Any recommendations on where to look for slipcovers -- or whether they are even available, given air bag placement? Thanks.

 

Seat covers? Yes they are available, wet okole is supposed to be the best:

http://www.wetokole.com/MINI-COOPER.html

They will work with the airbags.

 

MossMini has a large selection. I've heard good things about their neoprene ones (CoverKing, I think) - almost as good as Wet Okole but much less expensive.

http://ecommerce.mossmotors.com/new-...s--covers--etc

 

Go for the Wet Okole .Have had several over the past 10 years with several cars .

 

Wet Okole for the win!! I love mine and we bought a set for my son's Jeep. They are absolutely wonderful! They do accommodate the airbags, and if you didn't order seat warmers on your car, you can now have them in your seat covers.

 

How do you connect/wire the heaters?

 

The heaters in the seat covers are connected with a plug that goes into the cig lighter, and have a three position controller. I don't know what you do if you want to plug them both in at once, you can always call and ask them. :-)

 

Joanie, thanks. I'm in Minnesota, do they work pretty well? Notice you are in SoCal.

 

I don't know. We installed them in my son's Jeep, not my MINI (who has a good heater) and it hasn't been cold here yet. But plugging them in, they warmed up quickly and felt nice. I just don't know about plugging two in at once in a MINI, because his Jeep has two... actually three... cig lighters handy to use.

Call Wet Okole, they are really nice to deal with..

 

We had some custom ones done out of a heavy duty cotton canvas for DH's Jeep. It's too hot here for neoprene and they fade really fast. They look nice, but kind of a pain to take off because they are so fitted. They have slits in side for airbags. Perfect for the Jeep, but maybe too utilitarian for the Mini.

 

Does the neoprene melt and stick to leather seats in the summer?

 

Not that I have ever heard or experienced. But I have leatherette, not real leather.

 

Neoprene doesn't breath. It gets so hot here I'd end up soaking wet by the time we pulled out of the driveway. The intense sun here causes it to fade quickly. We have a friend who has permanent salt stains on his, even though they'be been cleaned.

 

I'm going to need seat covers for the back seats because of the kids...I guess I should look into cloth?

 

I would suggest something you can throw in the wash. For my backseat I use a fitted sheet for when the pup is traveling with us. DD is 12 and is pretty good at keeping things neat. BUT the Jeep is always without roof and doors so the interior gets nasty. That's when I love the cloth covers.

 

I thought that might be the case with neoprene - sounds like its no better than the leatherette in that respect. Guess I'll go for cloth once I get fed up with re-adjusting the Walmart towel every time I get in...

Thanks,

 

Agree love mine as well

 

Are those cloth or neoprene?
If cloth, who makes them?

 

Those are neoprene it looks like. They look like Wet Okole. I'm surprised to hear that they make people sweaty, because even though we go down to the desert in the Jeep (which has them) we still don't feel particularly sweaty from the seats. And they don't get hot in the sun like the leatherette does. They might fade eventually, but what wouldn't fade? Protecting your seats is what they do best, so if they fade in five years, get new ones :-)

 

They are neoprene,
The great sweat debate.... If its hot, like hot enough that you would be outside and sweating, then yes you sweat. On a normal summer day they are just fine .

 

This confuses me...who wouldn't sweat outside on a 'normal' summer day?

 

And I'm confused because most cars have air conditioning, so if it's too hot in the car, we usually cool it down. Or have the top down, or the doors off... GRIN We've been out to Death Valley, Las Vegas, and Laughlin in the summertime, and through the Utah desert in late spring, and it was plenty hot, but the car was cool enough. Well, except when we were 'running' with a group of MINIs up a mountain, fast, in 108 degrees, and we turned off the a/c because the car was being pushed pretty hard... but I don't remember sticking to the seats, particularly. Maybe because it's a dry heat. LOL

 

I lived in Southern California for 11 years, and Louisiana for 12. Southern California is much more bearable in the summer without A/C

 

JoanieB,
I don't know about that dry heat, but when the car sits in the 93 degree 95% humidity here in FL all day (at work) its pretty much instant sweat when I plant my butt on the lovely leatherette seats. The AC just doesn't seem to find its way between my butt and the seat. Maybe if I started the car and ran it for a 1/2 hour before I got in... but who wants to wait that long to leave work.

The $3 Walmart towel I have on the seat now seems to work, so, I'll likely go with cloth covers. Hate to shell out the $$ for neoprene and find out I still have the same problem.

 

Dumb question, but do they make cooling seats? We use cooling blankets in the hospital, they utilize water being pumped through them. It doesn't seem too far fetched. Love my heated seats, but cooling seats would be awesome during our 100+ days.