[hrman]

Originally Posted by Mister_M

My Experience with Pensee Leathers:


Please: I have not taken the pictures yet. Will post them by this weekend, sorry for this delay guys!

Thanks for the great review. If I can see your pics, Ill be more convinced to make my decision . Waiting for the pics.

[Mister_M]

Originally Posted by anujmishra

Great review Mister_M on being service received by Pensee Leathers. In my apartment few more cars done their seat covers with them and they all are equally satisfied.

Seat covers in my Safari is now more than a year old and still holding same, even it was abused a lot during my various drives pan India.

Very True Anuj, the fit and quality seems quite good. I too hope it must stay fit for years to come.

Originally Posted by hrman

Thanks for the great review. If I can see your pics, Ill be more convinced to make my decision . Waiting for the pics.

Sure HRMAN, I will post them by this weekend (saturday is Bandh isn't it - this would be the priority task)

Cheers!!

[Mister_M]

Hello Friends,

As promised, here are the pictures of Pensee job done on my Liva.

Cheers!!

[abhinav.s]

Originally Posted by Mister_M

As promised, here are the pictures of Pensee job done on my Liva.

Thanks a lot for the detailed pics. Since you have chosen automotive grade art leather, does it heat up considerably when parked in sun, or is it comparable to the fabric covers.

The art leather (non-automotive grade) heats up real bad and the interior will be cooking by the time you get back even from a short visit to the store. Also the back will be sweating profusely even when driving with AC. Hence my query as i want to get my spark done up and considering pensee for their workmanship as observed from your pics.

[Mister_M]

Originally Posted by abhinav.s

Thanks a lot for the detailed pics. Since you have chosen automotive grade art leather, does it heat up considerably when parked in sun, or is it comparable to the fabric covers.

The art leather (non-automotive grade) heats up real bad and the interior will be cooking by the time you get back even from a short visit to the store. Also the back will be sweating profusely even when driving with AC. Hence my query as i want to get my spark done up and considering pensee for their workmanship as observed from your pics.

Hello Abhinav, It is just around a week since the Seatings are done and my car is normally not parked under the sun. I had the regular (non-automotive grade) seat covers fitted on to my Alto and was using it for around 5 years. With them, I had exactly similar experiences of sweating in the back even with 100% A/C ON. This one feels better when compared to my Alto seats (as there is a thin layer of cushion / cotton under this PU material).

Alternatively, if you are too concerned on this topic - I can suggest you to have a Seat cover with a mix of Automotive grade + Genuine Leather. I mean, Genuine Leather only on the parts where your body touches the seat. I remember Mr. Sathish quoting something around 18K for this setup. You may check with him directly for its pricing.

Nevertheless, I am going to take my Liva for a long trip this month-end to a hotter place than Bangalore (Palani, Coimbatore, Salem). I shall make a study regarding the comfort levels offered by this material and update in this thread. I shall also try to make a real time comparison between my Alto seat covers and this new Liva covers. Please hold on until then, you will have more facts that would help your decision making.

Cheers!
M

[Mister_M]

Originally Posted by abhinav.s

...
The art leather (non-automotive grade) heats up real bad and the interior will be cooking by the time you get back even from a short visit to the store. Also the back will be sweating profusely even when driving with AC. Hence my query as i want to get my spark done up and considering pensee for their workmanship as observed from your pics.

Hello Abhinav,

I was on a ~1200 kms drive last week and as promised earlier, my observation goes like this:

My Liva Automotive-Grade Seat covers generated lesser heating effect (to a certain considerable extent) compared to my Alto's non-Automotive grade (a regular) Seat-covers. I am definitely not an expert in this topic to reason-out why, still I guess my findings would be of help to you:

1. This Automotive grade PU is nothing but a non-automotive grade material PLUS a thin layer of cotton-like / sponge-like material underneath. Technically, I am not pretty sure if this is the factor that reduces heating effect. But it does give a better comfort due to its soft sponginess and feels rich too.

2. My Alto has a dark-colored Art-Leather seats (with around 50% black) and obviously, gets heated up very fast when parked under dark sun (black-body observes heat). In contrast to that, I have chosen a Beige color PU grade Seat covers for my Liva and this might be another reason - I feel that the heating-effect is comparatively much lesser.

On the other hand, my Alto's seat covers (Black+chocolate-red combination) never required any sore of maintenance in the last 5+ years; whereas the Liva Seat-covers (pure Beige) demands a lot of attention. Luckily, I now have found a Spray from the local markets (for INR 230/-) that does a good job: Just Spray, rub and wipe to get back the original colors. Nevertheless, this could be bothersome when compared to the zero-maintenance of dark colors

Having said all these, I must admit that a PU (automotive grade or a non-automotive grade) can never be a complete 100% alternative for Genuine Leather upholstery; while the Automotive grade is slightly better than the non-automotive grade and I don't really regret the couple of extra thousands paid as it does it job well. Budget is all that matters here; you get the comfort level for relatively how much you have paid for
<<Non-Automotive --> Automotive --> Automotive + Leather --> Full Leather>>

Cheers!!
M

[shyamk]

Got automotive grade art leather seat covers for my bolero. Cost me around 14K. Mr.Sathish was kind enough to come over to my house to show me the designs.

While my seats used to feel like those in the unreserved compartments in trains earlier, it now feels close to the ones in the sleeper class compartments !

Happy with the overall fit, finish and service.

A happy customer and would recommend them around.

Shyam

[Mister_M]

My close Friend from Chennai visited me last month and wanted to have seat + other covers in his new Ford Figo similar to my Liva's.

Called Sathish and booked an apointment for a door-delivery. They now have a Facebook page where one can choose existing desings / customize designs as wished.

We initially intended to go for black seat covers with blue trims (as his Figo's exteriors were blue). Sathish rightluy suggested that there might be some variations between both blues and we narrowed down that we would go for all-black design with deep-blue threading, giving a sporty finish.

The package chosen was:
Automotive Grade car seat covers, Genuine Leather Steering wheel cover, Genuine leather door trims and Genuine Leather hand brake cover.
All the above are black with blue sporty threading.

Though Sathish was not available in town on the delivery date, he made sure that all happens quite well. His boys arrived on time as agreed and finished the whole work in around 2 hours time. As usual, the work was neat.

My sweet friend promised that he would send pictures of the car as soon as he reaches Chennai the next day. Its been a month now, he already has gone to London on a Business trip and would nopt be seen in India for the next 6+ months So, no pictures taken yet.

I shall anyways make sure that I click a few pictures of this job during my next visit to Chennai. (Not sure when though)

Though he didnot send pictures, he promptly called me a couple of times where he recei9ved excellent comments from his colleagues and friends regarding the upholstry work done. In his words, "it is quite difficult to find such good workmanship + quality in Chennai for this price". (He paid around 11K for all these work done). Thanks for making me proud Pensee

Their FB Link and refreshed website links for your reference:
https://www.facebook.com/PenseeLeath...galore?fref=ts
http://www.penseeleathers.com/

Really nice to see them grow more professional, they deserve it in my humble opinion.

And my Liva has lived around 8 months now after the Upholstry work is completed from Pensee. ODO shows somewhere around 14K kms and there has been hardly any wear and tear on all fitments from these guys.

Thanks and keep up the good work Pensee team.

Cheers!
M

[dish]

Got seat covers and steering cover for my Ritz from Pensee last week. Artificial leather seat covers and genuine leather steering covers. The guys from Pensee came home and fixed the car seat covers. The previous day I had given the car steering for stitching the cover and it was delivered along with the seat covers the next day - Saved the trip to their workshop. Quality of the material is good. Workmanship is fine ..... a few wrinkles around the seat corners which the supervisor from Pensee mentioned will straighten out in a few weeks with some weathering.

[hrman]

So here I was. Contemplating whether to go for new seat covers for my Rapid or not. Since it was a year old already, and by history, I don't keep a car for more than 3 to 3.5 years . Went through numerous threads on TBHP (Marvin, Pensee, Ovion, Stanley, Art Leather thread, Karlsson etc).

I concluded that based on the reviews and the most VFM deal, Pensee ticked my boxes. Got into action and called Mr. Satish to explore new seat covers. Coincidentally, Mr. Satish was coming near to the place I stay to visit someone. He was glad to come over and show the designs.
I saw the multitude of designs and colours and wifey and I finalised on a design which he had recently done for a Duster. Colour was chosen to match the interiors (Beige and dark brown). I gave a token advance and scheduled installation on the coming Saturday.

So I went the next Saturday to his workshop and got the work done in three hours. Here is what I did.
1. Seat covers in automotive grade leather (PU) with a beige and brown combo.
2. Hand brake cover in beige (real leather)
3. Steering cover in beige and brown mix (real leather).

Door armrest pads, gear-boot, gear knob was not feasible given the small gaps and design, so I went with Mr. Satish's suggestion and didn't go for those.
The cost for everything was roughly Rs.8.5k. (Brought down from some 9.2 quoted earlier)
My experience was pretty much in line with everyone else. It was a real pleasure to interact with Mr. Satish. A genuine, professional and thorough gentleman.

I am very happy with the final work and the output. My car now has a different look and even my colleagues appreciated it. Good job by Pensee and team.

Will I recommend them? Hell yeah!!! Let the pictures do the talking!

[shamanth]

Got the steering wheel of my Honda City done by Pensee with real leather. Top quality work done at their factory in JP Nagar.

Removed the steering and stitched into corners, very impressive work done. Took around 2 hours.

Satish was very informative, he said few years he was concentrating on OEM seat-covers, now have again started with individual cars.

[subraiyr]

After reading the reviews, i decided to give my car of seat uphostering to Sathish. The initial discussion went of well. Sathish had a brief conversation with me and then asked his technical lead Mani to work on my vehicle. Mani bought the swatches and we selected the fabric, color and design elements. Since my vehicle was a Storme, we knew that work would take time and decided to give the vehicle on Friday so that the work can be done on Friday and Saturday and delivery can happen Saturday evening

And that is when the horror story started. Saturday evening 7pm was the supposed time for delivery of the vehicle. I spoke to Sathish in the morning to confirm the time and requested if his person could drop the vehicle home. He said he would plan and let me know. I waited and waited and then called him at 4pm to check on delivery logistics. Sathish said he doesnt have anyone and will ask a driver who will charge Rs650 to deliver the vehicle. I confirmed that it would not pass merit and we decided to split the delivery cost. At 8pm in the evening, i called Sathish again since i had not got any update. Work is still going on. The driver will start at 9pm is what i heard back. By now i was getting a bit wary of the whole thing. I told Sathish that i will pick it up from his place on Monday morning. Pat came the reply that there is no space to keep the vehicle and you will have to take it. Asked him to bring it half way on Sunday morning and i will collect it enroute. Turned down that offer as well. A bit frustrated since i have not had issues with service centers on pick up and drops till now
The work done, got the vehicle on Monday. I could not go to take delivery and therefore asked the driver to take delivery. Got home Monday evening and it was a bit of a let down. The stitching was ok but the rest of the fitting was really bad

Tuesday morning the number plate on the gear lever toppled down and would not get set. I drive the truck with a gear shift which looks worse than a test car !!!
The left hand door pad has come out of the hinges now. It is dangling about and everytime i get into the vehicle i have to push it back into place
The rear door window switches are interchanged. I have to now turn my hand around to raise and lower the glass
The door handles on the door pad are now not fit in a flushed manner. There are gaps which were not there earlier.

To continue the story - i called up Sathish on Friday and told him the issues. "I will call you in 10 mts" and then no calls came through. Waited over the weekend and still no call back. Driver called up on Monday and was given a reply that when the mechanic comes we will call you. Got quite frustrated and angry with Sathish and his team and called him on Tuesday. He said he will sort it out. Promptly after 8 hours Mani called and asked me what were the issues. I explained to him and he said he would call back in 10 mts. Its been 24 hours and no calls yet. In the meantime Sathish called and i asked him whether he wanted to complete the job and if he did not want to do it, please let me know so that i can go elsewhere. He said there is only 1 person in entire Bangalore who does door panels and he is not available. I found it absurd and questioned him on the veracity of his statement. He said that if it is a big car its only 1 person. He again told me he would call back

As of now, 24 hours have passed and neither Sathish nor Mani have called me or my driver for resolution.

Should i chase them down further and should i just go elsewhere where i would get a better customer service treatment. For now, Pensee Leathers is blacklisted in my books for friends and family at least.

I will share pictures of the botched up job once missus comes back today

[subraiyr]

Adding to the previous post. Some views of the botched up work that happened.

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by subraiyr

Adding to the previous post. Some views of the botched up work that happened.

Sorry to have to say this but I have to, based on what I've seen of the vehicles of people I know, and on social media - aftermarket is after-market, once initiated the car will no longer be factory fit-and-finish.

Its safe to say, perhaps, that the seat cover industry is somewhat trained, and refined, only restricted to a few high-end upholstery boutiques like Stanley and Karlsson (since basically they are a trademark establishment and will take responsibility for their work). Nowadays every penny charging upholsterer claims to do door-trim, dashboard and roof-lining upholstery, I would never recommend one to go ahead with it howsoever cheap or expensive. With steering wheel that ugly notch in the seams are visible, not to mention risks of airbag inflation if the steering is removed, the gear lever is good as stock in most cars, why change it at all? As far as pillar and door trims go, why ever mess with stock assembly? Now you have ill-trained fitters who're beating about the bush for what is blatantly their fault, one would have to be stark raving blind to do this.

Get to them and get them to rectify their faults to whatever extent they can, that's all that can be done.

[TorqueyTechie]

I recently got seats done here. This place is right opposite to the apartment that my FIL stays. So thought to check it out, liked the work and got it completed. have shared the details in my ownership thread here.

Pros :
1. Suggests vfm material and work.
2. Not too costly (personal opinion).

Cons :
1. While seat work is really nice, they did botch up the paintwork (chipped paint while removing door inserts)
2. Messed up horn and turn indicator cut off pin
3. Provides very optimistic timelines and does not keep up. Was promised delivery by 6 or 7 pm but ended up completing it late. Had to collect the car next day.

Would suggest them for seat work as the workmanship is really nice. Please be wary of steering grip lest they mess up like mine.

Attaching few pics.