Raised on another thread but I didn't want to hijack it but I have never understood why leather seats are regarded as luxury.
Boiling hot in summer freezing cold in winter unless you have the heated option in which case they smell. Easily damaged and hard to repair. Impossible to invisibly repair. Give me a good cloth seat any day.
Is it just me?
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No.
I'm sure it goes back to the fifties and old Rovers etc.
Still think it's rubbish though.
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It is easy to wipe down when small children spill things/are sick/have accidents though.
(thats my excuse anyway, nothing to do with thigh length leather boot fetishes. No, nothing to do with that sort of think at all. No. )
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As a car valeter, id always wnt to be cleaning leather. Its great with kids as has been said - velour isnt too bad, but cloth stains easily and is very hard to clean up properly, esp if the colour is light.
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Leather every time for me. Compared to other materials it is much more hardwaring and is so easy to clean. This myth about it being too hot in summer and cold in winter is just that - a myth. I have owned several cars with leather interiors and I have never sat in one and thought 'Blimey this is too hot or too cold' etc etc!
It may be percieved to be a luxury item but for me it's so practical any car without it is off my list!
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Never had that problem either - my last (decent) car had heated leather, never smelt either ! Our work Honda Civic has heated leather and has taken a battering but still looks good at 30k (lavished with neglect)
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I think leather can be lovely to look at and can feel superb, but colour is very important and as said temperature is important too, seat heaters are vital for cold mornings.
My old MB still sports the fitted sheepskin cover i bought for SWMBO when she drove it, even with good seat heaters it was dreadfully uncomfortable for her, however the lovely colour combination of mushroom leather with dark walnut wood trim is very easy on the eyes.
There are various qualities of leather too, some are horrid almost copies of the real thing.
And lets be brutally honest children are much too horrible to be allowed anywhere near such a lovely material, any grandchildren that come my way will be going in the pick up bed, it does have a hard top to keep out the weather, just hose out after..;)
The other problem with leather is the slipperiness, we decided not to spec the leather option on our pick up, the demonstrator had us sliding around the seats.
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My 1952 Jowett Javelin has leather seats and very nice they are too.
However I damaged the back of the drivers seat just above the squab some time ago with something you might not think about until it is too late....the zip on the back pockets of my walking trousers !
Got to think ahead, I didn't !
Ted
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We have three cars in regular use. One has cloth seats, one has half leather ( even I can't see the point in that but they sort of came with the car ) and one has full leather.
Have to say, I just prefer the feeling of sitting in the leather ones, particularly for long journeys. Temperature thing had never occured to me really. They don't seem to be slippery either but maybe that would be different with different garments, not sure as I rarely wear anything other than jeans. Well, I often have a shirt on too but you know what I mean.......
Footnote - as I mentioned on another thread a while ago, I really do prefer to sit on leather seats when wearing shorts. Can't bear the feel of veloury or nylony stuff in that instance.
Clearly there is a demand for both and it wouldn't be a deal breaker either way for me but given the choice it's leather for me.
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Had wanted leather in a car for years and finally got them with my current motor. Whilst they are great, I am not going to specify them again.
Where the skin on my back touches the leather (shirt not tucked in sometimes) it has caused a bit of rubbing and broken skin which won't heal - becuase it just gets rubbed again!
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Not in my car but in my house is a trendy Italian leather suite that I bought a few years ago on the advice of a former gf. Hot and sticky to sit on in Summer, cold on Summer evenings and all through the Winter. I have the sofa covered in 'throws' - freck, I know what a throw is now - and if they move when I lie down on the sofa I get a cold piece of leather go right through me.
Hence, I would never buy a car with leather seats. It is a bit of a pain now though as if you are opting for the top of the range model in a car because you want some other gadget - i.e. cruise controls or lumbar support in the seat, etc - you nearly always now have no choice but to go with leather. Top of the range CRV is like this. Freck!
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Durable, attractive and easy to clean. Perfect material for car seats. Same reasons why so many people buy leather sofas.
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Five words:-
Momo, Alfa, cream, Romeo, leather
Re-arrange them into a sentence and I defy you not to be stirred....I was.
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I love leather, and after about 8 years of it, it is now a must-have.
It isn't too hot in summer or too cold in winter, that's viny that you used to get in the '70sl! Anyway, on my current car I have heated Alcantara leather which is suede on the centre part of the squab and back, and leather for the side-bolsters and headrests and doors etc.... I like this even more.
Edited by Hamsafar on 26/10/2008 at 23:57
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I like it too. But HJ says he hates it.
I wish he would stop being Sphinx-like and tell us why.
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Gliptone will invisibly repair what would appear to be an unimprovable scuff.
Just don't clean leather seats with baby wipes, it wrecks 'em.
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I didnt choose leather rather it came with the spec of the car however I do like it despite the wife not liking the new leather smell and reckoning that it still smells 6 years and 130k miles later.
On balance I would err towards leather next time though it would not be a must.
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ted told us about his Jowett.
What a beautiful car made at the Idle factory in Bradford taken over by International harvesters and now a supermarket sums up the UK skilled engineers replaced by grocery sellers.But I suppose Jack Tordoffs' father took his redundancy money from Jowett and started Brooklands garage and his son Jack went on to start JCT 600 never liked getting his hands dirty repairing cars more money in selling them .
Edited by Pugugly on 27/10/2008 at 17:45
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The stuff to have is alcantara. I once had a Lancia rental car in Italy (can't remember which one, but it was big) and the seats, ceiling and dashboard were upholstered in the stuff. It was beige coloured and showed no signs of staining or discolouring which probably wouldn't have been true for any other material in such a light colour, especially in a country so full of compulsive chain smokers as Italy was at the time.
My old Merc W124 has dark blue leather seats and they are wonderful to sit on, also with no real wear after almost 15 years. They are not too hot in the summer and not too cold in the winter.
In the absence of alcantara in the options list, I ordered my 5 Series company car with nappa leather which I have in my current 530d. It looks, feels and smells fantastic and is far nicer than any of the other seat coverings BMW have to offer. I spend a lot of time in the car so I'm prepared to spend a bit on making sure the seats and seat coverings are as comfortable as my budget will allow.
I think with leather seats the quality is important. I once had an MR2 with leather seats which looked and felt like vinyl and were very easy to damage. If you have the right grade of good quality leather it's extremely comfortable and does not suffer the temperature related problems people seem to imagine. On the other hand, one of my neighbours has a Mercedes W116 (mid 70s s-Class) with seats upholstered in finest soft green velours. Now that's really something.
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Alcantara ?...bit off at a tangent here, My Uncle Bob was killed on board HMS Alcantara in 1940 off Montevideo after a clash with the German armed raider 'Thor'
Don't know whether she had leather seats tho'.
Jowett factory now a Morrisons. They own a Jowett Bradford van, signwritten, and round the foyer are depicted various Jowetts on the frieze. The new police station opposite is called Javelin House.
Ted
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Leather seats? In really hot weather, if car is parked in sun, seats are so hot as to burn legs...
Having said that like them.
Old Jags/Rovers/Mercs...
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Leather seats? In really hot weather if car is parked in sun seats are so hot as to burn legs...
I was told my Vectra has some kind of coating on the windows (solar reflective glass - shrug, I dunno the correct name??) and the interior along with the leather remain bearable when parked all day in the sun.
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The vinyl seats in my mother's Dyane were unbearable in the summer with short trousers.
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Leather seats? In really hot weather if car is parked in sun seats are so hot as to burn legs...
What? In Britain? Don't remember ever having this problem outside of California.
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In a British or Italian car, yes. In anything else, I wouldn't be too fussed.
There's a certain softness and aroma to British and Italian leather interiors that seems to elude other countries' manufacturers IMHO.
The soft, supple Momo leather in my friend's old Alfa 156 was as far removed from the shiny, slippery PVC-a-like stuff in my in-law's mk4 Golf as it was possible to get.
Cheers
DP
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