Leather Wrapped seats...Good/bad?
 

Wow my first question!
I bought my 03 MP5 in Dec and I have to make a date with the dealer to get my seats wrapped in leather. I took the $1,000 leather option from the dealer for leather seats. However, the car I ended up with didn't have leather seats, but the sales genius decided to write up an "IOU" for leather seat wrapping. I thought I was going to get new leather seats put in, but apparently I was wrong. Now I have to set up a date to get the seats wrapped or try and get the $1,000 back (which may be difficult).

My question is, should I even bother with getting the seats wrapped? Anyone have this done before? I'm thinking it's going to look pretty nasty. I personally have never heard of it before, and I'm thinkin I may just stick with the cloth and do w/o the leather. Plus the sales dude owes me a full tank of gas. Advice?

I had some seats done on a new car once. The model I got did not have a leather option and I thought I just had to have them. The quality of the after-market kit was very good. The leather was a little stiffer than the factory, however that was a good thing (the leathers was thicker for longer wear).

The “wrap” they are talking about is a kit that replaces the cloth on your current seats. They will remove the cloth and replace it with leather. The kits are made to look like the factory leather, but if the factory seat had any different molding, such as a back support or seat wing, it won’t be on the after-market kit. All in all I liked the seats, however I like the fabric on the Protégé and it’s a little cooler to sit on. To each his own.

I would, however, demand a refund for the difference in the cost of the seats. The aftermarket kit installed should be no more than $800.00 US and this should include leather inserts in the door panel and arm rest.

Bob

I've seen katzkin yellow and black leather seat covers on a P5. Looked very good and was about $1000

$1,000 for leather from the dealer? The first two dealers I went to didn't have any P5's with leather and tried to pull the same b.s. with me, so I walked out on both of them. The dealer where I bought my Pro5 took the time to find one with exactly the options I wanted, no more and no less. Factory leather is a $400 option in the Protege5...why bother with a more expensive aftermarket job?

well lets start this out right....Hello Flare and Welcome to our happy little corner of the net, and to our Club. There are TWO BIG fridge'S in the corner with anything you can think of in them...help yourself...of course only take what you can LEGALLY have.

make yourself at home on one of the big fluffy couches, kick your shoes off, put your feet up on one of the tables, yes we are allowed to do that, mom don't care....and take it easy.

oh...btw....every once in a while a food fight breaks out...so you may not want to wear nice clothes here.

Welcome!!

As for the Leather....if you paid your dealer $1000 for the FACTORY LEATHER OPTION...they ripped you off....as mentioned before it was supposed to be only $400....and you can find that right on the mazda web site.

as for AFTERMARKET leather seats.....as mentioned the katskinz leather is about $800 or so for their kit...and its VERY nice....I saw two p-5s done with their kits before the factory offered leather...and it looked great...

as for if you should have it done or not? I guess that is really up to you.....and where you live....I live where its REALLY hot during the summer....you couldn't pay me to have leather seats.....

Well thanks for the welcome and all the tips so far.

I saw in a car buying mag at Borders, that leather seats for the new MP5s are like $395 for the option.

Looks like I should have done a lot more research! Then again my Probe was dying fast, so I really had no choice but to go with what I got. I did get the car for $286/month and no APR for five years. That's pretty hot! :bt:

Whoops!! :D My recommendation (for the future) is to go on the MAZDA site and configure the options, it'll show you the price, or you can even do something like CarsDirect.com, bring that in so you can be sure you're charged fairly.

My dad just got a WRX, which doesn't come with leather seats from the factory. The dealer installed leather seats for $1200 (actually through another company), I think in the future it'd be better to go to the leather company directly though. (I'm pretty sure the dealer made some profit off that). The leather is pretty good except some of the stitching could be a little better. But my dad is going to ask about that this weekend (he got it last weekend).

Congrats on your purchase of a Protege 5 though!!!!

I would find the kit you want and tell the dealer to either install that or give you your $$ back.