Nacho quoted 750 to 800 over phone to recover 'both' front seats ( but not the back covers of these same two seats). Seats & foam were in good condition and still covered by existing seat material. I had just bought this used vehicle as a second car and the covering surface was wearing & dingy so I wanted to replace / freshen it up.
I go to see Nacho in person, drive car in, he starts asking questions like what I do for a living, what other cars I own, how much I paid for car, etc. and talks about & shows me seats laying around that others never picked up because they have been working on their cars for years (?). (my car is just a generic 20 year old SUV).
Then he then points out that the drivers seat, the section of the bottom seat next to door side, had been recovered before. I looked more closely and the section that the side of your left thigh rests against had stitching that looked like a drunk did it and the vinyl was a slightly different color. I said something like "...oh, wow, you're right..". And we laugh about the poor workmanship.
He shows me a book of vinyl samples, I look through asking if this is all there is. He says "...everyone uses the same stuff.." "...This is all we use, unless customers bring us their own material". It all looks fine to me. I'm told they are all the same price, so I choose a generic beige color and then needing to wrap the visit up - I ask "how much?"
"$1,400" he says.
I mention our phone conversation where he quoted 750 ~ 800, which by looking at his face, he suddenly remembers, and now he starts the double talk. We both agree that if you are going to do something "you do it right". I thank him and say I will think about it and pleasantly leave.
I pull over and google surrounding auto upholstery shops in the area wondering if I somehow got confused about price quote over the phone. I drive over to one nearby on Vanowen (Nacho's is on Victory). Pull in, big place, Pedro is helping a guy with a new top model Tesla who nicked his interior fabric, I wait. Pedro quickly finishes and he looks in my car, shows me same brand sample book, but for some reason he has more samples and version / options in his book as well as another brand sample book I can choose from.
He quotes $750 total for 'both' seats, not redoing the back covers which are in excellent condition (same covers Nacho wanted to leave alone too) and writes quote and sample color I chose on his business card.
I drive off sobered to my conversation with Nacho. But also wondered if I was just being gouged or if there might be a quality / craftsmanship component to the price difference ?
The person I had purchased this used SUV from was friendly and said I could call if I ever had any questions. I remembered this because now I worried that since they also lived in same area that perhaps that seat section that Nacho pointed out, that had the terrible stitching, could have been done by a low priced local shop that I should avoid. I call him and he says.. "oh yeah, I had that repaired years ago, it was really worn." I asked if he remembered where he had the work done. "I took it to a place called Nacho's... I think they're on Victory or something... they did an ok job I guess.. but I wouldn't go back". "Why do you ask?" read more