Why Spend Extra for Custom Covers?

Gone are the days of the clear plastic seat cover, guaranteed to keep you at the top or bottom of the temperature scale, in just the wrong season. Now the variety is endless from your favorite cartoon character to football teams. The range of seat covers goes from the glorified bag with stretching sides and back to the custom tailored version made to every detail of your seats.

With so many options out there, it's hard to choose. Why spend more than you have to, when there are so many great generic options out there?

Seat covers help protect your seats from the many aspects of using your vehicle: wear, dirt, cigarette burns, children and pets, discoloration from sunlight, and so on. Normally, between you and the foam in your seat is only a thin layer of upholstery. Keeping that layer protected can save you an expensive trip to the upholsterer down the road. Seat covers are about as easy to clean or replace as the sheets on your bed.

But what to protect it with?

For standard bucket seats with adjustable headrests, or molded headrests built into the rest of the seat, a standard generic cover might work. Unless you have Side Impact Airbags. (Check for the SRS label in the side seam of the seat backrest or side door.) It is crucial not to limit the airbag's ability to expand in that split second, or to cause its force to be sent elsewhere. The cover tailored to the vehicle will have an opening panel to allow airbag deployment. Much safer.

Generic seat covers are generally made from cotton or similar fabrics with a stretch back so it will fit many seat sizes, usually one piece construction, meant to stretch over the back and under the front of the seat. In some brands, principally Toyota, that gap is closed off, making it often difficult to keep your cover in place. Not to mention that if your seat belts come out of the top of the seat, these covers simply won't work.

Got anything other than bucket seats? A split bench seat in a truck? Second and third row seating for SUVs? The back seat in your sedan? For these seats, your only options are custom seat covers, or new upholstery, unless you're happy spreading a tarp over the back seat of your car, which may or may not work depending on what you're trying to protect your seats from, like kids or dogs.

Exact Fit Covers are made to each vehicle to fit like a glove taking into account every detail of your seat for each vehicle configuration. An example: 2004-2008 F150 Supercabs have seatbelts coming from the top of the seat itself, whereas the Crew Cab of the same year, make, model does not. And if your cover is going to fit, you need to know that.

In SUVs, the 3-row version of the vehicle will have a different middle seat than the 2-row version's rear seat, meaning you need a cover specifically for your vehicle.

If you don't have standard bucket seats, you'll likely need custom covers. Make sure they're tailored to your car, and not overly generic as to look sloppy. After all, why pay for something that makes your car look worse than it did before?

What about fabrics? Even if you have standard buckets, you may not be happy about the fabrics generic one-size-fits-most covers come in. Cottons and polyesters stretch and fade, and usually stick out like a sore thumb. A good custom cover will be made from an automotive fabric that can just as easily blend into the car as well as upholstery, or really stick out with two-tone fabric options.

Durability? Both Velour and Twill are tested against 30,000 rubs or more with a wire brush. Waterproof? Leatherette, a great-looking leather-like vinyl is probably what you want.

Why get a custom cover instead of something generic? It looks better, it fits better, it wears better, and you might even convince people you had the upholstery redone. Your car will be looking closer to new, in no time at all, and at a price that might surprise you.