Putting seat covers on a brand new car, crazy or not?

[jkarolyi]

A friend and I just went out to lunch and he drove up in his brand new 2005 Corolla S. I talked him into the "S" package since he was set on getting a Corolla. Seems like a neat little car for the money. His 1980 Corolla went almost 400,000 miles with only one engine overhaul!

So I get in and he has SEAT COVERS on his brand new car seats! I had seat covers in my ratty old '77 924 in high school because the seats were ripped, but I always pined for new upholstery which I couldn't afford then. But this guy has BRAND NEW seats and he's covering them up!!!

He said "I don't want the seats to wear out".

I said "Well, the rest of the car is going to get dinged and scratched, and eventually you'll have a worn out car with nice new seats! Enjoy your upholstery while the car is new."

He replied: "I think's an Asian thing, my family always does it to our new cars" (He's a first-generation Filipino-American). Any truth to this?

Am I the only one who thinks this is nutty?

[bryanthompson]

I have covers in the 944, but the seats underneath are ugly and not in great shape.

Don't seat covers cause some wear on the seats anyway?

[stevepaa]

Kind of a personal preference. My brother has covers on his 86 944 that he has had since new. He takes them off on occasion and the seats look new. But so does his car as he takes immaculate car of it and sends it to the dealer still for everything.

[pbs911]

I put Wet Okoles on my new truck after about 3 days. Nothing wrong with keeping the seats new, especially when resale comes around. The "new" seats will tend to overshadow any other wear and tear items to some degree.

[jrdavid68]

My father's first brand new car was a 1963 Impala. He had those bubble wrap seat covers put on immediately. The car still had those on it when he sold it in the mid '90's. The seats looked as good as the day he bought the car. He also only had 63,000 miles on it and other than a small rust spot behind the driver's side front wheel well, the car was absolutely spotless.

To each his own I guess.

I have a set of the real sheepskins for my 911 that I received for x-mas a couple years ago. We put them on, then a couple months later took them off to go to the track. They have not been on since (Pearl color if anybody is interested - I would call them more like a beige color).