those look very nice. i think they'll last long. i haven't had to use any
seat covers yet but if i did i'd want a set of those.

                                        -jeff

<snip eBay link>

Those *look* OK, but I've found the most important thing (besides
durability of the cloth), is the fixing method, which is not visible
here. Too many aftermarket seat covers I've tried cannot be fixed in
place well, and tend to slide, bunch and pull up over time.

These you show appear to be cloth all over, which is preferable to the
Pennzoil ones that have just a layer of light, smooth cloth on the
non-seating surfaces.

Do yours have a layer of foam rubber on the underside? I find that helps
tremendously in keeping the cover from shifting and bunching.

Many of the seat covers I've tried are too small to fit properly over
the substantial side bolsters Honda tends to put on their seats. Once
you sit in the seat and press the cover into the back, either the
bolsters get squeezed, or the new cover tears.

My driver's seat has had a cover on almost since Day 1. The cloth (and
bolsters) are unworn, but are distorted from where the too-tight seat
cover has compressed the foam on the bolsters.

I landed at my favorite U-Pull-It salvage yard today and
came across the exact same 91 Civic as my own. The driver's
seat looked in good repair;  had "only" 110k miles on it;
and cost only $10 (love those bargain prices!). I sat on it
and it felt pretty firm. I figured I could not go wrong.
Four bolts and one quick-disconnect electrical connector
later, it's mine.

Here at home I will disassemble it entirely; wash the seat
cover in the washing machine (cold temp, gentle cycle, mild
detergent of some kind, I reckon); and compare the salvage
seat's springiness to that in my Civic's. Then I'll rebuild
my old one as needed.

At the yard I also went looking for junked CRX's with decent
bodies. Doh, that won't work. Several CRX's were there but
they were stripped or pretty banged up. I reckon 99% of
these cars end up in the yard because of a collision. The
yard will be great for a lot of replacement CRX parts,
though.

Update on refurbishing the driver's seat in my 91 Civic:

The $10 seat I bought at the salvage yard came apart (sans
service manual instructions) okay. Like Tegger notes, the
seat covers are on tight. I only took off the bottom one.
Around two dozen clips affix it to the seat pad. The clips
are a little annoying to undo. I used 8-inch needle nose
pliers, mostly to get them off.

Compressing the foam of the seat pad facilitates removing
the seat cover; it was not too difficult to get it off. I
never felt like anything was going to tear.

The seat cover is an extravagant bit of upholstery, with its
padding and fancy, very secure stitching. I imagine it is
probably worth what the OEM dealers charge, all things
considered.

I put the salvage seat cover into the washing machine,
warm/cold with about 1/4 cup of powder detergent, super
gentle cycle, long wash. It was very dirty, from the looks
of the wash water, but after an extra rinse, the water was
coming out clear. The vinyl used in the seat cover
discolored a bit. "Armour All" fixed this right up.

I took apart the original seat that came with my 91 Civic.
This being the second time I'd taken one apart, it was much
easier. Washed its seat cover, too. It did not clean up
quite as nice as the 110k miles salvage one
did--perspiration smears still show a bit. Still, it's now a
serviceable spare.

I wwitched the thick foam pads on which one sits, since the
salvage one seemed to have more bounce left in it. I put the
newly washed and dried salvage seat cover in, skipping the
top set of clips (as an experiment, since they are
particularly annoying to remove and install). All told it
looks really nice! It feels better too, though I may spend
the $40 or so at the online OEM Honda parts sites for a new
pad within a year or so, now that I can get the seat apart
pretty quickly at this point.

So to all of you driving old Hondas whose engines will not
quit, but various accessories are looking a bit worse for
the wear: Take a day or two to take apart each seat, and
launder your seat covers. You'll have that new car feeling.