How to spot real leather seats

[ingenieur]

For a period of time when you looked inside a car and saw shiny hard material on the seats you knew it was real leather. Often good quality leather as well, sourced from premium hides.

I estimate this period to be approximately between 1980 to 2000.

So have we run out of cows or are the manufacturers cheating us?

It's a while ago now but I distinctly remember the leather seats in a (at the time) very expensive Saab 9-5 HOT Aero estate having the look and feel of bin liners. I thought I was buying the top of the range. That was in 2008.

I've also bought a 2007 Mercedes C280 with the premium interior which you would've thought would be leather... but I had my suspicions about that one too.

My current Mercedes I bought knowing it wasn't leather inside but with it being for the wife and kids I wasn't really bothered... but when driving it I often think how uncomfortable the seating material is and how bad it looks.

So why are the manufacturers faking it. I don't think people would really go so mad for the stuff if they knew they were basically getting vinyl seats and good cloth options would be more popular but I don't think those are available now either...

Is it too bold a claim to suggest that the quality of car seats since the 80s and 90s has gone down hill?

[Nickbrapp]

Price

People don’t know the pleather isn’t leather

Marketing - vegan leather - it’s plastic.


Much prefer cloth, you don’t slide on cloth or burn your legs on cloth or find cloth cold in winter.

Volvo wool blend seats are superb.

[ingenieur]

I don't think it is 'price' in a premium car.

[lornemalvo]

I don't understand where the reference to 1980 comes from. I think quality leather seats predate that by many decades

[ingenieur]

lornemalvo said:

I don't understand where the reference to 1980 comes from. I think quality leather seats predate that by many decades

You can make a post too long quite easily but the reason for starting at 1980 is that a lot of seats were vinyl in the 70s.

[Nickbrapp]

ingenieur said:

I don't think it is 'price' in a premium car.

still almost certainly price. You can still get real leather in a BMW but it’s a option, you get it in a Bentley, a rolls Royce etc as standard.
most cars are volume models and it’s simply
Cheaper to make fake leather, than trim a E class or a 5 series with real leather, add to that thst plastic leather is harder wearing and rarely cracks and can be made in many other colours without dying.

[Dog Star]

I had a 2012 SLK with genuine leather seats.

This was followed by a 2014 SLK with “artico“ seats (not to mention three E classes (artico) and now an SL (leather) and an Alfa 159 (leather).

Being honest I can’t really tell the difference.

[Pica-Pica]

I had a Volvo 740GL in 1988, that had leather seats, hot in summer, cold in winter. I had an E36 with leather side bolsters, they got scratched and worn. My 335d, has Dakota leather seats, they seem fine.

https://www.bimmerfest.com/threads/what-is-dakota-...

[georgeyboy12345]

Not sure I agree with this either. The milano leather in my 2015 Audi A3 is of fantastic quality.

[kambites]

I think there three different things:

1) Proper hide, which is bloody expensive.
2) "Vegan leather", ie plastic

but between the two there is

3) Split grain leather. This is where the lower layers of cow skin are used to form the structure of the material, but the bit you see and touch is a polyurethane (plastic) coating with a leather-like grain printed onto it. This is often even cheaper than the the better completely plastic "leathers".


In terms of quality and longevity, 2 and 3 are much the same as each other but 3 can be sold as "real leather" despite the fact that the bit you actually interact with is 100% plastic. "Normal" leather interiors in anything but Rolls Royce type vehicles is probably going to be split-grain. As someone said above many manufacturers offer proper hide as an (expensive) option.

Edited by kambites on Sunday 22 May 13:49

[Unbusy]

Don’t even mention about when buying a sofa, even the sale guys don’t know.

[kambites]

Unbusy said:

Don’t even mention about when buying a sofa, even the sale guys don’t know.

With a sofa, if it's less than about £3k, it's aint leather.

[SidewaysSi]

kambites said:

Unbusy said:

Don’t even mention about when buying a sofa, even the sale guys don’t know.

With a sofa, if it's less than about 3k, it's aint leather.

Personally I wouldn't buy any sofa for less than around £10k, presuming you want a 2 seater and a single.

[georgeyboy12345]

Personally, I wouldn’t buy a leather sofa

[W00DY]

SidewaysSi said:

kambites said:

Unbusy said:

Don’t even mention about when buying a sofa, even the sale guys don’t know.

With a sofa, if it's less than about 3k, it's aint leather.

Personally I wouldn't buy any sofa for less than around 10k, presuming you want a 2 seater and a single.

A sofa for less than the cost of a good lunch? I wouldn't spend less than £30k on something for the dog.

[Bobupndown]

I'd say the leather in my Freelander 2 has never actually seen a cow!

[ingenieur]

georgeyboy12345 said:

Not sure I agree with this either. The milano leather in my 2015 Audi A3 is of fantastic quality.

Maybe I'm wrong, it's not unusual... but it seems like Audi never compromised and has always fitted leather of varying qualities (depending if you pay for an upgrade).

[sociopath]

ingenieur said:

For a period of time when you looked inside a car and saw shiny hard material on the seats you knew it was real leather. Often good quality leather as well, sourced from premium hides.

I estimate this period to be approximately between 1980 to 2000.

So have we run out of cows or are the manufacturers cheating us?

It's a while ago now but I distinctly remember the leather seats in a (at the time) very expensive Saab 9-5 HOT Aero estate having the look and feel of bin liners. I thought I was buying the top of the range. That was in 2008.

I've also bought a 2007 Mercedes C280 with the premium interior which you would've thought would be leather... but I had my suspicions about that one too.

My current Mercedes I bought knowing it wasn't leather inside but with it being for the wife and kids I wasn't really bothered... but when driving it I often think how uncomfortable the seating material is and how bad it looks.

So why are the manufacturers faking it. I don't think people would really go so mad for the stuff if they knew they were basically getting vinyl seats and good cloth options would be more popular but I don't think those are available now either...

Is it too bold a claim to suggest that the quality of car seats since the 80s and 90s has gone down hill?

Wow

[anonymous-user]

If it looks and feels good does it matter if its real leather?

[ingenieur]

sociopath said:

ingenieur said:

For a period of time when you looked inside a car and saw shiny hard material on the seats you knew it was real leather. Often good quality leather as well, sourced from premium hides.

I estimate this period to be approximately between 1980 to 2000.

So have we run out of cows or are the manufacturers cheating us?

It's a while ago now but I distinctly remember the leather seats in a (at the time) very expensive Saab 9-5 HOT Aero estate having the look and feel of bin liners. I thought I was buying the top of the range. That was in 2008.

I've also bought a 2007 Mercedes C280 with the premium interior which you would've thought would be leather... but I had my suspicions about that one too.

My current Mercedes I bought knowing it wasn't leather inside but with it being for the wife and kids I wasn't really bothered... but when driving it I often think how uncomfortable the seating material is and how bad it looks.

So why are the manufacturers faking it. I don't think people would really go so mad for the stuff if they knew they were basically getting vinyl seats and good cloth options would be more popular but I don't think those are available now either...

Is it too bold a claim to suggest that the quality of car seats since the 80s and 90s has gone down hill?

Wow

Not sure what that's supposed to mean... but if you have a normal family with small children like I do then they tend to be like little animals. The amount of kicking of the seats and chocolate and sugar and old banana skins and apple cores rolling around the car at any given moment, it's not the queens lounge. Leather or fake leather is the best material as fabric is much harder to clean.