[jmshaw]

Truly sad and enraging experience with Autoform ! I know how much pain one takes in selecting seat covers to match personal preferences and then this happens
Having said that, the fitting is very good! Enjoy it.. though is this the end of the chapter with Autoform?

By the way, happy to know you crossed 1000kms, I too reached the milestone over the weekend. Yet to feel that the engine has opened up, but then the engine never felt tight or constrained to begin with.

Had a question regarding the HU; every time you start the car, do you get the Hyundai agreement notice on the HU which you have to confirm every single time?? Is this standard or is my HU acting up? Also, have you put any screen guard? Am not able to find anything online...

[pandatrooper]

I can understand how frustrating it can get when your expectations goes for a toss due to poor negligence by the company, RavenAvi.

On a side note, I was traumatized recently by a Hyundai dealer in my city. I cannot find anyone on a regional or national level with whom I can connect to. Do you have any leads with whom I can raise my concern ? Any help would be really appreciated

[RavenAvi]

Originally Posted by jmshaw

is this the end of the chapter with Autoform?

Most definitely. I have decided that if I have any more cars in the future, it will be top-end variants with seat covers straight from the manufacturer's factory.

Like Leoshashi said, better to stick to OEM covers (even cheap ones), than suffer such traumatising experiences with outside companies and waste one's valuable time in the process, too.

BTW, congratulations on your 1,000 as well.

Originally Posted by jmshaw

Had a question regarding the HU; every time you start the car, do you get the Hyundai agreement notice on the HU which you have to confirm every single time?? Is this standard or is my HU acting up? Also, have you put any screen guard? Am not able to find anything online...

Yes, I get it too. I don't click on "Confirm", because it goes away by itself after a few seconds. It's standard.

Regarding the screen guard for the Head Unit, please check out post #67 on Page 5 of this ownership thread for full details.

This is the link to the item:- https://www.amazon.in/dp/B08C5HJP97/?tag=tbhp0e-21

I ordered the 10.25 one. It's nearly an exact fit, but you need to be careful while sticking it from corner to corner (diagonally).

Originally Posted by pandatrooper

On a side note, I was traumatized recently by a Hyundai dealer in my city. I cannot find anyone on a regional or national level with whom I can connect to. Do you have any leads with whom I can raise my concern ? Any help would be really appreciated

Download the Hyundai Care app from Play Store and post your complaint in there. They are pretty responsive.

Usually the hmil.net emails fall on deaf ears.

9873564645 - that is also worth a shot, if you are lucky.

All the best.

[vigsom]

Never thought that Autoform India's quality would dip to such levels. The PU cover was nowhere near the previous quality stuff I had gotten fitted

Congratulations on the car and the milestone, and condolences on the seat covers.

I was a huge fan of Autoform in their initial days in 2002 when the seat covers on a friend's WagonR had no signs of wear even when the car turned 7 in 2009; started losing respect for the brand once they started acting pricey. Your experience looks like the last straw.

I can't understand how such an error can be committed - you order for Chow-Chow bhath and get idli instead.

PS : I looked at the pics of the original seats again and realized that your seat covers have been tailored to match the contours (inverted distribution curve pattern) on the original seats.

Can I give you a suggestion? Please buy a good set of rich fabric sofa covers (3+1+1) in a pattern that you like, and cover the existing seats with those.

[silverado]

Thanks for Sharing Autofoam ordeal. Seat covers are once a lifetime event and to get a deal like this from a brand is unacceptable. I have been Autofoam fanboy since 2012 when i got them fitted on my Nano. They have stood the test of time and still look brand new.
Baleno also got Autofoam Napa covers and they are doing well since 2016.

Autofoam could have offered you a complete refund as a goodwill option/ or could have offered to modify those covers at factory again for you.
I cant understand why this still is not an option.

[MOUNTAINMAN]

Originally Posted by vigsom

I can't understand how such an error can be committed - you order for Chow-Chow bhath and get idli instead.

PS : I looked at the pics of the original seats again and realized that your seat covers have been tailored to match the contours (inverted distribution curve pattern) on the original seats.

Yes, it appears that the seat covers are indeed tailored to match the original seat contours, but its highly unprofessional to show a picture of something else, it reflects poorly on Autoform.

Most customers would not have much sense about the seat contours and bucket fitting the seat covers, however if the seat shop guy had seen the Autoform's display picture he should have been able to sense the discrepancy in design. May be he didn't pay much attention or took it for granted and that's why he thought of compensating at his end.
In the end there is no denying the fact that it's Autoform's mistake and they should have owned it up and replaced it with no questions asked.

In my opinion the seat cover looks better than the picture, the design in the picture looks a bit busy and loud. However would not be able to live with a poor quality PU seat cover.

[ashwinprakas]

I'm no expert with respect to cars and their accessories but the material you've been charged 13k for from the looks of it seems to be thinner than what we're charged 5.5k for here.



This is just a sample of the cover material, foam padding is added at a later stage.

I'd bought this from a local shop at Kollam, Kerala.

Regards,
A.P.

[shashi792]

I know design/color is based on on-looker's perspective. I like the OEM one better suited with the car interiors than the one with black and yellow stitching. If you change the complete interior to match the seats then its a different thing (But, I would not mess with the complete interior).

Happy motoring.

[JediKnight]

Originally Posted by ashwinprakas

I'm no expert with respect to cars and their accessories but the material you've been charged 13k for from the looks of it seems to be thinner than what we're charged 5.5k for here.

You are assuming that the quality of the material is directly proportional to the thickness. Poor quality faux leather gives off harmful vapors especially when heated like when the car is parked in sun. Autoform supposedly uses "automotive grade" faux leather which should not have this problem.

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by RavenAvi

The ones among you who can spot no less than 20 differences between the pic in the official catalogue and the end product gets a prize from me!

Are you serious about the prize? I can easily spot 20, all I have to mention are the individual numbers of missing rhombuses/rhombi in the areas vis-a-vis the "original" so to speak and of course, the missing yellow pipings

A highly entertaining post as usual, no one likes a good old earful to the usually exaggerating/lying companies that we have in India more than me,.. but I think we can give Autoform a pass here. Now granted that I don't have as much experience in car ownerships or in life as you, but sometimes we've to accept what we got, as long as the quality and workmanship are both fair which in this case I think it is going by photos.

I have become very pragmatic as far as car ownership goes these days, the way I see it, you've a reasonably good quality seat cover which indeed has a design according to the contours of the original seat cover, which looks elegant at worst and to some people like me, it even looks cheery (our car is all-black with beige stitching and bits and pieces of dull beige). Maybe you could've gotten it for a couple of grand less if it were a non-branded, shop customized cover but other than that I see a good deal at the end of the day. The dealer himself as you said has absolutely no control on the situation and more or less, he'd have made nothing from this after the freebies.

Make sure that there aren't appraisals going on during the wrap installation Enjoy the car as long as there are seats to sit on and a steering to hold!

[RavenAvi]

Thanks for the support, guys.

Originally Posted by vigsom

I was a huge fan of Autoform in their initial days in 2002 when the seat covers on a friend's WagonR had no signs of wear even when the car turned 7 in 2009; started losing respect for the brand once they started acting pricey. Your experience looks like the last straw.

If quality comes at a price, there's no problem in paying it. The cover sets installed in my erstwhile Honda City & XUV500 still look as good as new even today - says a lot about the quality of the material used by the brand.

From what the shop guy said, Autoform India went through a leadership change in the past year or so. It separated from it's sister concern, Elegant India (though both companies share the same factory premises on either side of an erected wall now), and is now under new management. Communication with them is not as transparent or prompt as it used to be before.

Originally Posted by vigsom

I can't understand how such an error can be committed - you order for Chow-Chow bhath and get idli instead.

PS : I looked at the pics of the original seats again and realized that your seat covers have been tailored to match the contours (inverted distribution curve pattern) on the original seats.

That's what the Regional Area Head of Autoform India told me over the phonecall which my shop guy had initiated. But, pray tell me this, if you match the contours, do you leave the black sections plain or do you fill the plain areas with the original pattern as shown in the catalogue?

Notice the plain black areas of all the seats? Every time my eyes go towards them, I am filled with immense rage. That's why these days, when I enter Phoenix, my eyes are towards the front windshield and the dashboard, drifting occasionally towards the speedo. I try avoiding seeing the seats as much as I can.

Originally Posted by vigsom

Can I give you a suggestion? Please buy a good set of rich fabric sofa covers (3+1+1) in a pattern that you like, and cover the existing seats with those.

Thanks. I am not doing anything till my inner rage subsides and I am able to think rationally about how to rectify this pathetic work. Right now, I am not even looking at the seats.

Originally Posted by silverado

Thanks for Sharing Autofoam ordeal. Seat covers are once a lifetime event and to get a deal like this from a brand is unacceptable.

Autofoam could have offered you a complete refund as a goodwill option/ or could have offered to modify those covers at factory again for you.
I cant understand why this still is not an option.

They won't offer a complete refund even if they die. It's been 5 days since this happened and I haven't received a call from anyone from Autoform, even after I had lodged a formal protest with the Area Head and the distributor. The shop guy has forwarded the link of my original Team-BHP post to all of them, even to someone in Autoform India's chain of command who is above Atul, the Area Head.

And nothing will happen unless I do something. But since I won't, as I explained in my original post, this will be brushed under Autoform's rug.

Originally Posted by MOUNTAINMAN

Yes, it appears that the seat covers are indeed tailored to match the original seat contours, but its highly unprofessional to show a picture of something else, it reflects poorly on Autoform.

Tell me about it.

Originally Posted by MOUNTAINMAN

Most customers would not have much sense about the seat contours and bucket fitting the seat covers, however if the seat shop guy had seen the Autoform's display picture he should have been able to sense the discrepancy in design. May be he didn't pay much attention or took it for granted and that's why he thought of compensating at his end.

That's the problem - this incident is a first-of-a-kind for us. Back in 2017, when I had ordered the set for my XUV500, the seat cover set which came from the factory was the exact same which was shown in the catalogue.

We both opened the zip cover (at different times) and took a peek at the yellow stitching portion inside, and satisfied ourselves that it was the same pattern which we had ordered. The larger, plain black portions were covered under the folds, which neither he checked in detail, and neither did I.

As it turns out, it became a big mistake.

My shop guy was ready and willing to tear them off from the OEM seats and throw them away, when he saw my anger, bitterness and disappointment. But the fitment guys said that the OEM seats will also be damaged during the process, and it won't bother Autoform anything since they have already received their billed money. Now we keep the covers, or throw them away, it wasn't a concern for Autoform.

Originally Posted by MOUNTAINMAN

In the end there is no denying the fact that it's Autoform's mistake and they should have owned it up and replaced it with no questions asked.

In my opinion the seat cover looks better than the picture, the design in the picture looks a bit busy and loud. However would not be able to live with a poor quality PU seat cover.

They will never own up to their mistake. Their Area Head didn't even show a hint of regret over this ordeal, and instead proceeded to try to justify the cheating by giving two different excuses. They are trained to speak in denial terms and to justify their mistakes in any which way they could.

Whether or not the changed seat cover looks better than the picture or vice versa, at the end of the day, the design, quality and pattern which was seen in the official catalogue and approved wasn't the design, quality and pattern which was prepared and shipped to the end customer.

This comes under one word only - cheating.

Originally Posted by ashwinprakas

I'm no expert with respect to cars and their accessories but the material you've been charged 13k for from the looks of it seems to be thinner than what we're charged 5.5k for here.

Quality is inferior, no doubt. Even Leoshashi is of the same opinion.

Originally Posted by shashi792

I know design/color is based on on-looker's perspective. I like the OEM one better suited with the car interiors than the one with black and yellow stitching. If you change the complete interior to match the seats then its a different thing (But, I would not mess with the complete interior).

The original OEM interior looks dead, even under bright sunlight. They say it's silver-grey, but it's more like ash colour, and didn't suit the Creta one bit. This was my attempt to inject some life into the interiors with the bright yellow patterns on the contrasting black, the same way I had done with my XUV500 3 years back (back then it was orange + black).

Originally Posted by JediKnight

Autoform supposedly uses "automotive grade" faux leather which should not have this problem.

Yes, that's the sole reason why I have stuck to Autoform for such a long time. But the quality, as you can see, has gone down.

Posting a close-up shot:

Originally Posted by dark.knight

Are you serious about the prize? I can easily spot 20, all I have to mention are the individual numbers of missing rhombuses/rhombi in the areas vis-a-vis the "original" so to speak and of course, the missing yellow pipings

I was being extremely sarcastic there, but send me your address and I shall ship a prize to you.

Originally Posted by dark.knight

A highly entertaining post as usual, no one likes a good old earful to the usually exaggerating/lying companies that we have in India.. but I think we can give Autoform a pass here. Now granted that I don't have as much experience in car ownerships or in life as you, but sometimes we've to accept what we got, as long as the quality and workmanship are both fair which in this case I think it is going by photos.

If it was even 75% of what was shown in the official catalogue, I would have consoled myself and remained sane. But when the differences are stark and are like zameen-aasmaan in my eyes, it becomes an unforgivable offence.

Originally Posted by dark.knight

I have become very pragmatic as far as car ownership goes these days, the way I see it, you've a reasonably good quality seat cover which indeed has a design according to the contours of the original seat cover, which looks elegant at worst and to some people like me, it even looks cheery (our car is all-black with beige stitching and bits and pieces of dull beige).

Is it the same or even close to what was shown in the original catalogue? The ones which we had imagined on the Creta's seats? No.

Originally Posted by dark.knight

Maybe you could've gotten it for a couple of grand less if it were a non-branded, shop customized cover but other than that I see a good deal at the end of the day. The dealer himself as you said has absolutely no control on the situation and more or less, he'd have made nothing from this after the freebies.

There are always margins in every transaction. Impossible to think he wouldn't have made any profit in this. But yes, the 2 freebies he offered was a gentlemanly gesture.

Originally Posted by dark.knight

Make sure that there aren't appraisals going on during the wrap installation.

No way. I'll get that done in December from outside, preferably from a professional shop. Thanks.

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by RavenAvi

If it was even 75% of what was shown in the official catalogue, I would have consoled myself and remained same. But when the differences are stark and are like zameen-aasmaan in my eyes, it becomes an unforgivable offence.

I hope you have a chance to visit the south via road sometime next year, we have 2 great interior outfitters in Bangalore - Stanley and Karlsson, Karlsson work is amongst the best I've seen by miles, and they have alcantara as well as PU.

Yeah I can see that the product is very, very different from what was displayed and probably, it was Autoform's duty to show the pattern of every model design rather than just show one design and imply that all the covers would look the same. Rate wise, I'd say cheap covers in Bangalore too are priced at about the same for a car of that size, material used is average and PU does tend to crack and peel after a couple of years of flexing. Sadly, the best option these days is to have stock interiors, or to spend upwards of 20k for high-quality PU or leather with bucket-finish after removing stock fabric (contouring will be better).

I can understand how it'd feel when one feels slighted, hope the company rectifies it at their own cost soon, or just refunds after taking it back.

[ashwinprakas]

Originally Posted by JediKnight

You are assuming that the quality of the material is directly proportional to the thickness. Poor quality faux leather gives off harmful vapors especially when heated like when the car is parked in sun. Autoform supposedly uses "automotive grade" faux leather which should not have this problem.

You're right.

I was told by the local shop that price depends on thickness and was shown variants ranging from 2.5k to 6.5k+, and the difference from my observation was the same.

No clue about Automotive Grade but I did see the following brand name;



They buy this in bulk and when given order they stitch and keep it as per our requirements, once ready we take the car over and they install it for us.

Fact be told until you mentioned automotive grade I'd not even though about the same, just presumed it was all the same.

Regards,
A.P.

[advenk999]

RavenAvi sir, first of all hearty congratulations on your Phoenix! She looks gorgeous. Enjoy reading your reviews and the build up of all sections covered in detail. These are details that large media houses cannot even hold a candle against!
The first 1000 kms feel super special!

Coming to the Autoform covers, the fitter has done a really neat job of following the seat contours. It looks like a super snug fit. Agree that what is on the catalogue and what you have received are two worlds apart. That said, I personally like what you have got and it does add character to the interior.
I cannot really comment on the quality as I have never used PU foam seats, but these do look premium.
If you can look beyond this, (I know it's easier said than done and you have the right to hit me back on this ) you have transformed your interior into something really premium and special.
Go all out and clock those miles on that super refined petrol engine with a smile!

[sv97]

Sorry to learn about the ordeal caused to you but there is one thing which I noticed even though that will not be the case most probaly.

In the brochure pic that you have shared it shows U-Arrow and it also mentions Riveria whereas on the seat covers it only mentions U-Arrow and I am assuming they are different so can it be the case that while placing the order the dealer forgot to mention Riveria and the company hence produced just the U-Arrow design without Riveria.

Or the U-Arrow design only comes in the Riveria range?

This is just my observation and I am in no way trying to defend the actions of the company.

Even though I know this would not do anything to decrease your ordeal but maybe you come to terms with the seat covers after discovering this.