Is Aftermarket Leather Worth It?

Some have reported a successful leather reupholstering job for about $1k. This included all 4 seats and armrest surfaces. Try searching the archives in the various Prius discussion groups.

JeffD

 

Have you looked into do it yourself "leatherette" kits from GTcovers or Wet Okole? I am thinking about these...about $400 for front and back seats. There are several threads on this.

 

Check with your dealer to see: a) who they use for leather upgrades; and, 2) what they charge. Then contact the vendor directly. We switched and couldn't be happier with the results as the original tan faux suede was filthy after less than a year. We also added seat heaters at the same time which has made our winter drives in Colorado much more comfortable.

 

I had my Katzkin leather interior installed by Premier Auto Tops and Interiors in Santa Clara. Their work is top notch, several Google searches turned up similar positive reviews of their work. They are very expensive however, charging as much as twice the labor cost of other installers, and they make no apologies for it. In one review I read, the reviewer told Roth (the owner) that he could get the work done for half as much at another shop, and he was told, "That's what it costs."

I haven't see any other aftermarket Prius leather installs that I thought were better than mine (mine looks like OE leather with perfect fit and no wrinkles), but I have seen other leather installs that I thought were just as good as mine for significantly lower cost. One was done by Classic Soft Trim in Union City and cost a few hundred less than I paid IIRC. I have seen some pretty bad leather installs on Priuses though, in fact more than half I've seen are what I consider unacceptable quality.

 

I bought a set of ClassicSoftTrim's leather kit for my Prius on EBay for $179 (real leather-trim w/ airbag stittching, not leatherette, what a steal!) due to their closing of Fresno branch.
I went to their Hayward office for installation. They charged me $500 for the installation. I asked them what would have been the total cost if I had used their kit. They quoted me for about $1.3K (same as what a dealer would charge you for).
Anyway, they do installation for a couple of nearby Toyota dealers if some customers ask for leather installation after buying new vehicles w/o leather. Their works are top-notch. Imagine that even Toyota dealers use their service. I saw a couple of Prius on site waiting for installation. Therefore, you can bet on that they know Prius inside out.

P.S. their address of Hayward office is wrong on their website. Make sure you ask them the correct addresss (on Diablo, I think) if you choose to go there.

 

I've done 20+ installs. Clazzio leather makes a great quality kit. Goes over existing cloth, or you can remove. I've installed katzskin and OEM kits. They are all great quality kits. Most oem kits install with hog rings, stretchers and pliers. More time consuming, and produces a great end result. The clazzios install more like conventional seat covers, but are precisely cut and look spectacular. Many dealers install these in leu of oem kits, due to the coat savings and quality finished product.

LOL just noticed this thread is 7 years old