A Guide to Car Leather Upholstery in Singapore
Five Star Auto Leather / 12 May 2023
So you finally made the decision to treat yourself to a new set of leather seats for your beloved car! But your excitement may soon turn into confusion as you start your research on the many MANY options and choices available. Let us demystify the world of car leather upholstery in Singapore, and share some tips on getting the best deal (and also the right deal!) for your car.
1. How do you get new leather seats?
At Five Star, we remove existing seats covers and replace with completely new leather. There are other alternative options such as dying the existing leather or placing new covers over the old ones, but full replacement is our recommended option as it would look the most fitted, letting you feel like it’s a whole new car again.
Or do you just have a small problematic area on your seats? Like the side of the driver seat which suffers the most wear and tear? Instead of replacing whole seats, we also offer services to replace just selected pieces of leather on your seat, which can be a more affordable solution.
For downtime, most car upholstery workshops require some time to manufacture and/or ship over your order but actual installation shouldn’t take more than a day or two. If you are engaging other services such as spray painting your car, ask your car upholstery workshop to make arrangements to do the leather seat installation at the same time. This will greatly help to reduce downtime for you.
2. What material to choose?
The material of your seats is the most crucial choice to make as it will greatly determine your entire budget. Most car upholstery workshops will quote you 3 options: PVC, half leather and full leather.
PVC is the most affordable option usually requested for pick-up trucks, vans and rental cars which have to endure heavy duty use. It has a more plastic feel and gets hot pretty fast when you sit on it.
Half Leather means the seat is a combination of leather and PVC – the front of the seat which touches your body is in leather, while the sides and back of the seat is in PVC (see picture below). This is the most popular option for personal use cars as it feels premium yet still friendly on your wallet.
Do note that Half Leather may be limited to standard color options like black and grey as the car upholstery workshop must be able to closely match the color of the PVC with the leather.
Full Leather means that the whole seat (front, back and sides) is in leather, and is a luxurious option which you can choose especially for more unique colors such as burgundy and caramel.
The type and quality of leather is, of course, the next big consideration, and to which we have dedicated an entire article: “3 Types of Car Leather & How to Identify Them”.
3. What’s included in the price?
Always confirm with your car upholstery workshop what’s included in the price quoted to you. For example, matching door panel are usually complimentary for Japanese make cars, but may be charged separately for continental cars. You can also ask if there are free add-ons such as adding foam to parts of the seats where years of usage have damaged the internal foam structure.
Other upholstery services such as steering wheel and gear knob rewraps are generally charged separately. If you are interested in such rewraps, we suggest going back to the same workshop that did your seats so that the rewrap leather can be the same matching leather used for your seats. The same workshop is also likely to give you a cheaper package price if you do it all together.
4. What can I customise?
For seats, embroidered personalised logos, colored stitching and two color (“two tone”) designs are just the tip of the iceberg. You can also ask for customised stitching patterns such as diamond in the center of your seat (see picture below). Don’t be afraid to ask the car upholstery workshop if they have special materials such as carbon fiber and faux suede (“Alcantara”) as well.
But the more complex the customisation, the more it will cost. While one workshop’s base price is lower, but after adding up all the extras, you may sometimes find another workshop’s price more attractive. Always ask the upholstery workshop for a breakdown on the customisation costs so that you can decide on a design which suits your budget. At Five Star, we offer complimentary colored stitch and customised seat patterns in the picture above.
5. How to decide on a car leather upholstery workshop?
Google is your best friend! Additionally, you can read customer reviews as well as check out finished product photos and videos on social media platforms such as Facebook. Carousell is also a popular media for car related services in Singapore.
We recommend asking a few workshops for their quotes, and ask questions! Chat with them on their material quality, price breakdowns or their design opinions. A good car upholstery workshop is always upfront and transparent about their material and costs, as well as offer good (and patient!) customer service from their salespeople.
After shortlisting a couple of workshops, we recommend dropping by to see their workers in action and feel the leather samples in person before making any decisions. After all, a set of new car leather seats is an important purchase which you will have to live with for years – we know you would want to take the time to make the right decision.
© Five Star Auto Leather 2023