How is your SoftTex holding up?

I don't know about you guys, but I would never even think of putting a pet in my summer car :nono: That is why I have a SUV for those tasks

Mike :madgrin:

 

And I am still kicking myself for not grabbing a 2011 v.5 when they were still available. Leather trumps plastic every day of the week! Doesn't matter to me how they "spin"it or what they are calling it, plastic is still plastic.

 

Leatherette in VW's was one thing that really held up to use. If the Toyata stuff is just as good, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

I was told the Softex IS the Mercedes stuff. They now make more money selling it to other car manufacturers than they do selling cars!
As far as getting the leather instead, we can do that in Canada. But you don't really get leather seats, you get leather "seating areas", which means the centre seat bottom panel and the centre seat back panel. All the rest is vinyl. So there isn't much difference, EXCEPT the softex is wonderful to sit on/in. It's not hard and shiny like so much of the Japanese "leather seats".
As the above posters have said, we'll see how it stands up. Be aware, the "leather seats" DON'T stand up very well. They puncture very easily.

 

i was told by my dealer that softex allowed enough weight drop from leather to add power seats. I really have no idea if pre-softex prii had power seats or not in the upper trims. I really just don't like the idea of fake leather. I know a lot of people on here like it, but after having leather on my four previous cars, and having ran my hands across the softex, there just is no comparison.

 

A friend at work had Katzkin leather seat covers installed on a 2012 Camry. They appeared to be high quality leather and had a great look and feel. The dealer installed the seat covers prior to delivery, and the owner couldn't recall the cost. According to the Katzkin website, seat covers are not available for the 2012 Prius. However, premium leather covers for the 2011 were priced at $1,995. I have no idea if these are easy to install or the cost to have them installed.

So far, my Softex seat covers after four months and 4,000 miles still look perfect. I rarely carry passengers and treat the seats with kid gloves. For example, I'm very careful when placing items on the seats...nothing with sharp corners including cardboard boxes or laptop bags with zippers. When transporting our small dogs, I cover the seats with a thick towel. However, my friends all comment on the plain and cheap interior of the Prius. My reply is the great gas mileage and reliability of the Prius partially offset the cheap interior.

 

Time for new friends.

 

Theres lots of discussion about Katzkins in the Accessories and Mods forum. But there was one guy in the LA area doing Katzkin installations (kit + labor) for $950. I had mine pre-installed at Carson Toyota and paid $1250 (2-tone + perforated + warrantied).

Occasionally, there is someone selling new kits in the Private Sales area for about $350-450 IIRC.

And I do agree that the leather appears to be high quality. It should also be noted that the standard Katzkin kit is full leather for the front, but only the "inserts" in the rear seats. If you get the premium kit, then the back seats are full leather as well.

 

A little over 4 months of car ownership and there is already a tiny scrape in the middle of the seat. I first thought it was a speck of dust but then realized that a few "threads" of softex were coming up. I picked away the threads and, unless you're looking for it, you can't notice it. I imagine that this will be the start of where the Softex will start to wear though. I doubt that this type of damage will be covered under warranty and it was a bit of a downer on my day

 

After 1 year and nearly 20k miles, my softex seats are holding up very well. I had leather in my previous 2010 Prius IV and noticed it started discoloring, especially the driver's seat. I was constantly cleaning it. The softex shows no discoloring or wear so far, and it's very easy to keep clean.

 

Over 2 years and 15K+ miles and our Softtex is holding up very well ... still looks brand new. Softtex seems very durable considering that we're not taking any extraordinary precautions and the vehicle is a daily driver.

 

The car comes with a 12 month 12k mile anything goes bumper to bumper warranty. Go in and get a new seat cover installed under the new car warranty.

Mike

wanderin around on my phone

 

Mike, if this is true, then I might send you a sheet cake with ponies and rainbows. I need to go in to have a seatbelt release issue taken care of so I'll bring it up then.

 

Absolutely That 12m 12k warranty covers everything including squeaks, rattles, body or interior panel fitment, everything. The car is supposed to be perfect and they will make it right.

Mike

wanderin around on my phone

 

I made an appointment to drop it off in the morning. My service advisor seemed reluctant to call it a warranty repair so we'll see what type of run around they give me. If he can't help me, there is a larger dealership 20 minutes further south and I can call them to see if they would work with me better.

 

It all is warranty so go wherever you need to go and get it done right and under warranty. Do report back good & bad news as it may help others. Especially what dealership did what good or bad. There seems to be a huge difference in Toyota dealers. Suppose other brands are the same way.

Mike

 

I have never been more furious with a dealership than I was today. I dropped off the car at 7:50 am, thinking that the earlier I arrived, the earlier I would be able to get my car since I needed it by 3 pm today (something that I made clear to the service advisor when I made the appointment but was stupid enough not to repeat when I dropped it off). I had their shuttle service take me to work and I waited for word on the vehicle until 2. There were 2 reasons why I brought it in:

1. Softex was wearing on the bottom of the seat
2. The seat belts weren't releasing readily on either the driver or passenger side.

I call at 2 pm and find that my service advisor is away from his desk and I leave him a message. I call back at 2:45 pm and try to get someone to give me some answers about what's going on with my car. After 20 minutes of run around, where apparently only MY service advisor can call the shop guys and ask about the status of my car, I get my service advisor on the phone, just back from a late lunch.

He then procedes to tell me that literally no work had been done on my car. They had to order the seat buckles which will require ANOTHER trip to the dealership (fine, I understood that they didn't have the parts). They had also not done anything about my Softex because they had to take a picture of the defect and they couldn't find it, even though I had pointed it out this morning. They then said they had to send the picture to Toyota and they had to determine if this was a defect or something that I had done to the Softex itself.

So, apparently my car had been sitting on their lot all day long, with no work being done. Why wasn't I called to come and pick up my car when it became clear that they didn't have the parts to repair it, especially when I said that I was under a time limit? If they had the car for over 6 hours, I would have assumed that they would have been able to take apart the engine and put it back in factory condition in that time (hyperbole I know). I was finally able to drive out of their service department at 3:30 and just made it to pick up my sister from school in time.

tl;dr: 6 hours in the dealership and almost being late to pick up my sister from school has resulted in 0 results and at least one more trip before anything can be solved.

 

Sounds like the SA is an idiot. Get it done and find a better dealership.

Mike

wanderin around on my phone

 

Low expectations are always helpful when dealing with a dealer. Which dealer are we taking about?

For what it's worth, I've generally had good experiences with Fred Haas Toyota, to the point that I'm willing to drive way out of my way to have work done there. Also, whenever I've called around for quotes on some specific service, they have consistently given the lowest quote, even compared to reputable independent shops. However, I sometimes still need to make followup calls sometimes.

When I had an emergency repair at Mike Calvert Toyota, I had to use a quote from Fred Haas to get a reasonable rate, and the service, communications, and waiting room facilities were not nearly as good.

I've also done alright with oil changes at Sterling-McCall.