I bought an Armada w/o leather, and, at the dealer's prompting ("as good or better than factory"), used an after-market "partner" of theirs (name withheld..for now) to install the leather. I gave Nissan the extra $ at purchase time, and they took the vehicle a day or two later, kept it overnight, and then delivered it back to me (via the dealership).

The job performed is poor. I was quite upset, after finding over a dozen problems, including holes in the leather, stitching coming apart, poor/loose fit, etc. I let the dealer (manager and General Manager) know that I had no confidence in the partner, since they did such a poor job the first time around.

Not sure if anyone can give me any advise or ideas here. I went back for a meeting with the partner, GM and Service Manager, and they did what I expected - lots of talk, denial of some problems (more on that later..), and an assurence that if I give them back the SUV, the problems would be remedied. I'd rather not, but I don't think I have any choice. I gave them a few other choices, and they denied them:

replace seats with equivalent cloth seats, and give me back my leather $
Give me an SUV with factory leather, or put factory leather seats in my vehicle


They said they could not replace seats - against the law, saftey concerns, etc. etc.

I have also gone around to other dealers and looked at the leather in equivalent models. It is definately better, but I did find some of the same problems. Overall, though, the job is poor, and their promise that the after-market leather would be "as good or better" was false.

I was wondering, since I returned to complain about the leather less than one day after they delivered the "upgraded" vehicle, if I could be entitled to the "24 hour return" guarentee they offer. My lawyer buddy says this is possible.

Thanks for listening..

arm58

What brand of aftermarket kit did they attempt to install?

What brand of aftermarket kit did they attempt to install?
Not sure of the brand, just the company - in San Diego. I've heard that the kits are pre-cut, and should fit like factory installs. It seems like they let the apprentice do this one; I also wanted a rush, since we were about to leave on vacation - maybe that contributed to the poor job. Still, they should have done the right thing and made me wait if that is what was required. Also, the leather in my kit does not seem as heavy as the factory's, and the center of the seats is not a different kind of leather (softer?), like the factory install is.

Got pix of how it looks? Would like to see what you're talking about.

Give them another try to fix it, you have nothing to loose. Take some pictures to document the problems.

Give them another try to fix it, you have nothing to loose. Take some pictures to document the problems.
Thanks for the replies. My wife took some pix, but they're all 5MP, so I'll have to scale/crop them. The Arm went in today, and they said they needed to keep it another day, which I'm actually glad about.

I had a meeting with the GM, SM, and rep for the leather company, and told them how I felt, that I had no confidence in the leather company, asked to get original seats put back in, (so they could "manage the problem, rather than me"), or put factory leather in. I hope they got the message. I added at the end of our meeting that I did like the beast, and didn't want to have to give it back.

Tomorrow will tell. I'll post then.

Good luck. Hopefully, it was just an inexperienced tech who did your rig and they got their good guy on it now. Let us know how it turns out. A good interior shop should do better than factory work. And a good dealer should take the time to find a good shop if they are going to use a serivice for their vehicles. ;)

Got the Arm back today. Leather looks 100% better. Every inch of it. We found two small problems, but other than those, we're happy.

Good deal! ;)