Leather Seats on E-bay??

[MAC4Runner]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=33702&item=2461449034

Anyone think this is legit?

 

[Noloc]

Sweet!!

If it is legit, that would be sweet !!! I had leather in my previous car ( Solara SE V6) and I miss it !

 

[SE4runner]

Hmmmm... the guy only has a feedback rating of 2. If anyone here buys from this person and gets the item delivered, please let us know.

 

[jharris2]

Plus, the desciption makes it sound like they could have a lot of vinyl, too. It says the sides and back are vinyl....does that mean only the seat facing is leather? Maybe that's why they are only $375.

 

[rando]

Plus, the desciption makes it sound like they could have a lot of vinyl, too. It says the sides and back are vinyl....does that mean only the seat facing is leather? Maybe that's why they are only $375.

Most factory automobile leather seats are vinyl sides and backs. Read the fine print at katzkin and others, they all make them this way. You can get 100% leather, but you'll pay more.

Either way, I still don't know if I'd do this deal. You can get the covers from Katzkin for about $750 shipped to your door. That's twice as much but at least it's a known distributor with a good reputation. Who knows what you'll get on ebay. Then again, $375 sure 'sounds' like deal!

 

[rando]

As a followup, I sent the sellers a message (through ebay) and it bounced! This could mean something fishy is going on or it could just be that their email server is down.

 

[rando]

Well, I guess the email went through after all. Strange. Below are my questions and the response I received. If anyone has some additional questions for these guys, let me know.

To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, February 23, 2004 1:45 PM
Subject: Question for seller -- Item #2461449034

Can you provide some close-up pictures of the 'actual' 2004 4runner covers (inside and out). Do these attach with hog-rings, glue, stitches, ...? Also, can you be more specific about which panels are leather. Does 'seating surface' include the lower and upper bolster areas and head-rests?

I'd like to see these in grey and graphite since i'm not sure which one will match the best with my 04 stone (grey) interior. Can you tell me more about your business? Can you provide recent references?

--REPLY--

From: "Auto Leather Inc." <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Question for seller -- Item #2461449034
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 19:52:57 -0500

We should have pictures of the actual kits available sometime this week. The seats attach with J clips and zippers while the door panels are usually glued over the cloth. The entire seating area is leather, bolsters, head rests and seats. Anywhere your body touches the seat is leather. When it says side is vinyl it means if you are sitting on the seat and reach down underneath or behind the seat you will feel vinyl. I am pretty sure you will need the smoke color because dark graphite is almost black. I attached the two colors to this email but I will send pictures of the grey kit to you. As far as our business we have been making leather seats in the USA about six years now and over 20 years in South America, Central America and Mexico. We provide leather kits to many trim shops around the country who install the leather for dealerships when customers request leather on there cars.

All our kits are made to each cars OEM standards to insure a perfect fit. We just started a couple of months ago to sell on Ebay to see what kind of market there was out there and it has been going fine. As far as references, feel free to contact the people who have left us feedback so far. And remember you can always return the kit before you install it if you do not like the quality. Thank you and I should have those pictures for you this week.

Jason Schmidt
Auto Leather Inc.

The attached color samples were the same ones that appear in the auction listing.

 

[rando]

Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 17:57:10 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Re: Question for seller -- Item #2461449034
To: "Auto Leather Inc." <[email protected]>

Jason,

Thanks for your reply. I have a few more questions while I wait for the pictures. The door panels on my 04 4runner are a charcoal colored brushed suede (probably synthetic), not cloth. It's probably not worth the hassle to replace those. Can you provide the kit w/o the door panels? Cost?

Also, do your skins include the seat pockets behind the front seats? How about the strap across the rear seat center arm rest? What material do you use on the back side of the rear seats? Factory seats use matching carpet here, not vinyl. 4runners with factory leather also come with a leather covered center console and steering wheel. Do you have covers available for those areas? Cost?

What kind of leather and vinyl do you use? How does your product compare with your competitors (Katzkin, Classic Soft Trim, etc)?

Thanks in advance

----REPLY----

"Auto Leather Inc." <[email protected]> wrote:
I finally have those pictures (see attachments). As far as your questions. The kit does come with the panels if you really don't want them we can take off $10 for the kit, they aren't worth much to us. The seats do have the seat pockets and the armrest does have the strap. As for the back of the rear seats, they have nothing there. The existing carpet needs to be attached to these seats. These kits do not come with leather for the center console or the steering wheel, they are things we do not produce. As far as our leather our quality is better than Katzkin and probably equal to CST. The leather that we use is the same leather that is used for Audi and BMW in South America. Any other questions feel freee to ask. Sorry for the delay.

Thank you.

 

[rando]

The front skins in smoke.

 

[rando]

The rears in smoke.

 

[rando]

The head rests, rear arm rest, and door panels in smoke.

 

[rando]

To: "Auto Leather Inc." <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2004 4:33 AM
Subject: Re: Re: Question for seller -- Item #2461449034


Jason,

Thanks I just rechecked the rear seat carpet area and I can clearly see what you mean. The carpeted panel attaches to the back of the seat. I didn't investigate exactly how.

The pictures appear to be beige, not gray. Do you have any pictures of the gray seats? If so, it might help if I could see pictures of the front and back sides of the covers. In addition, I noticed that there is a difference between your rear seat seam pattern and the OEM seats. Your bottom fronts and top backs are made with two panels. The OEM seats have 3 panels in these locations. Is there a reason for this discrepancy? Do you have any close up pictures of the 4runner skins installed?

Also the seats in the picture are two tone with the seating (leather) areas being a lighter color than the other areas (vinyl). Is that right? Are the gray seats two tone also?

Can you be more precise about the type of leather AND vinyl you use?

Thanks

--REPLY--

From: "Auto Leather Inc." <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Re: Question for seller -- Item #2461449034
Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2004 10:27:39 -0500

These pictures are the grey seats. The lighting may not be the best but they are grey and they are a factory match. They are not two tone, the leather matches perfectly with the vinyl its just that the leather shows lighter because of the lighting. As far as the seams, that is just the pattern that we use. Different manufacturers use different patterns. Katzkin is actually like ours and I think CST is different. There is no specific reason for it. As far as type of leather and vinyl I don't know what you are asking for. There really is no specific type it all comes from South America and is high quality. Sorry I can't help you on that one. As far as more pictures I will get you pictures of the back of the seats but as far as installed pictures we do not have any other ones. We do not install them ourselves we only produce them so we rely on our dealers to send us pictures. So it will take a long time to get more pictures if we ask them.

Thank you.

Jason

 

[jharris2]

Very interesting.....now, who's brave enough to be the guinea pig?

 

[SE4runner]

Very interesting.....now, who's brave enough to be the guinea pig?

If you wire $375 to my bank account, I'll be your guinea pig.

 

[rando]

LOL, me too!

 

[rando]

I still don't believe the vinyl and leather areas match. If they look different in the lighting in the pictures, then they'll probaly look different in many types of lighting. Either they are a different color or different texture. Either way, I don't think they are a good match.

I'm also kind of suspicious about his comment regarding the leather type. There are MANY different types and grades of leather and many processes for finishing the leather. It think his responses are a bit too general.

The pattern being slightly different still concerns me as well.

I'd like to have some leather skins but would hate to get taken for nearly $400 and/or have something that looks like ass in my new $30k+ ride.

 

[rando]

bump - since this auction was mentioned in another thread

BTW, I have pics of the back sides too, if anyone is interested. I've yet to get any 'solid' feedback from any of their customers. The only responses I've received so far were from people who had just bought the covers but not yet installed them.

 

[tkr128]

I know some of you were interested in these seats. I finally got the time to take a few pictures. Here is the front passenger seat bottom.

 

[tkr128]

Here's one of the rear seat. Sorry for the bad lighting.

 

[tkr128]

Another of the rear seat.