Fitting Leather Seats to my CX-5 Help!

[BazookaBoy]

Guys i have an opportunity to purchase some original leather seats for my CX-5 Maxx (very good price)
Has anyone done this before and can you fit the seat warmer mechanism retrospectively as well?
Moreover one of the side airbags has been let off so i will need to get one of them re-sewn.
Any advice???
Should i do it?

Cheers

Bazooka

 

[Ulrich]

How much are you supposed to pay for the seats and how much labor is it to install them? For about $1000 you can get your existing seats upgraded to full leather through a Katzkin installer (which is what I did and I am really happy with the result). Professional installation, warranty -- not sure the trouble of ripping out the existing seats, installing the new ones, possibly fixing missing parts, etc would be worth it to me just to save a hundred bucks or so... Oh, and the door panels are also part of the package.

 

[paris1]

That looks great Ulrich. And $1k seems awfully cheap! So Katzkin also provides the console armrest cover?

 

[fdew]

I note that ebay sellers are pulling the OEM seat covers off the seats of wrecked CX-5s so it can't be to hard to do.

Perhaps that is the easy way (Switch the cover, not the whole seat.)

I just looked, the front seats are 4 bolts each. Seems like less then an hour to swap them. I have swapped seats on a number of cars. The last one was a Saab. In order to save space and easily get rid of my original seats I did the swap in the junk yard parking lot. No problem. I don't know what you do about the side air bag. I would take the leather seat cover to a good shoe repair shop. They should be able to re sew the leather. I bet the wiring is all there for the warmer. You may need to get the dash switches if your car doesn't have them. and insert a missing fuse. I am guessing about that. I haven't done it.

 

[Ulrich]

That looks great Ulrich. And $1k seems awfully cheap! So Katzkin also provides the console armrest cover?

No, the console is stock. Their leather package includes the seat covers plus the door panels. Katzkin works with OEMs (including Mazda), so they are pretty good at color matches. I specified "sand" and what I got matches the rest of the interior pretty well.

You can also do two-tone seats and colored stitching for an extra hundred, I think. If you are thinking of doing this, call Katzkin for the contact info of your local installer, and then work out a price with him. The prices on the Katzkin website are too high (I think they say $2000 when our car is $1095). The installer I talked to would have thrown in colored stitching (black seats; red stitches, for example, for a sporty look?) for free if I had not gone through the dealer to get mine installed.

 

[Ulrich]

That looks great Ulrich. And $1k seems awfully cheap! So Katzkin also provides the console armrest cover?

Oh, sorry, did you mean the armrest in the back? Yes, that's all part of the package. I thought you were talking about the console between the front seats...

 

[paris1]

No, I was referring to the front armrest. I forgot that you started with a sand cloth interior for which that color armrest would be correct. I just contacted the installer rep for Katskin and he quoted me $1500 (incl cash discount) over the phone for a 2-tone treatment. I think that's the way I would go. He's going to stop by on his rounds next week to talk about options and colors. I'm not at all sure I'm going to go for it, but my all black cloth interior is pretty boring compared to your pictures AND we just picked up a 2013 BMW Z4 for my wife that has a coral red leather interior and I can't help feel her car is SO MUCH more sexy that mine!

 

[Ulrich]

Look at the end of this thread for another satisfied customer. Black leather with colored stitching; that little accent makes quite a difference already and may be a lot cheaper. Maybe that's an option for you?

--> http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123842584-Kids-amp-Cloth-vs-Leather-(Touring-vs-GT)

 

[paris1]

Look at the end of this thread for another satisfied customer. Black leather with colored stitching; that little accent makes quite a difference already and may be a lot cheaper. Maybe that's an option for you?

--> http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123842584-Kids-amp-Cloth-vs-Leather-(Touring-vs-GT)

No, that wouldn't get it. There's just way too much black in this interior to think that a few red stiches would brighten it up enough. Actually, what occurred to me might look really sharp would be a medium or chocolate brown (body color is Sky Blue Mica), but Katzkin is pretty limited on their colors (unless there's more available than the black, grey and tan I saw on their web site) and I think the tan would be too light.

 

[Ulrich]

I'm pretty sure they have more colors available than what you see on their website -- my "sand" isn't on there, is it?

Katzkin works with most OEMs, so I think they can dye to match just about anything. You may have to wait a little longer for a true custom order (my upgrade took three days including shipping since they had the product in their warehouse in California), but they can probably do just about anything.

At the end of the day it's just a matter of money, right?