[Closed] Leather interior in car

It can scratch but a fabric can pluck. Love mine, it's easy to wipe clean, so just jump in and out in riding kit.

Never sat in a leather car I liked. Always feel hard and not plush to the touch.

FWIW my Passat has the most incredible fabric ever on its seats. Very soft, and looks like new after 8 years and 105k miles. VW know what they are doing with fabric it seems.

Just make sure its leather not pleather.

Wouldn't own a car without leather.

Cloth seats just look cheap, feel cheap and wear and fade really badly.

Only problem for me is the bolster on the drivers seat on some cars and wear out quicker than fabric ones. (not always though).

Black half leather in my estate and cream leather in the landrover.

The fabric on the half leather looks dirtier and is harder to clean. The black does get some scratches but I'm not too bothered, it's just a car to me and I am sure fabric would look worse and cant be treated or cleaned as easily.

Cream leather does look cleaner in terms of dog hairs but the light fabric door cars that go with it is a PITA to keep clean.

I normally use Gliptone to clean and protect the leather (comes as two bottles). My 9 year old leather sofa in the flat I rent out is treated with it annually (should do 6 months tbh) and it still looks great.

I did switch to some saddle wax stuff (beeswax + other stuff) on my car as I left the Gliptone at the flat and it did a very good job and doesnt smell like leather but I prefer it. Bit shinier though whereas the gliptone dries nice and matte.

Always go for leather over fabric, feels nicer, wears better, cleans easier.

My Touran is fabric, wife's Golf is black leather.

Leather in my Golf (mk5) is very nice, car's 6 years old/62k miles and it looks immaculate, definitely better than the cloth in the one which preceded it at the same age. Perhaps newer ones are better judging by Molly's experiences.

new leather e class merc seats are the comfiest thing have ever sat in, massage and air con settings are ace too.

Always go for leather here... we are hard on our cars and I'm a bit too lazy to clean the inside very often.

Leather seems to cope with the abuse better than cloth and you can always give it a wipe. You'll still need to find a way of getting the footprints off the head-liner though 😉

Leather IMO is much easier to keep clean and looks better too.

But you want heated seats in winter if you do have it.

I'm the exception.

I'll actively seek out cars without leather rather then with.

Another proponent of leather seats here. I had trouble with Alfa Romeo I had about 10 years ago scratching easily (careful with that vacuum cleaner!) but haven't experienced that on two cars since, and watch out for sun cream on dark leather - particularly easy to stain, very ugly but not impossible to get rid of.

On the whole though it wears much better long term and isn't hard to maintain.

Its great. Much easier to keep clean than cloth seats. My preference where at all possible. Does need occasional cleaning/cream and can be prone to wear/cracking. Only downside I have heard of is girls in short skirts/shorts find their legs stick in a hot summer 8)

I had it (with heated front seats) in my Saab 9-3 estate. it was lovely. Didn't keep it long enough to notice any problems such as cracking, although i have seen old cars with cracked leather seats - i guess the owners could have looked after them better.

converse of what annebr said, you don't want to be wearing shorts when climbing into leather seats on a hot summer's day... ok they cool down quickly once you're moving with the air con going, but if you're of an age to remember vinyl seats from the 60s & 70s cars, you'll know what I mean 😯

if buying a brand new car I'm not sure I'd bother, unless I needed the other toys* that came with the leather spec, but for a s/h one the price difference between leather & cloth can be worth paying the little bit extra for.

Pale cloth, on the other hand, is almost impossible to keep clean, especially if you wear dark or brightly coloured clothes. I had a BMW 3 series estate with pale grey interior. Wish I'd gone for one with a black, or leather, interior.

* sat nav = useful but not essential, you can always get a portable sat nav system for a hundred quid or so; for me, cruise control IS essential, I've had it for so long it'd be hard going without. Dual zone climate control is nice but not essential as long as it has at least a basic air-con system - although they tend to go hand in hand with leather seats. parking sensors are extremely useful, especially in bigger cars, especially when I have my full drum kit in the back.

Thanks all - leather it shall be then 8)

From a care point of view, I love customers with leather seats in their cars.

Wet cleaning fabric is a pain in the arse, leather cleaning and conditioning is easy.

I would avoid black personally, as they can be prone to show cracking a bit more than lighter colours. I would go for a mid grey as that tends to last best.

Leather is a must if you do any dogging.

Only downside I have heard of is girls in short skirts/shorts find their legs stick in a hot summer

this brings back terrible memories of 70's plastic seats hotter than the surface of the sun and the smell of burnt flesh if you forgot to put something down to sit on

OP new or 2nd hand? Just think of all those farts embedded in fabric seats on a 2nd hand car...

[i]Cloth seats just look cheap, feel cheap and wear and fade really badly[/i]

Interesting. I've never seen a modern car with slightly faded seats, let alone "really badly". Grubby maybe, but not faded.

(I like my Mondeos part-leather seats, fwiw)

2 possibly 3 years old.

Nothing says cheap like a convertible with cloth seats. I went for red leather. It was easy to keep clean, but be careful with scratching from clothes and car seats. Heated seats are a must. I used baby wipes to clean the leather. Normally, only the part you sit on will be leather, as opposed to pleather.

I'll actively seek out cars without leather rather then with.

Me too, don't like it.

Black leather seems to have high heat capacity, getting in naked on a hot day is not advisable.

Leather seats, kids, wipe down with wet wipes, sorted

Alcantara FTW

Had 3 Alfa's with leather, 2 with standard Momo leather and the last was with Momo Sports seat. All great and wear really well. The Momo Sports seats were a pain to clean as they had lots of red stitching and perforations in but were really comfortable.

Saab 9-3 leather soft but being cream it marked easily on the seat edges and started to wear after 100k miles.

The leather in my Jeep Patriot is only leather in certain places but I do treat it as an SUV anyway so not too bothered.

The red M-Sport leather in our BMW convertible is lovely with the best heating elements I have experienced in a car.

black leather in my Golf, lurvely.

Leather is kid and dog proof.

Do it, also looks great

My Alfa 147 has leather seats and is the most comfortable car I have ever owned or driven.

Wear is minimal given the age.

Will definitely have leather again.

Mine's 120000 miles old and still looking good- not exactly fresh, but it carries the wear really well. Only downers are they're a bit squeaky/creaky, I silicon'd the gap between plastic and leather and that's helped a lot. And a wee bit slidey- though people with full sized arses probably wouldn't have a problem, with mine.

Interesting. I've never seen a modern car with slightly faded seats, let alone "really badly". Grubby maybe, but not faded.

Me neither, and I see a lot of cars that are treated pretty badly.

Modern fabrics in cars are incredibly resilient. I've had then out of cars, covered in chemicals, scrubbed and hot power washed and they look brand new still.

As mentioned above, VW group fabric seats seem better than most.

Do you/ will you have kids ?

If so... get leather

No sprogs Ro5ey...

No leather = no way

There's a joke there somewhere Rascal...

Something about making and cleaning up

😯

The last 4 vehicles I've had have all been leather and I wouldn't have anything else now

8 years ago I had a Vectra that I had specced out apart from leather seats, regretted it and after a year got a set of sports seats from an SRi and had them custom trimmed at Classic Car Services in Leicester, cost about £1200 but that was roughly the factory cost anyway, but you can choose from 50+ colours 2 tone etc and they were full leather not just the facings, normal production cars have pleather on the sides and back. The leather was amazing quality too from Scotland, kept it clean and nourished with proper leather cleaner. I had accompany car after that and test drove a Passat with leather and thought it was hard and uncomfortable, went for an Avensis in the end with Leather and kept it clean with baby wipes even after the dog had been in it would look new after 2 mins and 1/2 dozen baby wipes. Got cloth now and they are awful.

My rover has leather seats!
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pleather

Is that similar to Pleblon (tm)?

I used baby wipes to clean the leather.

Do your seats a favour and get a packet of leather cleaning wipes instead.

Over time baby wipes will disintegrate the top coat protection on the pigmented leather and it will start to look crap.

Black leather seats in my 3 year old Golf (53,000 miles). They still look good (no sagging) and make the interior smell nice, even after all this time. My front seats are heated, which helps in the winter, as leather can feel a little cold.

It's not a proper car without a couple of cows in it! Only downside is driving in the buff on hot days, skidmarks are easier to wipe up though!

My poor car gets in a right state as I use it for work, drive across site, get a bit muddy, get in car, drive, do more work etc.

The inside has been quite muddy to be fair, a quick wipe sorts the seats out, the carpet is protected by mats if necessary,

I wouldn't have a car without leather for this very reason.

A previous car had cloth, I bought a wet / dry Vax especially to clean it. But what a pain that was every few weeks.

Have to say, I'd never had heated seats before but I love them now and that's also a car requirement from now on too.

10 year old Audi Cabrio - leather seats are still lovely. I clean them with AutoGlym leather seat stuff - seems to keep them nice. Would definitely have leather seats again.

Seems to be a lot of love for leather...which I'm very happy about 😀

Another vote for leather here too....it's just peasy to keep clean. I use Gliptone. It's the best stuff that bike found.

If your putting stuff in the car like mucky bikes, it's much easier to clean. Not all leather is equal though. VAG leather can be a bit squiffy (prince to sagging and not the best quality) moden BMW leather is pants too; really hard and cheap feeling. The upgraded leather is nice though.

28yr old leather seats in my golf and still like new, they do need cleaned and nourished/oiled every so often but still very comfortable and supportive - I've seen cloth seats of that era and they are very shabby and tired looking.

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