Dealer Labor Cost on Replacement Seat Covers

[Hatrick]

Looking to get some thoughts from the group here on a quote I received from my East Coast Toyota dealer to replace both front and back cloth seatcovers in my 2003 4Runner Sport Edition. (the kids have literally ripped the covers off the originals).

The good news is that I was able to get replacement Original Factory Seatcovers set on eBay from another Toyota dealer for $100. (super cheap as someone swapped out cloth for leather on another vehicle and the dealer just wanted to offload them). The bad news is that when I went to my Toyota dealer to have them installed this week, they wanted $320 for the connecting hardware and $1,260 for the labor + tax ! I know this is a pretty big job, but it seems like a hefty price tag considering I'm supplying them with all the covers.

So my question is:

1. Is this price in line with what you would expect from dealers in your area. (I think my guys labor costs is $100/hr). Should I be shopping for another dealer?

2. Would I be better off going to some type of custom shop to do the same job? Is this something that only the dealer should be doing? What's a reasonable charge?

I'm not crazy about getting slip on covers over the originals, even though I know its cheaper and people rave about them.

Thanks in advance.

 

[CJ3Flyr]

I pick choice #2. Any interior shop should be able to do the whole job for under $400 (wild guess).

 

[tkr128]

Definitely try finding an upholstery shop to do it, it shouldn't be more than a couple hundred (400-600 sounds about right). Most shops charge around 1200 for a conversion to leather with the leather kit costing around 600-700.

It's not that hard to do, just time consuming. I switched out my cloth covers for leather by myself and it was pretty straightforward, even without any prior experience. All you need is a bag of hog rings, hog ring pliars and a couple other common tools. Take your time and work on one piece at a time. Don't discard any of the metal rods from the seatcovers already in your car, these are very important. The fact that the cloth covers on the front seatbacks use zippers makes it a whole lot easier to install. If you have the time and don't mind doing it yourself, you'll save a lot of money.

 

[Teqeeler]

Definitely try finding an upholstery shop to do it, it shouldn't be more than a couple hundred (400-600 sounds about right). Most shops charge around 1200 for a conversion to leather with the leather kit costing around 600-700.

It's not that hard to do, just time consuming. I switched out my cloth covers for leather by myself and it was pretty straightforward, even without any prior experience. All you need is a bag of hog rings, hog ring pliars and a couple other common tools. Take your time and work on one piece at a time. Don't discard any of the metal rods from the seatcovers already in your car, these are very important. The fact that the cloth covers on the front seatbacks use zippers makes it a whole lot easier to install. If you have the time and don't mind doing it yourself, you'll save a lot of money.

I also took out my cloth and installed the leather myself. You will get very sore fingers and cuts if you do it. I took the seats out and did it in my living room.
You don't need any prior knowledge to do it yourself, it is pretty straightforward,. But like he said it is very time consuming, It probably took me around 30 hrs or so for my seats with 3rd row seating, i lost track of time, but quite a few times i walked away in frustration lol.
You don't need hog rings or hog ring pliers. I used zip ties to secure mine. I used over 100 of them to secure them to the foam. Zip ties can be tricky and probably more time consuming then the later, but still work good.
The front seats are very difficult to do if they don't have zippers on the cover and middle seats can be somewhat difficult especially around the arm rest.

 

[wombie]

Wow - that's a lot of money for the installation. I think given it's a looks thing more than a mechanical thing I'd have to agree with other posters that you should try a third party rather than dealership option.

You could just get some Wet Okole seat covers (as you mentioned) anyway - they are far easier to clean than the cloth covers, they add padding, and I think they look better than the original factory covers. If you did that you could keep the replacement cloth covers for when you eventually sell the truck (or when your kids get past their destruction phase )