I'm looking at upgrading my Model 3 (early VIN) from Gen1 front seats to Gen2.
I've found the Gen2 seats to be much more comfortable and I have chronic low back issues that get aggravated very easily with my Gen1 seats. I've attached a picture to show the difference - the Gen2 seats have more prominent side support so it holds your back in a much more cushioned fashion (and yes I've experimented with the lumbar support a lot!).
I spoke with my service center and they will do it, but it's very expensive (~$3600 for both front seats).
I'm trying to figure out if there is a way to do this cheaper, or myself, but haven't found anyone who has tried this yet (or at least has not posted about it).
Looking online, I can find used Model 3 seats on eBay for example. Some of these seats are only for the top half of the seat or bottom half, and others are for the bottom half.
This leads to me a few questions/possible scenarios:
1. Does anyone know if the top half of the Gen2 seat would fit into the Gen1 bottom? And would they match in color (black/black)? Or is this a terrible idea?
2. If I only swapped my driver seat and not the passenger seat, would that be noticeable cosmetically? The seats look pretty similar other than the slight angle changes but I'm unsure if there is any minor color difference in Gen1/Gen2 (or just 2 different sets of seats in general).
3. How hard is swapping out a seat? I'm very handy but haven't ever done major car work. I did handle adding in a bioweapon defense filter in Model S with no trouble. If I got my hands on a seat from a third party, am I just asking for trouble by doing a swap myself?
Appreciate any insight or guidance anyone may have. Hopefully I can be a trendsetter for those with early VIN Model 3s!
I've found the Gen2 seats to be much more comfortable and I have chronic low back issues that get aggravated very easily with my Gen1 seats. I've attached a picture to show the difference - the Gen2 seats have more prominent side support so it holds your back in a much more cushioned fashion (and yes I've experimented with the lumbar support a lot!).
I spoke with my service center and they will do it, but it's very expensive (~$3600 for both front seats).
I'm trying to figure out if there is a way to do this cheaper, or myself, but haven't found anyone who has tried this yet (or at least has not posted about it).
Looking online, I can find used Model 3 seats on eBay for example. Some of these seats are only for the top half of the seat or bottom half, and others are for the bottom half.
This leads to me a few questions/possible scenarios:
1. Does anyone know if the top half of the Gen2 seat would fit into the Gen1 bottom? And would they match in color (black/black)? Or is this a terrible idea?
2. If I only swapped my driver seat and not the passenger seat, would that be noticeable cosmetically? The seats look pretty similar other than the slight angle changes but I'm unsure if there is any minor color difference in Gen1/Gen2 (or just 2 different sets of seats in general).
3. How hard is swapping out a seat? I'm very handy but haven't ever done major car work. I did handle adding in a bioweapon defense filter in Model S with no trouble. If I got my hands on a seat from a third party, am I just asking for trouble by doing a swap myself?
Appreciate any insight or guidance anyone may have. Hopefully I can be a trendsetter for those with early VIN Model 3s!
