Love for Alcantara - Cold Morning

[Rick101]

Alcantara? Load of rubbish.

Some nice brown velour seats are the business.

[Ares]

Rick101 said:

Alcantara? Load of rubbish.

Some nice brown velour seats are the business.

Remember them well. Now you really did stick to those, like velcro.

[Alex_225]

I honestly really like leather in a car. Have had half leather half alcantara which was really nice but I never favoured it over full leather.

Heated leather seats are a nice balance though.

[Yipper]

Alcantara is lighter and grippier.

But you can never get away from how it looks and feels like yer grandma's bath towel.

[smarty156]

Ares said:

Exactly what mine has. Perfect combo (although leather in the rear would have been good for child/wipe-free purposes)

Get some GTechniq Smart Fabric. Waterproofs the Alcantara and makes it easy to wipe clean. Just don't get it on the leather bits.

[nickfrog]

Yipper said:

But you can never get away from how it looks and feels like yer grandma's bath towel.

That would be my first thought when driving this.

Edited by nickfrog on Friday 22 September 20:32

[DoubleD]

Ha ha does look a bit like a cheap towel

[helix402]

Forget Alcantara seats, what you need are Alcantara trousers. But don’t buy too many pairs as the Alcantara is now an endangered species.

[Cold]

helix402 said:

Forget Alcantara seats, what you need are Alcantara trousers. But don’t buy too many pairs as the Alcantara is now an endangered species.

It's because they only eat Japanese Knotweed which, as we all know, is being eradicated whenever it starts to grow in any quantities. Fun fact, the male Alcantara is the one that gives colour to its hides. So any car trimmed in orange or yellow etc will be from a male Alcantara - depending on its age as the colour changes shade as they get older. The grey/charcoal colour is from the females.

[anonymous-user]

I like Alcantara, I'm always surprised it doesn't get more use. It's important to remember with Leather than a lot of what is used for car seats is truly awful stuff, and more comparable to the vinyl of the 1970s than to actual leather. If you're comparing Vauxhall electric shock velour to Jaguar Connoly Autolux then you wouldn't be so keen on fabric. BMW "Dakota" compared to anything better than sack cloth though? Not so clear.

[LuS1fer]

My Fiesta ST has leather with heated cloth inserts so the seats are warm pretty much immediately.
The wheel is ferkin' cold though.

[nickfrog]

LuS1fer said:

My Fiesta ST has leather with heated cloth inserts so the seats are warm pretty much immediately.

Lucky you, sounds like magic - the M135i heated seats only felt themselves work after my bum had warmed the seats. But I survived it !

[MitchT]

The heat given off by my car when I put it away on an evening seems to have been largely retained in the garage by the time I need to go out the following morning. In more than four years at my current address I've never seen the outside temp display read less than 9 deg C on a morning when I've put the key in and fired the electrics up. The leather, therefore, isn't an issue.

[Pica-Pica]

gizlaroc said:

swagmeister said:

And very quickly Alcantara bobbles like you old trusty pullover.

3000 wet and dry and it looks like new again.


So don't all cars allow you to turn on the heating via remote control so the whole cabin is toasty when you get in in the morning?

This is my 10 year old RR, getting into a cold cabin is never an issue......




Apart from the fact that the Fuel Burning Remote Heater is usually enough to drop the battery voltage to the point where you get loads of warning lights when you start!!!! Arghhh! Bloody Land Rovers.

So it's not a RR really is it?

[Pica-Pica]

Yipper said:

Alcantara is lighter and grippier.

But you can never get away from how it looks and feels like yer grandma's bath towel.

Is this a fetish site now?

[Ares]

smarty156 said:

Ares said:

Exactly what mine has. Perfect combo (although leather in the rear would have been good for child/wipe-free purposes)

Get some GTechniq Smart Fabric. Waterproofs the Alcantara and makes it easy to wipe clean. Just don't get it on the leather bits.

Good recommendation! Just ordered!

[Ares]

LuS1fer said:

My Fiesta ST has leather with heated cloth inserts so the seats are warm pretty much immediately.
The wheel is ferkin' cold though.

Heated Wheel