I was wondering whether having leather seats on a car is a good thing or just a daft gimmick, more trouble than its worth. I can imagine maybe it being hot and sweaty on hot days and colder than normal cloth on freezing conditions. And then you have the problem of wear and tear and any extra maintenance. Maybe half leather is better? Is leather seats more or less hard wearing than standard seats?
Depends on personal taste. I love the smell and the feel of leather seats. A wipe over every time you wash the car with a prepackaged leather wipe is quite enough to keep them nice. If you have herbert or very small children I would not recommend them, nor if you have studs on your jeans or screwdrivers in your pocket.
mrcheerful
I had them in one car and quite liked them. Easy to clean (great if you've got pukey kids) but dark coloured ones can get very hot on a summers day and I needed to cover mine with a cloth before leaving the car (remember vinyl seats?). Personally I think cloth wins it on balance as it's wamer/cooler when it needs to be and your bum doesn't slide around quite so much on corners (if you've just polished the seat).
Maybe you should write to Rolls Royce, and tell them that they've been wasting their time for the last 100 years supplying their fine automobiles with leather seats. Tell them that a nice bit of vinyl, or brown cloth would be less "gimmicky".
ffs
Matter of choice I suppose. Another bit of useless information- the Japanese don't like leather, smell or feel. True: it is cold in winter and hot in summer. DaveK.
My latest car has leather seats and a wooden steering wheel rim. Both look great but have drawbacks. The leather does clean up better than cloth but can be chilly in the winter (fortunately the front seats are heated so get warm pretty quickly!). The wood rim steering wheel looks great but, (like the old plastic steering wheels) can be very cold on the hands when the car has been left out in freezing conditions. I suppose alloys are another example of gimmick. They look great - but are far more difficult to keep clean than wheel trims and a damn site more expensive to replace if they become badly scuffed!
Kev
I've got a loaner while mine's being repaired [0] and the loaner doesn't have the wooden steering wheel that mine has. It's
*horrible*. I can't wait to get mine back. [0]davek ( snipped-for-privacy@brentmere53.fsnet.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
If they're basing it on the quality of leather in Japanese cars, I don't blame 'em.
The message from Andrew Simpson contains these words:
I detest leather to sit on, but I'll give it one thing - if you've got kids in the back it makes it a doddle to clean up when they're sick or spill milk or get in with muddy boots or any of the other things kids do to cars.
Well I prefer hide to leather. My Lewis Leather's Super Monza ,top of the range hide jacket is now 27 years old (cost £80 in Jan 1978). The UK fitted hide in my Jap car is 14 years old.
You'll probably find that older cars will have had leather seats for the driver riding up front, exposed, and the passengers would be sat on best quality upholstered seats finished in cloth.
'fine automobiles'
I'm not sure about that, they drink too much gas, they cost too much, and they take up too much room. I wouldn't want one even if I could afford one!
That would be for the pre-1930s models, which hardly counts.
Okay, let's ask Aston Martin why their cars are supplied with Connolly hide.
The message from Ben Blaney contains these words:
Probably because people expect expensive cars to have leather seats. Things like this are often down to habit rather than utility.
Guy King ( snipped-for-privacy@zetnet.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
Upmarket cars always used to fitted with cloth rather than leather. Leather was "common"
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