New Car: Leather seats or not?

csgohan4

Simple question, buying a new Auris hybrid and wondering if I should have leather seats.


Are leather seats comfortable in a car and is it worth the buttock investment?

WellKnownSid

csgohan4 wrote: »

Simple question, buying a new Auris hybrid and wondering if I should have leather seats.


Are leather seats comfortable in a car and is it worth the buttock investment?

They are an essential part of any prestige car - try shifting a used BM or Merc with cloth.

But - even with heated seats front and back, they're fr-fr-fr-freeezingly chilly in Winter, and fu-fu-fu-freakingly hot in Summer.

Oh, and our DD can't stand the smell... makes her... car sick. Thankfully, being leather, the vomit cleans up nicely though...

Make sure you try out an actual car with those very seats - they will feel different to 'normal' and you may or may not prefer the result.

gibby9

I have leather seats and find very handy as have a toddler in the back when driving. Leather very easy to clean.

forgotmyname

Cannot stand leather, Will teh seat be comfortable? the only way to tell is sit there for a few hours or take a test drive and do 3 hours up the motorway and back.

I find my Mondeo comfortable where my parent Golf is awful. 20 minutes in the golf and mt backs twinging like crazy.
You maybe the opposite.

csgohan4

To be honest I was happy sitting in my old 12 year old Upholstered Rover 40 driving to cornwall.


The only reason I thought for the leather is it's easy to clean and might be comfortable. As Someone pointed out, it can be cold during the winder and hot during the summer.


I suppose I can put in seat covers to negate this

Gloomendoom

The best combination is leather and suede. That way you actually stay in your seat when going around corners.

forgotmyname

Seat covers on leather will slip unless you glue them down.

EssexExile

I just don't understand leather seats. When we bought our current car we needed fully adjustable seats & the only way to get that was to go top of the range, then they had to be leather. Leather is cold, hence seat heaters, or hot, hence seat cooling, & slippery, hence uncomfortable.
We keep our cars about 10 years so we don't worry about resale value & we've never had trouble with fabric seats wearing out.

bowlhead99

I don't really agree with the complaint that leather is cold in the winter. I mean, yes it can initially be cold so I do get it, but once you're actually sitting in it, it'll soon warm up. Leather jackets are warm and soft once you've been in them a bit. I expect cows are quite warm on the inside too.

Leather gives a nice "premium" look and, especially if you put some protective coating on it (e.g. Gtechniq), it is pretty wipe-clean and stain resistant. Kids can still mess it up by scratching it, and if they do it'll feel more annoying because they wrecked something "premium" that you spent extra on...

It's true that leather is not so good in the hot summer months, although air con which is ubiquitous on most modern cars (or at least way more prevalent than a couple of decades ago) goes some way to mitigate this. I agree with the comment above that half-leather seats give a good compromise - a bit of luxury, but no slip sliding about and no sticking on a hot sweaty day.

I suppose it's like a leather sofa. They can be comfy but a bit sticky sitting on them in shorts in summer, cold in winter, expensive, etc.

Actually the ones I have are great- sounds like what the poster above mentioned: full leather, sports support, adjustable in all kind of directions, ventilated and both heated and cooled. Despite their complaint, they're really very nice IMHO. But it's not an easy option to add because step one has to be to buy the type of car that offers them as an option, which excludes most brands and models.

I suppose I can put in seat covers to negate this

I wouldn't (and not just for the reason that they'll slip slide everywhere). There's no point buying something that was designed to look nice and feel nice and then covering it up with something because you don't like how it looks or feels.

It's like buying a brand new sofa and then immediately buying a "throw" to put over the top. Just buy something that looks and feels nice to your own tastes - , don't buy something that you don't like and then buy something to cover it.

It would be like getting new polished hardwood floors for your lounge and then a rug that goes right to all edges of the room because really you wanted a carpeted floor instead.

Richard53

The only car I have had with full leather was my Range Rover, and I swore then that I would never have a car without leather seats again. I loved them. Admittedly a bit cold at first in winter, but fine in the summer, and I loved the wipe-clean nature and superb feeling of comfort. Of course, I didn't stick to my promise, but it would definitely be one factor in a future purchase. The MX-5 has suede under your bum and back and leather at the sides, and that seems to be a good compromise. But leather seats definitely great in my book.

motorguy

Leather and suede in our 370z, leather in the Jag.

One thing i would say is that it depends on the leather and the seats.

Sports leather seats in something like a BMW are usually quite good. The ones in my Jag are quite naff as the leather is shiny and offers no grip and the seats are quite flat so you slide about particularly on heavy breaking.

I dont think there is any expectation with an Auris that it should have leather, so its going to be personal choice - just dont expect the cost of the leather to add anything other than a very small percentage of the cost of it to its resale value.