Interested in this myself

Not sure if we’ll get any feedback. I’ve also thought about CNC laser cutting since I do a lot of boats and some of the mass produced ones I make patterns for, as to use for future jobs to cut down on time—since I’m a one man shop I’d like to streamline some things while working on other jobs. I’d rather stay a one man shop then bring in new employees that don’t live up to my expectations and slow me down.

I’m a one man shop also. I’ve thought about patterning seats myself. The but the ones I think I’ll get 1 of, I get 10. So I never know which to make actual patterns of. I do have some Audi seats I patterned. I see a few shops on Instagram that use a cnc laser to etch logos into leather or suede, along with cutting material. Looks real slick. But not sure I’m to that place yet.

I've heard some really good things about ABM International Inc., though I haven't tried their machines myself.

Browsing their products and watching their videos, I'm tempted to buy one. But we don't do enough custom quilting to warrant the investment. For us, it makes more sense to outsource the CNC quilting to a company like Hydes Leather or Automated Upholstery Designs.

Reach out to Mal Maher at NC Sewing & Carpet Binding. They sell traditional and decorative stitch machines, but Mal knows the industry inside-out and he's always happy to help. If there's a company or machine you should look into (or stay away from), he'll probably know it.

I looked into this years ago, a long arm machine with a cnc bed will cover about 600mm wide by about 900mm long (or more), a long arm machine is basically the smallest you can go to cover seat centres and doors for auto work which come in at around say £35-40k anything bigger in bed size will jump in price.

all the usual names offer a product, juki, pfaff etc and there's richpiece and ksl

Richpiece will get you a quote quick. If I remember correctly, the machine I looked at was around $40k.