This weekend my brother and I replaced the cheap playskool steering wheel in our mom's 2006 xA with a stock steering wheel out of a tC.

I had read one thread on this forum that somebody had done it but wasn't 100% sure. But we also own a 2009 tC and the wheel appeared to be the same, so I bought a junkyard tC wheel for $20 and they are exactly the same except for the back panel. The xA has no cruise so it does not have a hole in the back panel for the cruise stalk. That piece was easily swappable though. We swapped the audio controls because the xA piece had one extra wire and we were not sure why, but otherwise they looked exactly the same.

I'm 100% sure that the factory leather steering wheel upgrade ($300 or so IIRC) was just the same wheel that the tC's got from the factory (for all years except 2005 IIRC).

I do know that some of the earlier xA's did not get the same wheel, so don't take my word for it. This is the tC wheel in question: http://image.motortrend.com/f/2008_s...ring_wheel.jpg
The xA wheel looks exactly the same but with cheap General Motors-grade plastic instead of leather.

Note: the splined bushing is pressed into the steering wheel frame -- the splines are not cut directly into the frame itself. For this reason, swapping a steering wheel will not result in perfect steering wheel alignment, it will usually be a fraction of a spline tooth off. You may need to visit an alignment shop to have them realign the wheel so it is perfectly straight.

Let me know if you have any questions.