Replacing stock cloth seats with leather ones, 2005 Impala

[uri79]

Hi all,

 

Firstly you'd probably be surprised to find out that we have W-Body cars here in Israel, where I live. The ones imported here over the years were: Grand Prix (until 1996), Lumina, Monte Carlo (until 2000), Impala (until 2005), and now the La Crosse. The company that imports GM cars here, tries not to create overlap between the different brands, so the Lumina replaced the Grand Prix, and now the La Crosse replaced the Impala here, and actually does quite well.

 

Because of crazy taxes that we have, a brand new loaded Impala used to cost about $48K here. A 3.6 La Crosse can go as high as $62K. You may find this hard to believe, but people still buy them because the alternatives are just as costly. American cars depreciate real fast here too, losing half of their value as new within 2-3 years, so they're a great buy used.

 

Anyway, now to my question.

 

For the last 3 years I've been driving a 2000 Impala LS and I'm very happy with it.

 

Now it's time to upgrade. I've found a loaded low milage 2005 Impala LS, that has every option but the heated leather seats, which I've really gotten used to.

 

I'm thinking of buying this car and then replacing the seats with heated leather ones from a wrecked junkyard Impala.

 

Is this feasible? would electrical wiring for the seat heaters be a problem?

 

Also, are seats from earlier model years interchangable with 2005 ones? I think it would be safe to assume that mounting them to the floor won't be a problem, but for some reason I'm worried about the airbags built into the seats, which might not be compatible.

 

I'd really appreciate any info, especially from someone here who's done this to his/her car.

 

Thanks,

 

Uri

 

 

[Euro]

Welcome!! It's great to see international members!

 

Is your 2005 Impala the same body style as your old 2000? I would assume that they would be pre-wired for heated seats so it wouldn't be that bad. But I'm not positive.

[rockfangd]

Welcome. I believe that if the body style is the same that the seat tracks are the same also. if i had heated seats i wouldnt want to part either lol. thats like parting with my keyless entry

 

[attachment deleted by admin] Removed to free up storage space.

[Crazy K]

WOW! welcome! show us pictures of your car?

[uri79]

Hi everyone and thanks for the replies,

 

I ended up buying a 2003 Impala LS last week with just 11K miles on it (which cost me 24K$ here, half of its price new), also with cloth seats, and I'm gonna start looking for leather ones from a junkyard soon.

 

For some reason the stock radio/CD unit in this car sounds much worse than the one in my previous older Impala, I think I'll try switching radios between the two before I sell the old one...

 

Pictures coming soon :-)

 

Uri

[DiscoStudd]

Seats will interchange, and I do believe the car is already pre-wired for power and heated seats, even if you have the base cloth seats.

 

Check out http://www.naioa.com and http://impalahq.naioa.com

2 very good sites for Impala info!