White seat covers? Thoughts?

[M3-Newbie]

Using the elec car grant/loan here in uk in order to get long range, which i felt was most important, I’ve had to get the base white with black seats... which is practical but makes me a little sad.... found the taptes ’premium nappa leather set’ which is well reviewed on their own website and claims to work with heated seats and more importantly all the air bags ( i did read the warnings in the manual) full set of covers are only £485 and 90 mins to fit allegedly but once done they look good... so i read....

Has anyone any real life experience / warnings / advice here?

I’ve heard of long waits for their stuff, but won’t have the car till mid august...

 

[NorfolkMustard]

Welcome

see if you can change your order? white interior is only £500 more than you’re paying

 

[bhav]

I would agree - why spend £500 on aftermarket which won't be perfect when you can spend £1,000 and get the white premium interior as it was intended.

If you can't afford, personally I just wouldn't bother!

 

[Durzel]

+1 on the white interior.

Covers just won’t be the same, and at 1/2 the cost of the actual white interior you’d be nuts to go for it in my opinion.

 

[Dilly]

+1
Agree entirely. White really makes the car.

 

[Sparkeur]

Is it possible that ordering white interior on a new car pushes the price over the grant limit?
That is the problem I had when ordering in France.

Can't help with the quality of Taptes seat covers but if they continue to use the train for shipping, delivery will be up to six weeks.

 

[JAR897]

I love the white personally - but if it pushes over the grant limit as mentioned above I guess the napa aftermarket isn’t a bad option

 

[M3-Newbie]

Thanks for replies (and the welcome - Norfolk mustard!) totally understand re factory fitted and would normally spec that way too - but The £500 isn’t the issue - We have a grant and a 0% loan scheme here in Scotland, which avoids lease interest, which actually means tipping over £50k by even £1 effectively costs me £15k and for white seats - its just not something I’m willing to do... but watching all the videos with white seats.... they do look cool.

I can do a lot more with £15k of liquidity (I wish I’d tipped it into Tesla shares the day I bought the car before end of quarter!!) than the joy of factory fit white seats holds for me (it’s not about saving £500) understand why you thought that though,

I’m just researching white covers (or keeping the practical and totally useable black seats! )

if anyone has any experience re these covers please let me know

 

[Dilly]

Thanks for replies (and the welcome - Norfolk mustard!) totally understand re factory fitted and would normally spec that way too - but The £500 isn’t the issue - We have a grant and a 0% loan scheme here in Scotland, which avoids lease interest, which actually means tipping over £50k by even £1 effectively costs me £15k and for white seats - its just not something I’m willing to do... but watching all the videos with white seats.... they do look cool.

I can do a lot more with £15k of liquidity (I wish I’d tipped it into Tesla shares the day I bought the car before end of quarter!!) than the joy of factory fit white seats holds for me (it’s not about saving £500) understand why you thought that though,

I’m just researching white covers (or keeping the practical and totally useable black seats! )

if anyone has any experience re these covers please let me know

Quite understand. That really is a no-brainier deal

 

[LongRanger]

White seat covers with black door panels and the wood dash may need some careful assessment ?

 

[Medved_77]

Thanks for replies (and the welcome - Norfolk mustard!) totally understand re factory fitted and would normally spec that way too - but The £500 isn’t the issue - We have a grant and a 0% loan scheme here in Scotland, which avoids lease interest, which actually means tipping over £50k by even £1 effectively costs me £15k and for white seats - its just not something I’m willing to do... but watching all the videos with white seats.... they do look cool.

I can do a lot more with £15k of liquidity (I wish I’d tipped it into Tesla shares the day I bought the car before end of quarter!!) than the joy of factory fit white seats holds for me (it’s not about saving £500) understand why you thought that though,

I’m just researching white covers (or keeping the practical and totally useable black seats! )

if anyone has any experience re these covers please let me know

The UK grant is based on the base price of the car, so £3000 regardless of whether you get the LR in white with black seats or LR in red with 19" wheels, white seats, tow bar and FSD.

Is the EST loan based on the purchase price of the car then?

 

[M3-Newbie]

Hi Medved

Yes the grant is on base price - gov website currently states the £3k grant is only on vehicles up to £50k - the model 3 is named on that list so it’s a loophole that you can pimp it out and still get the grant, so my advisor explained anyway.

Low-emission vehicles eligible for a plug-in grant

then for 0% loan here in scotland (unsure about rest of Uk) but transport scotland are doing mine, the OTR price is what they go on, & Tesla website when you are spec-Ing have already removed the £3k grant So it seems that you are ok... but technically the car has that ‘value’ of a further 3k at point of purchase...

So in a nutshell - yes car has to be sub £50k.

In addition because the loan is not car finance, it’s then an outright purchase for the company, with current incentive of first year allowance on electric cars, it means I ‘save‘ £10k on corporation tax this year plus no interest on a lease Month to month.

we also get the Uk £350 charger grant plus another £300 from transport scotland for home install but not the Tesla wall charger as its not in the right category somehow, I’m not yet at that point as plan to use 3pin wall charger initially.

 

[WarwickPete]

I’ve heard of long waits for their stuff, but won’t have the car till mid august...

I can certainly confirm this! I placed an order for their white covers for the front seats in mid April. No sign of them yet

 

[M3-Newbie]

No sign of them yet

uh oh - so you can't yet review then!! Did you choose express delivery or normal? Keep me posted!!

 

[WarwickPete]

uh oh - so you can't yet review then!! Did you choose express delivery or normal? Keep me posted!!

“Free Shipping (9-20 working days)” (!!!). Mind you, even if they had arrived, I couldn’t tell you how they fitted as no car yet either!

 

[M3-Newbie]

“Free Shipping (9-20 working days)” (!!!). Mind you, even if they had arrived, I couldn’t tell you how they fitted as no car yet either!

HILARIOUS (sorry) but i'm more laughing at my own situation than yours! I do feel like I'm in a parallel universe! ( she says... sitting beside the one and only accessory I have so far actually purchased) the wheel cap kit for when the plastic aero wheels are off for in town.

Are you expecting august arrival too then?

 

[Alistairuk]

White seat covers with black door panels and the wood dash may need some careful assessment ?

The main reason I wanted the white (although it’s not available now on the SR+) was I didn’t like the wood trim on the dash - the seats and door panels looked cooler in white too but only that wood coloured panel particularly annoyed me!

Has anyone found a decent quality and easy to install after market part to make it white?

 

[M3-Newbie]

The main reason I wanted the white (although it’s not available now on the SR+) was I didn’t like the wood trim on the dash - the seats and door panels looked cooler in white too but only that wood coloured panel particularly annoyed me!

Has anyone found a decent quality and easy to install after market part to make it white?

I think you can just Vinyl it (based on MANY hours shopping and youtube watching - but no real experience haha!)

I don't know if it would bother me so will need to look at some more interiors for inspiration I think - as that was a good question - I don't really like that fake wood effect anyway.... (oh this is really snowballing now...) We use a local print shop to vinyl our vans and I'm hoping to ask their expert guys to fit custom cut pieces from a online shop - only for the console but this is getting a bit much now! I'm going to wait for the car though!! called tesla and they are saying 1st week in August so I'm working on the 2nd week so its a benefit if it comes forwards!

 

[Adopado]

The main reason I wanted the white (although it’s not available now on the SR+) was I didn’t like the wood trim on the dash

If you haven't already take a look at #15 which shows a very nice Alcantara dash alternative ...

 

[Alistairuk]

If you haven't already take a look at #15 which shows a very nice Alcantara dash alternative ...

It looks nice - I think I’ll try initially white vinyl - assuming I can install it without air bubbles - but certainly something to consider longer term.