Protection of car upholstery vs. replacement or repairs
By Lucio Carpinato
Wear and Tear
The main reason for car owners to fit car seat covers is to protect the original upholstery from dirt and accidental spills. However there is a less obvious reason why good quality tailored car seat covers should be considered:
To slow down the wear and tear process which may go undetected for months until the colours start to fade and the fabric to thin down to a degree that is no longer acceptable.
This is a steady process which even regular cleaning cannot reverse.
Nowadays car manufacturers are increasingly rejecting claims of premature wear of the upholstery arguing that this is part of the normal process of wear and tear so complete replacement of the original car seat covers may be necessary at some point in a car’s lifetime.
However do not expect the new car seat covers to wear any better.
Furthermore upholstery replacement can be very expensive, and even if replaced under the manufacturer's warranty you may still be charged for the cost of fitting. Keeping the car seats in good shape seems to be a difficult task these days unless precautions are taken at an early stage by fitting tailor made car seat covers.
In fact it's not uncommon for some car owners to report unacceptable wear of the driver's seat even after a few months of ownership.
Tailored car seat covers can give great long term protection by slowing down the wear and tear process and can increase the resale value to vehicles of any age.
Custom car seat covers are also an affordable way of renewing either old or worn upholstery for a fraction of the price of replacement.
Upholstery replacement under warranty
A typical problem that keeps occurring even on nearly new cars is a stretched and creased patch left on the leather cover of the driver's seat base which won't give the owner much concern until slight signs of cracking start to appear.
The solution to this problem is usually the replacement of the leather seat cover under warranty. Unfortunately this solution may bring in a new problem: the colour shade and finish of the replaced seat cover do not match the rest of the interior.
Car owners should bear in mind that the leather manufacturing process is quite complex. Because of its nature and complexity even a small change in the whole method may cause significant variations to the final product. This can be expected during the vehicle's production lifetime as car manufacturers attempt cost reductions all the time by improving the efficiency of their processes. This doesn't mean necessarily a lower quality product, in many instances it will be a better product indeed, however it will be a slightly different product for sure.
So replacing the original car seat cover may not always be the best solution.
Preventive protection by fitting a tailored car seat cover could be the solution to this common problem.
Some car owners are still reluctant to use car seat covers due to the bad reputation earned by cheap, badly designed universal car seat covers, however a quality, well designed protector won't cause any problem as neither looks nor full control of the seat's safety and comfort features will be affected.
Upholstery repairs
An alternative may be an invisible repair carried out by a professional upholster.
Invisible mending of burns, rips and other damage, although technically possible, is never long lasting and car owners will be presented with the same problem after a while.
The reason for this is quite simple: rips and similar unsightly damage always appear in areas where wear and tear is the greatest.
In order for the mended material to regain the original strength the repair has also to be durable and hard wearing. Unfortunately in most cases this means a visible repair which may not be a problem on patterned upholstery, but it may become pretty obvious on a plain or light pattern.
In the fortunate event that the damage is near to a seam, it is possible to hide the affected area within the seam, but if the fabric is thin and frayed then the repair will be quite large and therefore difficult to disguise.
It is possible for a professional upholsterer to carry out invisible repairs by replacing the whole panel of the seat with a matching fabric. For obvious reasons this is going to be more expensive.
Things can get pretty complicated when you consider that even the original material may no longer be a good match as it may be coming from a different production batch. Also color and texture differences may be still noticeable due the ageing process.
Another technique is to create a new seam if the rip or burn is too far away from an existing seam, however this option brings in a new problem: both front seats need to match so a new seam is to be sewn on both driver and passenger seat.
It goes without saying that all the repairs described above require the seat covers to be removed, so the cost of fitting them back is added to the final bill.
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