting for it to arrive and I am going to install it!

 

I had katzkins installed on my rav 4 and they were great. Last year installed the Clazzio on the prius and i gotta say for the price they look great. Honest to goodness most people cannot see they are not factory. i would do it again...:rockon:

 

I paid a well know interior installer that many of the Dealers use where I live to do the install on my 08 package 5. They installed the Katzkin perforated leather with heat for $1300. I wanted heated seats and we have kids and pets so leather or vinyl is kind of a must. IMHO these seats look better than factory and I have an option that Toyota does not offer in the G2 with the two stage heated seats.

 

Can anyone report in on how these have held up over the 1+ year since they put them on?

 

So what are the pros and cons of full PVC vs leather inserts? I am on the fence choosing between the both and trying to justify the $150 price difference for the leather inserts.

 

We bought our Gen 2 new in 2005. After living with the cloth for 3 years we had Katskin heated leather covers installed in 2008. They still look good although there are a couple of creases appearing in the driver's seat cushion. MUCH better than that awful cloth they used!

 

Edited:
So I've done a bit of research on Clazzio. I found three places to order...straight from Clazzio.com,beangarage.com or ebay via from VIP seat covers.

I'm guessing the latter get theirs from Clazzio anyway. Of note is the latter have lower prices than Clazzio. I'm looking at the PVC covers to save a bit of money.

Of those that ordered...is the 8-10 weeks realistic or did they come faster?

 

It really takes that long I guess. I am at 6-7 weeks now.

 

I just received my leather Clazzio seat covers from www.jdmlinkup.com. I ordered the light grey ($474 delivered) because that is the colour of my prius' interior. To my delight the order contained a full set of covers for both back and front seats. T he order arrived here in Australia barely a fortnight after I ordered despite some difficulty with payment.

The down side. I ordered grey largely because I didn't know I was receiving a full set and thought any other colour would look odd if the back seats remained grey. If I'd known that I would receive the full set I would have ordered beige. I hate grey.

Ah well I have only myself to blame for not checking more carefully.