Someone told me that Ford Vehicles such as the Ford Taurus X and Ford Taurus, which has leather seats are not real leather, but rather Bonded leather which is real garbage leather compared to Honda's leather seats. The Ford leather apparently has a plasticky texture to it. Does anyone know if this is true ?
If by "Bonded Leather" you mean the stuff made up from leather scraps bonded together, then I don't believe this is true. It may be the chemically treated "real" leather that is also sometimes referred to as "bonded leather." They do this so the leather seating surfaces will have a consistent appearance and match the rest of the seat material which is vinyl. You do realize that most manufacturers, including Honda, only provide leather seating surfaces. The sides and rear seat panels are vinyl. Honda doesn't actually call their fancy seats in an Accord "leather seats", they refer to them as "Leather-trimmed Seats." For the Civic EX, the upgraded seats have "Leather Seating Surfaces for Front- and Rear-Seat Occupants." Ford generally refers to their fancy seats as "leather-trimmed" seats. A few years back I owned an Expedition with the third row seat. The first two rows of seats had leather seating surfaces. The third row was all vinyl. All three rows looked the same to me.
Personally, if I order a car, I ask for cloth.
Ed
As far as I know, there aren't any car manufacturers today still using real top grain leather. Even BMW and Mercedes are using the crappy Pleather bonded stuff. It feels fine when it's new but I doubt it will feel so good ten years down the road.
--scott
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