Subaru STi Seats Overview/Review

Hey everyone. I just installed some STi seats out of a 2005 STi in my 2002 WRX! I thought I’d take the opportunity to try my hand at writing a review sort of thing. So here it goes.

I got these seats after finding a great deal locally through Craigslist. I wasn’t really actively looking to buy STi seats, it was just one of those mods that you have in the back of your mind that you would eventually want to do to your car but not right away. But when these popped up, I had to jump on them.

They actually have kind of a cool story behind them. I talked to the seller for a while about cars when I went to pick them up, and he said that the seats are out of his 2005 STi that he used to own. But this wasn’t just any old STi. It is actually the official Cobb STi that appears on the start up screen of the accessport for the 04-05 STi! He said that he got to go down to California and everything to do a photo shoot for the car.

Anyway, back to the seats.

Installation was simple for the drivers side seat, I just plugged in the airbag sensor, zip tied the wire to the underside of the seat so it doesn’t rattle around, and bolted them in using the factory bolts. However, the passenger side seat had lived a rougher life. The mounting brackets and the rails were bent, so I had to spend the better part of two hours hammering and tweaking the metal to get them to bolt in straight. They went in eventually, though.

Also, I did not buy them with the seat belt buckles, so I figured I’d just use the ones from my 02 seats. Well, it wasn’t that easy. When I unbolted the buckles from my 02 seats and tried to bolt them to the STi seats, I found that there was a bigger metal tab sticking out blocking them from being bolted in. So I had to grind some of the metal off near where the bolt goes into the seat belt buckle to get them to fit.

Now, I’ll share my thoughts on them now that I have had them installed for a few days.

I think they look awesome. You can see that blue suede through the windshield easily when waking up to the car and there is just something about them that ooze “racecar,” as cheesy as it may be. My friends have also commented on how they think that the seats make my interior look newer, which I think is true as well. The seats also have a cutout in the top allowing for a four point harness, once again because racecar.

On to the feel. They are a lot firmer than the stock seats, which I like. They offer better support, and just feel nicer to sit in generally. Also, my butt used to get sore in the stock seats after about two hours of driving, but this is not the case anymore.

The only thing that I am disappointed with in the seats is their bolstering. The stock seats are actually narrower and have thicker bolstering than the STi ones. It is not bad in the STi ones, you just move around a little bit more in the STi seats than the stock WRX seats.

In conclusion, I am very happy that I got these seats. To me, their pros outweigh the cons. Why couldn’t Subaru have made them with better bolstering though? I may have to grab some JDM seats at some point because of this. Oh well. At least they look good.

#blogpost