After around 15 years and 160,xxx miles, the leather oem MINI front seats in my car are starting to show some wear. I've been thinking about getting more of a "race" type front seat, but something that is still adjustable and comfortable enough to be in a daily driver.

Any suggestions? Or should I just have the leather redone on them and keep them?

 

What is your budget?

 

To be honest, I don't know. I don't need the best of the best, but I do want something that will last, and will be at least as good of quality as the OEM seats. I don't know what seats costs....so my budget is pretty wide open at this point.

 

Cheapest would be seat covers, next step I would think would be recycled/pick&pull or Craigslist.

 

Whenever I replace stuff, I like to upgrade it if possible. I sure would like a nice set of seats that hold on to me a little better around the corners.

 

Recaro Sportser CS. They're the same that were an option on the R56. Probably not the cheapest seats though. Or if you can find, original R53 JCW Sparcos or Recaros...

 

Check out a local upholstery shop. They can reupholster your seats adding bolsters and foam where needed for additional support. It's not as expensive as you might think...

 

stock r53 seats are really horrible at holding me. I put in sparco seats, about what the r300 they sell now are. You will need sliders and the mount plus the seats to do it

 

I put pinhole leather R56 seats in my r53 4 years ago. I am still happy with the decision

 

I need to do that with my JCW, the r56 seats are MUCH better with real bolster, junk yard had some cheap cloth ones but they were torn :(

 

Do you care about retaining the airbags in the seat bolsters? If so, you're pretty much limited to factory seats. For price and availability it sounds like R56 seats are the way to go. There are just a couple of things to deal with when installing in a 1st gen regarding wiring and the difference in the seat belt tensioner mounting.

 

Get a set of pre-2005 sports seats. Our 2004 Cooper has the sports seats (They were an option) and they have great side bolstering. In 2005 MINI flattened the bottom cushion, widened and softened the side bolstering, and MINI eliminated the lumbar support the early seats had.