Swapped out the original cream seats as I wanted Tillett seats to bring the driving position down, enabling me to fit while wearing a helmet.
I also wasn’t fond of the cream seats.
I was initially going to keep them to refit when (if) I sell in the future. I’m now wondering if it’s worth it. As long as it has genuine Lotus Exige / Elise seats, would anyone care or even check if they were the ones that originally came with the car.
I was thinking that I would sell these and keep my eyes open for something nicer.
The other option would be to get them retrimmed, but that mean I need to keep them kicking about the house for years.
It depends on what you want. If your plan is to one day sell the car at maximum price it will have to be (a) in tip top condition (b) very original or (c) very special - like Benja’s. Given they are cream and look to be in very tidy condition I would sell, buy some cheap very worn ones (really just the shells), have dinner and a beer on the profit, and get them recovered in a tasteful black when/if you ever want to sell the car.
If you have no plans to ever sell, don’t care about max resale, then just get shot of them.
unquestionably keeping all the removed bits is the best option…because the next owner may not like your mods and wish to return to standard…in a way not having the original bits makes the car less desirable…dont ask me why I think like this…
each to his own as they say.
Just for clarity, are those who vote to keep the seats saying that they would rather buy the car with the original cream trim over a nicer re trim in black?
…black is best, provided the sill pads are black as well. I think it is more desirable and nobody would know it was ever cream and even if they did, I do not think anyone would mind. I am not keen on interior colours, I prefer blacks and greys.
Hence my suggestion, max value, needs to be perfect, so may as well be recovered in black.
If your fitting Tillets you might as well just tuck them away and not worry. But don’t sell them, so you have options in the future. If not fitting Tillets then I’d 100% go black along with the sill trims.
Finding somewhere to store a couple of seats is the issue, doesn’t seem much point if I’m going to retrim. Looks like I would be best selling them as they are in pretty good nick and then buying some tatty ones for a retirm later.
In the world of history and classic cars, originality is everything. Who knows what the future holds for the S1 Exige, but keeping the original bits will do no harm whatsoever. Selling them may compromise the car in (many?) years to come.
Thank you both for the very kind offers. I can find a corner here if I really need too.
Decisions / decisions. Will I keep it to the point it will make a real difference? Will the cream devalue it anyway? would anyone ever know what the colour was.
I’ll sleep on it as I’ve just been mopping up the aftermath of a dopey old git turning across in front of my Son and wiping out all the hard work we’ve put into resurrecting at MK1 MX5. We have a track day booked for next Month which was supposed to be the the MX5, but looks like it will be the first outing for the Exige (in my hands).
!! Deffo retrim 
