A few of us have suffered from this issue:



Dealer quoted me almost $900 to swap the seat cover, no thanks. I got a seat cover replacement from Richmond Auto Upholstery for $200 and installed it myself. The fit and finish are amazingly good! I'm still waiting for the cover to "relax" and take a little more shape which will happen over time.

 

I bought two from a guy on ebay (usautonation) for $145 each. My driver's side was split like yours, the passenger side looked like someone had something sharp in their back pocket. It was kind kind of a pain to get them on but they look great. Like yours I am waiting for them to settle in.

 

Looks pretty good to me.

 

Looks great, and real leather, too! How does the tone and texture match the vinyl seat back?

I bookmarked their site, thanks.

 

It matches perfectly actually. I'm lucky to have light beige seats so fading and weathering is minimal on that color. The leather texture also matches.

One thing to consider, the new seat cover has backing foam attached to the leather. The heating element will not be as efficient as OEM seat.

 

Nice! I sent them an email asking if they could custom make covers for my W221.

 

How hard was it to replace the seat cover? Is it simply remove and put back on?

 

Not hard. This lad has made a great video:
I took my time, didn't rush the steps. Happy to answer questions if you find yourself in a pickle during the process.

 

Good job, it looks like new

 

Great find. Thanks for sharing. I will recommend getting a seat cover replacement like this if they don't want to spend on reupholstery.

 

Would a CPO Warranty cover seat cover? Or just the original 4 year warranty?

 

Read the fine print.
Not too many warranties cover wearables.

 

I can't find anywhere the terms and conditions of the initial 1 year CPO warranty that start right after the factory 4 year warranty. My understanding it is different that the CPO "Extended" 1 and 2 additional warranties. where can they be found?

Also; are seat cover cracks and splits considered wearables and in that case they are not covered for2018 CPO models? Thanks

 

My 2014 front seats started to rip at the pleats. I took the car to a local upholsterer that did many antique and costume car seats.
He told me that he has done many of these years Mercedes seats. The problem is that the pleats are too tight and when you sit it
stresses the pleats and eventually rips at the stitching .
His solution was to give me larger pleats so the material gives more and no stress...
Problem solved! He charged me $300.00 per seat. It's been 5 years now and seats still look like new.

He replaced the bottoms only, He takes the old one apart, gets the same exact material, replicates old one, adds what he needs,
stitches it together copying the original perfectly...

 

I didn't know Bigfoots drive Mercedes...

 

LOL, strong Italian genes my friend.

 

no **** -----LOL

 

^^^ just a quick humor....... back to regular programming: Same thing happened to my driver's seat. I got the dealer to cover most of the repair out of goodwill. However, I bookmarked the website in case my passenger side goes south at some point.

 

I like your sweater. Does it come in a V-neck?
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/cf492b0...4-09f5f35d7190

I got the same thing going on here myself.

 

Did you know that scene was improvised? It was actually real waxing... Great movie.

 

Guys......

I, too, replaced my wife's E350 driver seat bottom with a USAutonation cover a few months ago and it fit very well. To accelerate the after-installation fit, I used my heat gun on low temp on the areas needed. It looks OEM perfect!

Rob

 

I'm seeing quite a range of prices for these seat covers.

$240 manufacturer's replacement (that may rip the same way)
$229 genuine leather Richmond Auto Upholstery (looks like their prices went up 15% in the past six months)
$143 vinyl / $175 leather - aftermarket replacement ex: usautoseatnation (ebay)
~$50 ebay aftermarket - a few dozen ebay sellers (when filtered to U.S. sellers)

I got the $143 version based on the good ebay feedback. Those $50 ones look like aftermarket dropship crap. I'll share my results here.

 

I got the $143 ebay vinyl/mbtex seat bottoms. They fit and look great, good match to the seat backs.

 

I would -definitely- not get the Chinese 50-80$ seat cover unless you are desperately broke. Although I''m not broke, I ordered one to give it a try, and there were two major problems. I sent it back without installing it.

1. The seat has no provision for the "pockets" for the seat heaters. there is no way with any technology that I have available to put the "old cover" pockets to the new seat cover.
2. The leather graining of the "chi-tex" is very poor compared to OEM. It was like flat sheet vinyl with some marks on it. It would not match the grain of the other seat, and it wouldn't even match the back of it's own seat.

OTOH, I was and am pleased with the $150-200$ US made cover I used for the driver side.

 

I took the opportunity to add seat heat. Dorman #628-040. I put the switch forward of the lumbar support and ran about 12 feet of wire to get power from the trunk fuse block. I wish it ran hotter. Wire for it appears to be thin-gauge and it came with a 10A fuse.

The color didn't match that well - and that's saying a lot when it comes from someone as colorblind as I am.

The seat attachment is different. It works with the blue clips but does not work wth the large white clips.