Excess features you now couldn't live without 5 January at 10:02PM in In my home (includes DIY) MoneySaving 65 replies 3.6K views

Gavin83

Leather seats in cars (or for sofas frankly) is something I've never really understood either. It's not as soft and as you point out is more temperamental with temperature and sweat. Give me cloth any day!

Ebe_Scrooge

Gavin83 said:

Leather seats in cars (or for sofas frankly) is something I've never really understood either. It's not as soft and as you point out is more temperamental with temperature and sweat. Give me cloth any day!

I'm with you on this.  Although, I guess they do have the advantage of being easy to wipe clean - a big plus if you have kids who like to eat sweets or chocolate in the car, or who are travel-sick

Gavin83

Ebe_Scrooge said:

Gavin83 said:

Leather seats in cars (or for sofas frankly) is something I've never really understood either. It's not as soft and as you point out is more temperamental with temperature and sweat. Give me cloth any day!

I'm with you on this.  Although, I guess they do have the advantage of being easy to wipe clean - a big plus if you have kids who like to eat sweets or chocolate in the car, or who are travel-sick

Fair point, I hadn't considered that they're easier to keep clean.

On another point I wouldn't say they're more durable though. You generally find leather seats older than a few years are covered with those scratches where the leather has worn away. Cloth is softer and therefore more pliable.

DullGreyGuy

Gavin83 said:

Leather seats in cars (or for sofas frankly) is something I've never really understood either. It's not as soft and as you point out is more temperamental with temperature and sweat. Give me cloth any day!

Many these days aren't even leather but "vegan leather" or pleather or whatever else you want to call plastic that looks like leather. 

As the owner of several convertibles they've made sense in the wipe dry sense to me if you've left the roof down and got caught with an unexpected rain storm.

Ebe_Scrooge said:

Gavin83 said:

Leather seats in cars (or for sofas frankly) is something I've never really understood either. It's not as soft and as you point out is more temperamental with temperature and sweat. Give me cloth any day!

I'm with you on this.  Although, I guess they do have the advantage of being easy to wipe clean - a big plus if you have kids who like to eat sweets or chocolate in the car, or who are travel-sick

Genuine leather isnt that stain resistant so yes, easy to clean the sticky stuff but not going to look great after unless you went for a black option.  

Ebe_Scrooge

Gavin83 said:

Ebe_Scrooge said:

Gavin83 said:

Leather seats in cars (or for sofas frankly) is something I've never really understood either. It's not as soft and as you point out is more temperamental with temperature and sweat. Give me cloth any day!

I'm with you on this.  Although, I guess they do have the advantage of being easy to wipe clean - a big plus if you have kids who like to eat sweets or chocolate in the car, or who are travel-sick

Fair point, I hadn't considered that they're easier to keep clean.

On another point I wouldn't say they're more durable though. You generally find leather seats older than a few years are covered with those scratches where the leather has worn away. Cloth is softer and therefore more pliable.

Again, I agree with you.  Give me cloth every day from a purely comfort point of view.

I remember when I was a kid, it was only posh cars that had leather seats - Rolls Royce, Jaguar, Bentley etc.  I wonder if the leather they use in more mainstream cars these days is thinner, or of a lower quality somehow?

When we got married we had a Rolls Royce, a really old one owned by a friend of my dad, who used to "do weddings" occasionally for close friends for free.  Anyhow, this car was something like 30 or 40 years old and immaculate - and the seats in that were flawless.  I noticed, because it's the one and only time I've ever been in a roller

DullGreyGuy

Ebe_Scrooge said:

I remember when I was a kid, it was only posh cars that had leather seats - Rolls Royce, Jaguar, Bentley etc.  I wonder if the leather they use in more mainstream cars these days is thinner, or of a lower quality somehow?

There are many grades of leather starting with the lowest being bonded leather (aka reconstituted leather) which is made from scraps/off cuts etc that are shreaded down then glued together. In the US it only has to be 50% leather fibre to be able to be called leather... the rest is a bonding agent to hold it all together

As mentioned though above, many cars are using vegan leather/plastic rather than genuine leather or byproducts. Tesla got a lot of negative comments when they switched 

GDB2222

EssexExile said:

GDB2222 said:

I bought our car secondhand at auction. I scoffed when I found out that it had heated seats,  but I would definitely want those in any replacement car we buy. 

Similarly, the driver's seat is electrically adjustable. As my wife and I share the car, it’s useful that the seat automatically adjusts itself depending on which key is used. Again, I scoffed originally, but it would be something I would look for in a replacement car. 

No one wanted or needed heated seats when seats were cloth. Now seats in most good cars are leather and you need heating in the winter and ventilation in the summer to make them feel almost as nice as cloth seats. Also you need shaping to hold you in as leather is so slippery. We had a new Volvo loan car last week and it had cloth seats - back to the good old days!

You're right. It did come with leather seats. Something else I probably wouldn't have paid extra for.

GaleSF63

jackieblack said:

“Couldn’t live without”… Really? 🙄🤦🏻‍♀️

What it really means is "now I've discovered this there's no way I'm going to do without in future!"

goodwithsaving

Robot mower (I work full time and have a large garden)
Heated seats in the car
Electric windows in the car
Parking sensors
Steering wheel with audio/call/nav controls
GPS system in the car
Heated windscreen
Cruise control (makes long journeys easier)
Sonos multi-room sound in the house
Hive so I can come home to lights on and a warm house, and the sonos means I come home to music playing too.

goodwithsaving

and an electric garage door! Makes life SO MUCH easier when quickly heading out or coming home in the rain