meh. id take leather any day....easy to clean and simply looks too too good to even consider getting cloth.
my black leather fries my ass everytime in summer!
leather Vs Cloth
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Re:
Garry wrote:And how is this different to cloth seats? After nearly 4 years my car still smells of leather not locker room.
Unlike it's owner
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leather vs cloth
The beauty of leather seats (in an Mx5 at any rate) is the ease at which you \"slide\" in and out of the car. It was an added bonus when I went from the standard cloth seats. Possibly only old farts like me would notice.
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Re: leather vs cloth
trader wrote:The beauty of leather seats (in an Mx5 at any rate) is the ease at which you "slide" in and out of the car. It was an added bonus when I went from the standard cloth seats. Possibly only old farts like me would notice.
Yeh that's a great feature...especially in mircofibre trousers!
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The leathers used for most car seats are corrected grain, where they actually sand off the surface of the leather to remove slight imperfections and scratches.
Then, they cover the surface with various binders and lots of pigment, which effectively seals off the breathing potential of the leather anyway, so leather seats don't breath. Unless you want to spend a lot of money and get full-grain leather, which will cost around twice as much as corrected grain.
And you need to be an expert to tell what the leather is just by
looking/feeling it. I've embarrassed a lot of furniture retailers by telling them exactly what the leather lounges they are selling are actually made of. Some of the really cheap leather lounges are upholstered in pig leather, which to me, is a very unattractive material, but it is cheap and usually poorly tanned too.
Having said that, I always have leather in my cars.
The standard cloth in the MX-5's I've owned have all given the back of my knees a rash for some reason, so I always get them upholstered in leather.
Leather lasts very well if you look after it a little bit, and will always ad value and prestige to the car.
Now, if you want the very best material to upholster your seats in, use a short napped sheepskin fur. It's cool in summer, warm in winter, and if you give it a good brushing every now and again, will last a long time.
I once had some Recaros done up in sheepskin, and they were fabulous. So good in fact that the car they were in got stolen and never recovered.
Some people seem to think that sheepskin gets dirty, but in fact, it is very easy to clean. I have sheepskin floor mats that I made for my Merc (and doesn't Mrs Benny love them), in a light beige colour, and they are easier to keep clean than the beige carpet mats the car came with.
Then, they cover the surface with various binders and lots of pigment, which effectively seals off the breathing potential of the leather anyway, so leather seats don't breath. Unless you want to spend a lot of money and get full-grain leather, which will cost around twice as much as corrected grain.
And you need to be an expert to tell what the leather is just by
looking/feeling it. I've embarrassed a lot of furniture retailers by telling them exactly what the leather lounges they are selling are actually made of. Some of the really cheap leather lounges are upholstered in pig leather, which to me, is a very unattractive material, but it is cheap and usually poorly tanned too.
Having said that, I always have leather in my cars.
The standard cloth in the MX-5's I've owned have all given the back of my knees a rash for some reason, so I always get them upholstered in leather.
Leather lasts very well if you look after it a little bit, and will always ad value and prestige to the car.
Now, if you want the very best material to upholster your seats in, use a short napped sheepskin fur. It's cool in summer, warm in winter, and if you give it a good brushing every now and again, will last a long time.
I once had some Recaros done up in sheepskin, and they were fabulous. So good in fact that the car they were in got stolen and never recovered.
Some people seem to think that sheepskin gets dirty, but in fact, it is very easy to clean. I have sheepskin floor mats that I made for my Merc (and doesn't Mrs Benny love them), in a light beige colour, and they are easier to keep clean than the beige carpet mats the car came with.
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