Thoughts on replacing the Legende Comfort seats?

[NewtonSheep]

Hi guys - my first post as a prospective Alpine newbie.

I'll be buying a pre-loved Alpine in the next month or so hopefully (haven't quite found the perfect build combination yet!), and wanted your thoughts.

The spec I want is a fully-loaded Pure that's no more than two years old, but finding the right car is proving to be elusive. Specifically, I DO NOT want the leather 'comfort' seats, and much prefer the standard Alcantara buckets. However, the Legende version seems to be the right spec for me in all other regards.

Thoughts on replacing the leather seats with the the standard seats? Can they be sourced from Alpine? Anyone done it?

Or should I just hang on until the right Pure is available?

TIA.

[NewtonSheep]

Gatsods said:

Purely out of interest and with no knowledge to add to your question... what combination of options on a Pure results in the elusive perfect spec?

Having recently bought a <2 year old Pure myself, I am sure I know which one (at least) mine is missing!

The 'ideal' spec is (in no particular order of importance as they are all 'must haves'):
- Focal audio upgrade
- Alu pedals
- Storage pack
- Mirror pack
- 18" wheels / upgraded brakes
- Sports exhaust
- Parking sensors with camera

Anything else is a bonus.

I figure, if you're going to push the boat out, may as well make it a big one

[NewtonSheep]

Colin P said:

I had the opposite issue. Pretty relaxed on Spec with just the Comfort Seats and Sports exhaust being the killer items. The lack of Comfort seats rules out a lot of cars, which otherwise would have been options, but the standard seat is just too high for me.

I even looked to see if I could get a set of comfort seats to swap out with. I'm surprised you can't find a car with the standard seats to your spec, what is the main challenge here?

The main challenge is that most cars I've seen for sale have some combination of features but very few have them all together.

There have been cars for sale that were right for me, other than timing. Now that I'm ready to buy, I can't find the car!

All I need now is a bit of patience.

[NewtonSheep]

NewtonSheep said:

Gatsods said:

Purely out of interest and with no knowledge to add to your question... what combination of options on a Pure results in the elusive perfect spec?

Having recently bought a <2 year old Pure myself, I am sure I know which one (at least) mine is missing!

The 'ideal' spec is (in no particular order of importance as they are all 'must haves'):
- Focal audio upgrade
- Alu pedals
- Storage pack
- Mirror pack
- 18" wheels / upgraded brakes
- Sports exhaust
- Parking sensors with camera

Anything else is a bonus.

I figure, if you're going to push the boat out, may as well make it a big one

And just to make it more difficult for myself, the list of MUST NOT's doesn't help:

- not leather seats
- not brown/caramel interior
- not a 'S'

[NewtonSheep]

Colin P said:

I can see the issue, with that list of options you are pushing on into GT pricing, so likely people would have just gone for the GT which comes with most of it, but also with the comfort seats. The Comfort pack does a similar thing in bringing the Pure to near GT pricing once you add a couple of other things.

The car I eventually bought is a high spec "Pure" (it's got all of that except the storage pack), plus the comfort seats and a couple of other bits. The only thing it doesn't have versus the GT is the higher power, but it also has some options you'd need to additionally spec onto a GT. If factory ordered I'd never have gone to the same spec as I dare say it would have made more sense to just buy the GT, but it was in stock and at 2022 price.

(Read Legende in place of GT for pre 2022 cars)

You hit the nail on the head.

The spec I want is the Legende/GT level, but without the leather seats, and there seem to be more of them than well specced Pure's, hence the original question.

[NewtonSheep]

Colin P said:

I love the light silver and tan seats. Look like a mini Aston. Seriously considered one in a dealer and a private sale (now also at a dealers), but the price differentials for a 24/30 month old car versus a new one just didn't make sense, especially as they don't have car play.

From this post and the one above you may notice that I suffered a bit from man maths and budget creep

Edited by Colin P on Tuesday 30th May 17:22

I'm trying to avoid the same trap!

[NewtonSheep]

worldwidewebs said:

Storage pack is very rare as it was so expensive for a rubbish 'bin' between the seats. If you want it, just buy it from the parts dept. Alu pedals can be bought from parts dept too. Sports exhaust - just be aware it comes with lots of pops and bangs in sports mode. You may love that or you may hate it. Personally, and I have the sports exhaust, I'd get one with the normal exhaust and get a Milltek from Life110 if you really must have more noise

Interesting, thanks.

I'd read that the storage bin had to be a factory order and couldn't be retro-fitted. It's one thing on the list I would compromise on.

Alu pedals - didn't know that.

The sports exhaust does seem to divide opinion, but it seems that most owners have specified the option judging by the cars I've looked at.i.e. it's fitted more often than not.

[NewtonSheep]

Murphys said:

I think you can talk yourself into so many of the must haves but once you drive the car on a regular basis you learn to live with what you have.

So very true.

[NewtonSheep]

Colin P said:

If you are driving properly the inch deep try under the centre consult will just result in the contents flying out

[NewtonSheep]

Miserablegit said:

I understand the seats are not available to order.

One of the posters on here was, I recall, changing from comfort to bucket and, in the end, had to source two seats , one at a time, from eBay- bought two passenger seats that people had removed from track cars.

Well that puts the kibosh on my idea. Thanks for the heads-up.

[NewtonSheep]

LE62NDE said:

The storage bin is a factory fit option: it is held in place by a couple of studs that don't get fitted to 'non-storage' cars. As a Legende owner who suffers with the seats in most cars, I'd not dismiss the comfort seats out of hand; but I also understand that if you are spending an Alpine-sized chunk of cash, you want things just right...

This is going to be trickier than I thought.

I don't like leather seats in any car, never have. And I particularly like the buckets in the Alpine. They 'seem' to be the most comfortable after a short test drive, but only a long journey will really tell.

From what I've read, the 'comfort' seat is less comfortable than the bucket; go figure!

[NewtonSheep]

7en said:

I'm not keen on full leather seats either, but they sit lower than the buckets unfortunately and it doesn't seem the buckets can go any lower.

If you're well over 6" the 'comfort' seats really make a noticeable difference.

I'm 5'11" (180cm) and didn't find an issue with either the bucket of leather seats in the showroom cars.

aea730's comment about the comfort seat being too hard, too flat, and too wide is a concern though.

[NewtonSheep]

To close this thread off, I've abandoned the idea of replacing the seats.

But... I have bought a Legende and will be collecting it this weekend!

[NewtonSheep]

Thanks!

Very excited.

[NewtonSheep]

Thanks for all your thoughts and insights.

I picked my car up on Saturday, then had a 2.5-hour drive home on mostly motorways. The comfort seats were absolutely fine for me. For context, I'm a slim 5'11 and 80kg, and didn't find the shoulder thing an issue.

First impressions: Love it! The 'ipad' is a bit quirky and will take a bit of getting used to though.

I'm really looking forward to lots more jollying about in the new toy. If only I could work out how to un-mute the satnav!

[NewtonSheep]

bcr5784 said:

There is a mute/unmute setting in the sat nav settings BUT my PE sometimes decides to give me the silent treatment even though it's not muted (the display actually shows whether it is "supposed" to be muted or not. Then for no particular reason the next time I start up it will start talking to me. It's clearly a software bug, but I'm not sure if there is a fix.