2003 Jeep Liberty:

One spot on the driver's seat is showing through to the foam. The passenger bucket and bench backseat are good as new.

I don't know of any repair method other than a professional and don't want to sink a ton of bucks into an '03 vehicle.

So, I'm looking online at replacement seat covers and leaning toward CalTrend and Coverking offerings.

Neoprene seems to be a popular replacement but I have some questions about it.
-How are they in cold winters and boiling summers?
- Are they prone to hold static?
- How do they handle normal/casual dirt and debris?
- What am I not asking that I need to know about Neoprene replacement seat covers?
- Oh, and I have a couple of medium size dogs I transport around a few times a year. How do Neoprene seat covers get along with pets?

I'm not limiting myself to the mentioned choices. Recommendations greatly appreciated. Thanks !!!

I do not know how comfortable it would be sitting on Neoprene. I used neoprene gloves when I worked with caustic chemicals. It held up well but was pretty slippery.

Also wondering about expected durability of neoprene as a driving surface. Bottom line is I question if I'll be happy with neoprene seat covers or not, as compared to OEM cloth.

I bought "Neosupreme" covers from Coverking and my experience was poor. The velcro on the cargo pants I wore for work, wore a hole in the seat cover fairly quickly getting in and out. My experience with customer service was odd at best. I tries several times to BUY a new lower half in neoprene because I figured it would be stronger. The first two or three inquiries went unanswered.("I'm trying to give you money and you won't take it?!?") Finally I said screw you, okay replace it. Which they did. The whole seat cover, upper and lower. Replaced it with the original Neopsupreme, which lasted an even shorter period of time.

I replaced them this January with real neoprene ones. I spent my money elsewhere though after dealing with Coverking. So I've only had them six months, mot long at all, but so far so good. One complaint you hear is that they're hot... which I was going to say I haven't found, but I realized it hasn't really been all that hot here yet this year.

The main point of my post being... don't buy Neosupreme ones.

Two words: "Wet Okole."

My experience with various types of seat covers has led me to just go to an auto upholstery shop and have the damaged part of the seat reupholstered. Most of the time on older cars and trucks than you are dealing with.

I bought Wet Okole the second time around. I will say the Coverking ones fit better.

quote:

My experience with various types of seat covers has led me to just go to an auto upholstery shop and have the damaged part of the seat reupholstered. Most of the time on older cars and trucks than you are dealing with.

The problem is....
the old time auto re-upholstery shops don't want to work on newer cars. They have to take out the seats. They are afraid of blowing an airbag when they do so.

quote:

Originally posted by Hobbs:
Neoprene seems to be a popular replacement but I have some questions about it.
-How are they in cold winters and boiling summers?

I've been using neoprene seat covers since 2000, in a wide variety of conditions, including -10F winters, and 95F+ summers. They are a hell of a lot more comfortable than leather, or that god awful vinyl that was popular in the 70s and 80s.

quote:

- Are they prone to hold static?

Nope.

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- How do they handle normal/casual dirt and debris?

Quite well. I got them to keep a lot more than normal/casual dirt off the seats, and they are great. Wet/muddy dog? No problem. Snow and ice from skiing? No problem. Drunk friend spilling a margarita in the back seat? No problem. 1 year old puking? No problem. Still sweating buckets after a hard workout? No problem. I take them out at least once a year and hose them off, let them hang to dry, and put them back. Things like the margarita and the puking toddler, are what cause me to it more than annually.

quote:

- Oh, and I have a couple of medium size dogs I transport around a few times a year. How do Neoprene seat covers get along with pets?

My 60# Golden Retriever does fine, the previous one did fine, and a wide variety of other dogs I've had on them over the years also did fine. Again, much better than slippery leather.

quote:

I'm not limiting myself to the mentioned choices. Recommendations greatly appreciated. Thanks !!!

The OEM Nissan ones I got in 2000 finally got a small year in the driver's side cover after 13 years. The custom Wet Okole ones which were much more expensive than the Nissan ones, are starting to have problems after 5 years. However they looked phenomenal for those first five years. Most people didn't realize that they weren't factory upholstery.

If you're not worried about looks, I would just get the neoprene seat covers that they have at Costco. I've been using them in my work vehicles for years, and used them to replace the worn out front seat covers in the Nissan. They are $20-$25 for a pair. They won't fool anyone into believing it's factory upholstery, but they will do what you need for a tiny fraction of the cost of other options. My wife wanted the look of the Wet Okole, and they looked nice, and we did get five years out of them, but for me I would just go with the cheapies from Costco.

https://www.costco.com/Wetsuit...oduct.100403694.html

The site shows them as $25, for a pair, but my local Costco has had them for $20 the last two months.

Dang, if you were up here, we'd use my industrial upholstery machines and sew in new panels.

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Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
Two words: "Wet Okole."

This.

The problem with neoprene seatcovers is that they don’t breath, at all. Depending how hot the summer gets where you live, your butt and back may get pretty sweaty; in the south they call it swamp-ass.
The more expensive ones like Wet Okole may be designed a bit better as far as air circulation goes, I don’t know. But at that price point, you could get your whole seat reupholstered. I personally use Cabelas seat covers:

https://www.cabelas.com/produc...YvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Despite being universal, they fit pretty well and the canvas material isn’t tissue-paper thin. Overall, best bang for my buck when I was searching for seat covers and I’ll buy them again if need be.