I currently have a 2002 X-Type. Its in relatively good condition, but one of the "must repairs" is a new drivers seat. I see them on ebay all the time for a reasonable price, so please school me on my options. Initially, I was simply going to have an upholstery shop re-skin the seat, but is that my best option? Am I better off purchasing a nice condition used seat and bolting it in place, or is recovering the original seat the best option? If recovering, what covers do you recommend? Please advise.

 

bikerlaw, this is a chance that you take if you go the recycler seat: the leather is not going to be quite the same shade (due to sun fade, amount of cleaning, ground in dirt, etc) and you are going to end up with a seat that looks replaced. Will it happen all the time? No. But, it is a risk that you are talking. So, unless you can find a local recycler that will let you take the seat out to your car to make sure the leather is the same shade, it will be a gamble as to how well things will match up.

While I will admit that getting the seat re-skinned will be a bit more expensive, I have 2 benefits that you will get from it. The first being that the upholstery shop can fine tune the leather to make sure that it matches perfectly and in short, you won't be able to tell that it has been replaced. Secondly, they can replace the foam in the seat to restore the seat back to its original firmness, resulting in a better seat.

Hopefully others will have some opinions on this subject.