Why leather?

Leather is easier to clean but anyone can neglect a car.

Regarding the shorts thing. Grown men don't wear shorts, that's your real problem right there.

Leather doesn't bother me, now those cheap plastics are a different story!

Rundown of how nice a seat is.

For street driving:
High Quality Leather > High Quality Cloth > > Low Quality Cloth > Low Quality Leather

For spirited driving:
High Quality Cloth > High Quality Leather > Low Quality Cloth > Low Quality Leather

Cost:
High Quality Leather > > High Quality Cloth ~ Low Quality Leather > > Low Quality Cloth.

My M Coupe had a high quality leather interior. It was nice.

I've had one car with leather, I'll never own another. There were no pros, only cons. I hated everything about them.

carguy123 wrote:

Chris_V wrote: Same reason I have a leather jacket. It feels better, smells great when new or reasonably new, and looks good. Easy to clean, and easier to maintain and keep up than cloth (I've yet to see an older used car with cloth seats where the cloth doesn't look like total crap, but with leather there's a good chance that it will still be good in a used car. My BMW leather looked like new when I got it with 143k miles on it).

And that's been exactly the opposite of my experiences. Every older car with leather the leather's all cracked and the top layer's been flaking off.

And out of my 120 cars that I've owned, the cloth has usually been the stuff thats been bad when I got it. I've seen way too many cloth seats that are filthy and the cloth itself is coming apart like this:

And cars like my BMW came to me with leather that looked like this at 143k miles:

I love the heated leather seats in my BMW and my MINI. I don't mind that the leather in my Mustang isn't heated, as I try not to drive it too much in the snow and ultra cold weather.

I spent a ton of time on the cloth seats in my '94 Chevy dually, but they remain stained even after steam cleaning.

Oh, and my leather coat is 15 years old and in perfect shape.

I think the only advantage to leather is it doesn't wear out nearly as badly as cloth.

93EXCivic wrote: I think the only advantage to leather is it doesn't wear out nearly as badly as cloth.

Unless you buy a Nissan.

The leather in my 350Z at 25k miles looked terrible, at least on the driver's side. One of the many reasons I ditched it. I knew the interior would look so ratty by 50k-60k miles it would drive me crazy.

Trans_Maro wrote: Leather is easier to clean but anyone can neglect a car. Regarding the shorts thing. Grown men don't wear shorts, that's your real problem right there.

Aww man! Grown men dont wear shorts? Nobody ever told me. Its like that time I had to sell the Miata when I found out it made me gay. I guess I got some new shop rags.

carguy123 wrote:

DrBoost wrote: But you wear the chaps AS pants.....

If he's wearing Chaps instead of pants won't that make him stick to the car seats when it's hot? And I'm totally talking weather when I'm talking about being hot.

I think I found the source of the problem. Dont wear chaps in a Town and Country!

the 2 most comfortable cruising cars i've ever owned- a 1978 Caddilac El Dorado and a 1994 Chrysler LHS- were the most comfortable cruising cars i've ever had because they had good quality leather seats in them. there is not much better than sitting in a comfy leather seat for the drive home after a 12 hour shift...

i've had some other cars with low quality dried out leather that were the exact opposite- they were so bad that i can't even remember what kinds of cars they were right off hand- i'm thinking that the 86-ish LeBaron wagon had something that was supposed to be leather in it, and that car sucked in just about every way possible except for the woodgrain trim that covered the exterior.

Corinth has always been known for its leather...

carguy123 wrote:

DrBoost wrote: But you wear the chaps AS pants.....

If he's wearing Chaps instead of pants won't that make him stick to the car seats when it's hot? And I'm totally talking weather when I'm talking about being hot.

TMI

Although most heated seats are leather, you can get them installed in cloth.
I've seen a lot of leather interiors crack at the edges, especially that area close to the door and seen stitching tear. They may last a bit longer than cloth or vinyl but it will do the same thing. I never understood the appeal of leather myself. Cloth is cooler in the summer, warmer in the winter and you don't stick to it when wearing chaps. Plus you don't slide around as much on it. I also learned in some extreme cold climates (Alaska) it used to be difficult to get anything except cloth. Both leather and vinyl will become brittle and crack in the extreme cold.
Now saying all this. SWMBO car has leather, my RX8 has cloth, my Opel GT has vinyl and the Miata has cloth currently. Found a deal on a pair of Corbeau FX1 Pro seats out of a Porche that are black & red leather. Figure they came out of a Porche, should fit a NB Miata. And meet track requirements.

My F250 Lariat has really nice leather. 250k and there are a few scuffs here and there, but no holes, no stains, nothing that keeps it from being a 9/10. Mmmmm tan leather interior!

I prefer good quality cloth for sporty driving and leather for DD and cruising. Heated leather in the winter is sooo nice. I think a sporty leather seat is possible, the leather Recaros in SAAB 9000 aeros seem decent, but I haven't spent enough time with them to make a definite judgment.

Mercedes MB tex vinyl and BMWs leatherette are pretty good too, (for DD use), if all vinyl seats were made like those, vinyl wouldn't have a bad reputation.

The saddle leather interiors in Ford King Ranch trucks is next to heaven to me....but I grew up on horses.

It's like you're reading my mind logdog. I'd pay more money to NOT have a leather interior.

The leather seats in RX8 sold me on good leather. I actually prefer it now.

I like Nickelback.

In reply to nicksta43:

Now it all makes sense.

I have an 00 F-350 crew cab Lariat with 150,000 miles. Front bucket seats started cracking in 07-08 and now look like crap and the back seat still looks fine. I believe the darker factory tint on the rear door and back windows has helped preserve the rear. The rest of the truck looks 3-4 years old and I'm considering recovering the buckets.

1995 Volvo 850 Turbo.

300,000+ KMS (odometer broken)

Original black leather seats are still fine.

JoeyM wrote:

The horror! THE HORROR!!!

Most of my British cars have had leather seats. The advantage is the wear resistance, the disadvantage how hot they get in summer. That and I recall a Jensen Interceptor convertible I owned where the previous owner had used some sort of leather dressing that made the damned seats so slick that every time I hit the brakes at all hard, you slid down into the footwells!

Today, I prefer cloth - I was lucky to find one of the couple of dozen Solstice coupes sold with cloth seats as most were leather, and the leather splits, the seams are poorly laid out (often look crooked) and the whole effect is less impressive than any cheap old British car (MGA, TR3 etc.) Seems to be no quality today.