Car Seat Covers

That Guy

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2009
Location
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
TDI
2001 MKiv Golf TDI
Hey guys,

I'm looking around for some seat covers for my 2001 Golf.

Cover King seems to have quality and support issues.
Wet Okole's seats are apparently sweat traps in summer. And some people have had quality issues with how fast they wear out and fade.

Decor Auto seems to have good quality. I'm considering getting the Cordura seat covers from them.

Albert Premium also seems to be good quality. Plus they they have some very good looking seat covers, and a lot of customization options. However they are expensive, and I can't seem to find any independent reviews of them.


Has anyone used Albert Premium, or Decor Auto?

Or have you used any other companies seat covers?
 

OlyTDI

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 18, 2007
Location
Olympia, WA
TDI
'04 Golf
Not sure what you're seeking: cosmetics, warmth/cooling or both.

Before I bought Recarros, I used to cover the crappy factory seats with sheepskin and tuck a little lumbar support under them. Worked and were comfy in winter/summer.
 

gatz

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 29, 2005
Location
Windsor, CT
TDI
2005 Mk4 Golf TDI PD, 2006 MkV Golf GTI
I was looking for covers for our ripped seats and found that most cover up the side air bag.. Ended up just buying new seats from a salvage yard. For $75/ea and they looked factory new.
 

mjydrafter

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2015
Location
dsm, ia
TDI
2004 Jetta Wagon
My wife got a set for her Passat from Amazon that say they are airbag compatible.

They fit pretty well, but they are still covers, so a show car it is not. They are okay, and we got them because the interior is pretty mint in her car.

Probably more expensive than decent junkyard replacement seats, but the hard part is finding decent color matched junkyard seats. A lot of them I see in the JY are worse than what I have, or the airbags are deployed.

I found a set of leather cabrio seats for my MK3 at the JY, but I think I got pretty lucky. They still had some wear and tear and aren't perfect. I ended up swapping the seat backs, so the side bolster wear is on the inside of each seat. So the seat controls are on the inside as well.
 

UhOh

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Dec 24, 2014
Location
PNW
TDI
2000 & 2003 Golf GLS (2005 Mercedes E320 CDI)
I was looking for covers for our ripped seats and found that most cover up the side air bag.. Ended up just buying new seats from a salvage yard. For $75/ea and they looked factory new.
^^^ Beat me to it! (now, if I could find a set of heated seats in beige that are as nice as my existing seats!)
 

That Guy

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2009
Location
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
TDI
2001 MKiv Golf TDI
Well, I put this on the back burner for a while, but I just got a bit of money back from my job so I think I might splurge a bit here.

The seats are in great condition as it is. Except for a spot where it's just starting to wear through on the drivers seat. So what the heck, gonna get me some fancy seat covers.

I think I'm gonna go with these guys: http://carseatcovers-albert.co.uk/
I'm leaning towards the Exclusive collection.

(my wife is gonna kill me.) :)
 

That Guy

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2009
Location
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
TDI
2001 MKiv Golf TDI
Meh, I may be changing my mind.

For the same price I can get partial leather seats from www.leatherseats.com. So I'm checking into it. They are sending me some samples to check out.

The pricing took into account taxes, exchange rates, shipping, and duty. (Duty and tax adds about 25% to my bill for car seat covers from Europe. However I only pay 5% tax on covers made in North America.)

And my wife found out. Didn't kill me though, but she still wants me to get a new car instead of spending money on the old one. Phzzt
 

Dorsal

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 10, 2011
Location
Victor Idaho
TDI
2000 golf gls F350 Crew 7.3l 2002 gls bone stock
Meh, I may be changing my mind.

For the same price I can get partial leather seats from www.leatherseats.com. So I'm checking into it. They are sending me some samples to check out.

The pricing took into account taxes, exchange rates, shipping, and duty. (Duty and tax adds about 25% to my bill for car seat covers from Europe. However I only pay 5% tax on covers made in North America.)

And my wife found out. Didn't kill me though, but she still wants me to get a new car instead of spending money on the old one. Phzzt
Nice looking covers, I need to do something myself. If you go that route let us know what you think. Thanks
 

SilverGhost

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2005
Location
Back in So Flo - St Lucie
TDI
'05 Golf - totaled :(, wife's '13 Beetle - buy back, TDIless
Just friendly reminder - check the box for side airbags. The custom seat cover places I have researched can change the stitching to accommodate airbag without much problem.

Jason
 

That Guy

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2009
Location
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
TDI
2001 MKiv Golf TDI
So I went with Leatherseats.com. (And got a Black Friday deal too.)
Our Canadian dollar is dropping, and the US one is rising. I expect this to get worse over the next few years, so now was as good a time as any to do this.

Black leather with perforated medium red inserts and medium red double stitching. I considered doing something more flashy, but on second thought I decided to give it some color but nothing over the top.

They are airbag friendly, and they should look pretty good. Will take a few weeks before they are delivered.

The company was pretty good about double checking all of the details..multiple times. They've been very professional, helpful, and friendly.

These covers are factory fit types. So I will be removing the velour and replacing it with the leather. It comes with all of the factory attachments.
This will require the removal of the seats from the car to do the work, but it doesn't look difficult.

I also found a way to rejuvenate my existing foam. Apparently you can use steam to puff the foam back up to it's original shape, and it apparently holds the shape after the treatment. Seems pretty easy to do.
I just need to figure out how I'll do it. I have a steam mop that I might be able to use, or I may rent something, or I may MacGyver something together for the job.

The only down side is that I'm not sure when I'll be able to do the work. I use the car daily. I may start with the rear seats and the passenger seat. Meh, I'll figure something out.

I'm also toying with the idea of replacing the seat heater in the passenger seat. My wife uses it a lot, and says that it doesn't eat up as well as it used to...not too bad for 15 years of use. But ya, if I'll have the seat apart anyway, it might be worth replacing that too.

Hopefully it will be fun to do and look good/professional.
 

That Guy

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2009
Location
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
TDI
2001 MKiv Golf TDI
Okay, the seats in my 2001 Golf TDI are all done. I didn't take a picture yet, but if you've looked at LeatherSeats.com you get the idea. They look great. :D

You will need to remove each seat and seat-back to work on it.

Bought a fabric steamer to puff up the old foam in the seats.

Reused the seat heater pads. Required removing them from the original seat covers...by ripping out the stitches. This causes the old seat covers to come apart too, but they won't be getting reused so no big deal. Then had to sew the heaters onto the new leather covers. So ya, a lot of sewing. But they work. Just takes a bit more time to warm up due to the extra padding and leather.

Fixed the seat height adjustment spring in both front seats. Required finding a nut and bolt that could be used to replace the broken bit that the spring originally connected to.

Cleaned and greased some parts:
-some metal on metal squeaky bits in the seat backs
-the pin and track (for sliding the seat)
-the gear for adjusting the seat back

In the new leather, the center of the three indentations in the seating area of the front seats didn't have a sleeve for holding the cover down like the original did, but it still looks okay without it.
I realized later that I could have used one of the sleeves from the original covers there. Would have had to sew it onto the new cover, but whatever...spilt milk.

Also in the new leather, the seat backs of the rear seats used a hog ring attachment, which the originals didn't use. So the seats don't have attachments for this, but I found a way around it by using the original metal rods from the original seat covers. I connected the rods to the seats as they would be if they were in the covers. And then attached the new covers to those with hog rings. Worked great.

Today is the first day that I've driven it with all of the seats done.
I did the rears first, as they were fairly easy.
Then the passenger seat. Had it out for a week...took some time to decide how I wanted to handle the seat heaters.
Then lastly the drivers.

Unless you already know how to do it, or have a lot of spare time, energy and, strength, I'd give yourself a couple of days per seat.

Oh, and if you go with LeatherSeats.com, get them to send you some samples of the colors you are interested in. They'll probably offer to do that anyway. The colors of the samples were a bit different than the colors on the website. I would not have liked my original choices. I highly recommend getting some samples before you decide on the colors.

PS: I didn't bother disconnecting the battery for the front seats. So I've got that ABS light on my dash. But I have the Rosstech VCDS software, so I'll clear that myself.
 

That Guy

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2009
Location
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
TDI
2001 MKiv Golf TDI
Finally....4 years later and I remembered to take a picture of the new seats.
I was sharing files via my NAS previously, but due to some hacking attempts from China, and the fact that I'm at home most of the time now (working from home) I just decided to block that from Internet access. (PS, the hackers got nowhere, but it was annoying.)
So I had an Instagram account that I used to use way back and decided to just use that to share the pictures here. Quick and dirty. :)

Old seats:
The driver's seat was wearing through close to the door on the lower area. You can't see it in here, but it was there.
http://instagr.am/p/CTdPNcCppyb/ http://instagr.am/p/CTdO2ifppyW/
New seats:
This is four years after replacing the seats with the two tone leather seats. They are holding up extremely well.
http://instagr.am/p/CTdPq6rJmTP/ http://instagr.am/p/CTdPf1ppOEu/
 

csstevej

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 12, 2004
Location
north nj
TDI
2001 golf tdi 4 door auto now a manual, mine, 2000 golf 2 door M/T son's,daughters 98 NB non-TDI 2.0, 2003 TDI NB for next daughter, head repaired and on road,gluten for punishment got another tdi 2001NB,another yellow tdi NB
Very nice !
 

UhOh

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Dec 24, 2014
Location
PNW
TDI
2000 & 2003 Golf GLS (2005 Mercedes E320 CDI)
Beautiful!

And amazing that you followed up!

I miss leather. But, cloth is less sticky in the heat. My current dog would have destroyed leather seats: put it in the category of "This is why I can't have nice things.":LOL: I DO, however, have a leather steering wheel, so I get a bit of that leather smell :)

I ended up buying a parts car in order to get seats for my car: used other parts from it as well; managed to, over a long time, recoup my costs through the sale of parts (not something for the impatient!). Had to solder a broken thermister wire in the driver's seat. Wasn't so lucky with the wife's "new" car; heating element(s) burnt up, so replaced both bottom and back pads (purchased from VW- ouch! but, as expensive as this is it's still probably cheaper overall).
 

VincenzaV

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2015
Location
New Hampshire
TDI
2004 Jetta Wagon
That Guy! Thank you so much for posting this, I felt hopeless with dealing with my few but large upholstery stains. These look OEM+. Your pics show some of the best seat cover fitment I've seen anywhere. Love it!!!
 

Lightflyer1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Sep 13, 2005
Location
Round Rock, Texas
TDI
2015 Beetle tdi dsg
I did some seats in a truck I flipped and used Leatherseats.com too. Excellent results and the price wasn't bad. I also bought new cushions though and had it professionally done. It sold for a pretty penny partly due to how the new seats made it look. Glad you like them! My plain Beetle seats are hard and get to me over time on longer drives. I just bought these cushions for them. Fit nice and makes it comfy in there. fits the whole bottom of the seat.


Nothing wrong with the upholstery, just hard.
 

That Guy

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2009
Location
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
TDI
2001 MKiv Golf TDI
Temperature wise I haven't had any issues with the new seats.
I haven't stuck to them yet in the summer. And I wear shorts most of the time and it can get to 30C+. In winter they have been fine too.
The heating works well too. I was worrying that the new seats may insulate the elements a bit more making it take longer, but it's been fine. My wife prefers my seats to the ones in her newer GTI....as they heat up faster.
 

SilverGhost

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2005
Location
Back in So Flo - St Lucie
TDI
'05 Golf - totaled :(, wife's '13 Beetle - buy back, TDIless
Stupid question - do these seat covers replace the original fabric covers or fit over top of them? Just trying to get my head around the seat heating part of it.

Jason
 

That Guy

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2009
Location
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
TDI
2001 MKiv Golf TDI
Late reply...really late. :)
They replace the original seat covers. It was a bit of a process, but doable.
There are metal rods that the covers attach to. And some plastic parts around the sides that they also tuck into.
I removed the seats from the car one at a time. Brought them in the house and replaced the covers. Did it over Christmas break in 2017 I think.
The heated seats part is sewn into the original covers. I had to cut the threads to pull them off the old covers...which basically takes the old covers apart. And sew them into the new covers. The heaters are made way better than any of the after market stuff I could find. Plus I don't need to change any switches, wiring, or anything.

I also took the opportunity to puff up the seat foam. Can use a steamer to do that. I also cleaned and lubricated the moving parts in the seats. And fixed the handle on the side that moves the seat up and down. The front seats have a big spring attached to that handle that helps make it easier to pump the seats up and down. It's attached at one end to an aluminium rivet, which breaks off, even if it never gets used. Mine was broken on both front seats. I replaced the rivets with steel nuts and bolts. Getting the spring back on it was a pain. It's super strong and hard to get at. You don't need those springs. I found that it doesn't make that much of a difference. But I was in there, so what the heck.
In any case if you do this make sure to give yourself a lot of time, just in case.
This car is my daily driver so I waited for a vacation to do the work....so I had plenty of time just in case anything went sideways. Although I think it only took me a weekend to do. But it was pretty much all I did that weekend.

So I've had the new covers for a few years now and they still look good as new. And the heated seats are still working fine too.
I just replaced the cover on the gear shifter last week. I was putting in a short shifter from DieselGeek and took the opportunity to replace that old vinyl gaiter with a leather one from the Leatherseats.com guys that matches my seats.

That process also wasn't too bad. Although the old vinyl gaiter has an elastic around it's bottom that snaps easily into a groove in the base, and the new leather one didn't have that. It had to be glued onto the base. But it worked, and it looks fine.
Getting it off the shifter knob wasn't too hard, but getting it back on was a bit of a pain. There's a plastic ring that holds the top of the gaiter to the knob base, and it was an extremely tight fit. I found that using a large socket that I've used for the main bolt on the wheel hubs was just the right size to force that ring back on evenly all the way around. If you ever do it, you'll know what I mean. It made that much easier to do.
 

That Guy

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2009
Location
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
TDI
2001 MKiv Golf TDI
I deleted my Instagram account a while back, which did away with my pictures here. So here they are again. :)

Rear seats
Front seats
Front seats before installation
Rear seats before installation

The way the covers attach to the seats is the same front and back. However the covers they sent me, although a perfect fit, weren't setup with the correct attachment in either the front or the back. I can't remember which was wrong. But I found a way to get them to work. I think I used parts from the old covers and sewed them into the new ones. In any case it worked perfectly. No issues, even a few years later.
The back side of the covers

The original back seats
The original front seats
 

John Wesley Hardin

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 28, 2022
Location
Rockport Texas
TDI
2003 VW Jetta 1.9 Diesel GLS , Five Speed Standard Shift
Meh, I may be changing my mind.

For the same price I can get partial leather seats from www.leatherseats.com. So I'm checking into it. They are sending me some samples to check out.

The pricing took into account taxes, exchange rates, shipping, and duty. (Duty and tax adds about 25% to my bill for car seat covers from Europe. However I only pay 5% tax on covers made in North America.)

And my wife found out. Didn't kill me though, but she still wants me to get a new car instead of spending money on the old one. Phzzt
Well Rockport is a pretty small town. I see women that know my wife from to time. They ask me "Whats Mary doing " I say I have her working so I can enjoy the standard of living I've grown accustom too, which pisses them off for some reason
 
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