Alcantara or Leather?

[drcarrera]

Any opinions on whether one is preferable to the other?
I guess Alcantara is perhaps more "sporty" and leather more "luxury" but is one more durable than the other?
Also, on cars with the Nappa leather the covering on the seat base seems to no longer look "tight" even on cars with few miles.
I'm currently considering a car with leather and don't want to come to regret it!

[Streetbeat]

Much prefer alcantara for the reason you mention, leather is luxury, alcantara sports. Also find leather can get hot and sweaty.

[Sarnie]

Alcantara all day long.

I wouldn't consider a car with leather.

[12pack]

Definitely alcantara over full leather, but nice if there’s some leather with colour coordinated stitching on dash or door panels purely for aesthetics.

[stevemcs]

Its your car, but if you want to let me borrow it for a weekend could you make sure it has alcantra. It just feels nicer.

[belfry]

I bought some alcantara on a roll to cover a transmission tunnel in a 911.

It is really cheap, being a synthetic mixture of polyester and polyurethane. So I would want to be careful how much extra is charged for this polyester based material over leather.

[drcarrera]

I have leather in all my current cars and I can't say sweatiness is a particular issue! Unless I've been playing sport - in which case I have a temporary seat cover ...
Or is the air con in Mclarens particularly bad?!

[anonymous-user]

Alcantara IMO answers a question that never needed asking.

"Would you like an almost indestructible blend of polyester and polyurethane on your seats, Sir?"

No thanks.

[12pack]

drcarrera said:

I have leather in all my current cars and I can't say sweatiness is a particular issue! Unless I've been playing sport - in which case I have a temporary seat cover ...
Or is the air con in Mclarens particularly bad?!

Aircon is fine. Hey, you asked and were assumedly neutral on the topic - though it now sounds like you want leather.. Alcantara for keeping your backside tethered in the twisties, for looking like new for much longer and the ability to make cool patterns after vacuuming.

I’m sure you we can discuss the relative value and ethics of either choice in a long thread but I assume you are asking from the perspective of how they will work in practice.

Or you can compromise as in my case.

Edited by 12pack on Thursday 20th May 14:42

[drcarrera]

12pack said:

drcarrera said:

I have leather in all my current cars and I can't say sweatiness is a particular issue! Unless I've been playing sport - in which case I have a temporary seat cover ...
Or is the air con in Mclarens particularly bad?!

Aircon is fine. Hey, you asked and were assumedly neutral on the topic - though it now sounds like you want leather.. Alcantara for keeping your backside tethered in twisties, for looking like new for much longer and the ability to make cool patterns after vacuuming.

I’m sure you we can discuss the relative value and ethics of either choice in a long thread but I assume you are asking from the perspective of how they will work in practice.

Edited by 12pack on Thursday 20th May 14:18

I don't really have a preference as such but don't have past experience of Alcantara seats so trying to get an idea of pros and cons of each - there's nothing better than getting opinions from owners who have experience of one or the other.
Aesthetically I would probably just lean towards Alcantara (or a mix of two as in your photos) but not enough to rule out a car with leather if all other specs are OK. I would say that the leather seats in my Vantage were quite different in feel to those in my current Porsche - perhaps the former was Nappa and the latter not? The Vantage seats were a tad slippery but the Porsche's are fine.
I'm looking at 570s by the way.

Edited by drcarrera on Thursday 20th May 14:51

[andrew]

my 2007 superleggera has alcantara seats and pretty much the entire dashboard

at 56k and 14 years it's still immaculate, better than a lot of leather contemporaries tbh

i was cynical back in 2007 and so did a little research : the stuff's successfully used in everything from boats to outdoor furniture to hospital seats

[davek_964]

I don't have any issues with the leather in mine.

I also own an 18 year old Cayenne with ~110k miles on it, and the leather in that still looks virtually new - despite absolute neglect from me over the last 8 years. So I don't think leather really needs to age badly.

[Streetbeat]

belfry said:

I bought some alcantara on a roll to cover a transmission tunnel in a 911.

It is really cheap, being a synthetic mixture of polyester and polyurethane. So I would want to be careful how much extra is charged for this polyester based material over leather.

Genuine alcantara is far from cheap to buy, i wouldnt be suprised if it was more expenisve than most leathers.

[drcarrera]

davek_964 said:

I don't have any issues with the leather in mine.

I also own an 18 year old Cayenne with ~110k miles on it, and the leather in that still looks virtually new - despite absolute neglect from me over the last 8 years. So I don't think leather really needs to age badly.

Thanks Davek. I've seen some with drivers seats like in this photo (though not as bad) where it's no longer taught. If they're like this after a few thousand miles I'm a little worried what they'd be like a few years later ... Alcantara doesn't seem to have the same issue unless it's just not as noticable.

[davek_964]

Mine - which could do with a clean (17.5k miles / 6.5 years old):

[RBT0]

Leather becomes glossy just touching it regularly and shows wear and tear.

Alcantara is more resistant, can stay “as new” and can be cleaned.

Plus it’s lighter.

[tyrrell]

For me its Alcantara all day long

[garystoybox]

Alcantara immediately makes me think of my Grannies worn bath mat from the 1970’s, particularly when door cards and dash are smothered in the stuff. Just seems to suck the life and light out of an interior when over done. Possibly on seat centre, but for me nothing beats a nicely patinaed quality leather.....

[tyrrell]

This was the best interior that they did on the sports series but it was a £2.5K option, it combined leather and Alcantara and looked absolutely stunning in the flesh.

Edited by tyrrell on Thursday 20th May 22:41

[Gary C]

My 911 has full black leather and no air con.

It does get a bit sticky