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Bought one of these boots, and here is my impressions with some photos.
quality: 5/5
bought the black leather with silver stitching. The materials look grade A especially for the price. Leather looks a little flatter than the oem boot but that's not a bad thing. It looks like real leather.
Price: 5/5
$46 with free shipping. Arrived in a week, maybe a week and a half. No tracking. Seems very affordable for the product you get.
fitment: 3/5
i knew it was a too good to be true product for the price. The feel and look of the product exceeded my expectations for $46 but require some editing and trimming to fit the oem cobalt boot frame. The cut out tabs did not line up and required me to hold the boot over the frame as centered as I could and slightly enlarge existing tabs to fit using a razor blade. Had to be very careful. Not difficult to do but wish I didn't need to. After I stapled the new boot in place using a $10 staple gun from the hardware store I could barely squeeze the boot frame + boot back into the center console frame. The leather is much thicker than the oem stuff. I managed to snap it back together but there is a lot of tension. I can see the sides of the frame bow up slightly (no clip on the sides) revealing some staples I put high up on the boot frame. If I don't point it out to a passenger they'd never notice or see it.
The only other thing I can say about the fitment is that the OEM boot secures the neck via a zip tie but there is no way to secure the new boot at the neck. Luckily it is snug enough and elastic enough to stretch over the shifter reverse lock out mechanism and holds tight.
overall: 4.3/5
I think it's a good value for the product and does what I want it too while looking better than oem in the process. It's a tough install for the leather but I can imagine the bride material or vinyl would be an easier install.
OEM boot showing wear near the top where it meets the reverse lock out. Lasted 8+ years, not too shabby for fake leather. Ive seen them fall apart sooner.
OEm boot vs new boot. I did not do a size comparison, wish I captured that. They are relatively equivalent in size. I did not reduce the the size by 1" for the STS. I ordered it as OEM height. The quality is on a different level. Also in photo is my TWM reverse lock out piece for the STS.
Stapled to the OEM frame. Kind of a pain because the staples were short. The staples barely went through the plastic. Also I added another row of staples towards the bottom of the frame to hold the leather down. Found it too difficult trying to install frame back into the car with the leather folding on itself.
TWM STS taken apart. I had a fun time trying to remember how to take this thing apart and put back together lol. Been 7 years since the install.
All back together. Low lighting photo.
with Flash on. You can see the silver stitching. nice little accent for the the silver interior cars.
Daylight photo from this morning.
side view daylight photo. This is where I noticed the glimmer of a staple just above the chrome frame and a slight gap on the side. Oh well good enough.
The only other thing id say is If I did this again, I would have bought the 1" reduce boot to go with the TWM STS. Theres alot of sagging sack with this boot. Seems like more material than the OEM one. It doesnt bother me (I have saggy ***** most of the time), I planned to switch the shifter back to OEM down the road when I sell.
Mine is starting to look like that at the top, guess I need to add this to my to-do list as well.
Nice write-up.
leather is a super tight fit but I like it. I used a $10 staple gun from homedepot and that barely worked to push the staples through. I think a staple gun that uses longer staples would be better. Also, just because the OEM boot was held on by like 12 staples doesnt mean you cant use more. I think I put like 20+ staples in that bish.. lol.. I did not show a photo of the second row of staples but just imagine what your seeing in my photo with a second row.
You weren't able to pull the boot lower so you wouldn't have that much sag on it?
You know, I honestly probably could have and just cut off all the excess but Im not sure if the boot would still work with the OEM shifter if I ever switched it back.
I just aligned the tabs as low on the bracket as I could without going to far past the plastic. They actually sell them with 1", 2", and 3" reduced templates for short throw shifters. The TWM is 1" height reduced so if I paid like an extra $10, they would have sent a 1" reduced boot.
Well you didn't really have to cut the excess off you could of left it like that no one was going to see it and I doubt it would be on the way
yes your right. Actually thinking back, I dont think you can trim this thing past the silver stitching. It will come unthreaded. theres also elastic things in there. But like I said, its fine. doesnt bother me. It does the job and looks good. At first install I tried to go through all the gears and I could get into 5th. I was like "...what?... I didnt change anything below the reverse lock out? whats going on?" Turned out the excess leather was pinching between the shifter. Had to pull it up and "design" the folds to not interfere with the shifter. Works fine now.
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