Love for Alcantara - Cold Morning

[Ares]

First sub 5-degree morning and finally seen the greatest benefit of Alcantara seats....no freezing leather seats to climb into waiting for seat heaters to kick in.

[Ares]

Cold said:

If the leather in your car is cold in the morning it's probably worth getting the central heating in the garage serviced.

Central Heating works fine in their, but Mrs Ares' car and my bikes often take precedence.

[Ares]

RobM77 said:

austinsmirk said:

I can't resist saying this, after all the talk of electric cars.

one advantage of them is you can entirely pre-heat your car, via you phone.

heater, heated seats, steering wheel. Lovely stuff !

That's been an option on a few ordinary ICE cars now for years. Volvo and BMW for example.

And in an ICE it doesn't reduce your range either

[Ares]

Gad-Westy said:

How's that work? Magic energy fairy?

An electric car is quite likely to be plugged in during pre-heating so range isn't effected. Though admittedly, range does take a significant hit if you need to continue heating during your journey. I think that is why electric cars often have this function. It's nothing new in technology terms but allows you do it with your household electricity rather than depleting your range. They do have one other advantage in that the heaters are normally fully electrical rather than relying on any engine heat, though I guess ICE cars with this option may also have electric aux heaters. Either way, nice feature in any car. And no screen scraping

Back on topic, not had alcantara seats before but new car arrives next week with them. How difficult are they to keep clean? Particularly factoring in a two year old and five year old's car habits?

Because in an ICE car, the battery doesn't impact range ;-)

And most EV owners don't (need to) charge every night.

[Ares]

RobM77 said:

Ares said:

Gad-Westy said:

How's that work? Magic energy fairy?

An electric car is quite likely to be plugged in during pre-heating so range isn't effected. Though admittedly, range does take a significant hit if you need to continue heating during your journey. I think that is why electric cars often have this function. It's nothing new in technology terms but allows you do it with your household electricity rather than depleting your range. They do have one other advantage in that the heaters are normally fully electrical rather than relying on any engine heat, though I guess ICE cars with this option may also have electric aux heaters. Either way, nice feature in any car. And no screen scraping

Back on topic, not had alcantara seats before but new car arrives next week with them. How difficult are they to keep clean? Particularly factoring in a two year old and five year old's car habits?

Because in an ICE car, the battery doesn't impact range ;-)

And most EV owners don't (need to) charge every night.

What GW is referring to is the fact that if you run the heater off the ICE car's battery, the alternator will then have to charge the battery back up, which will induce (pun not intended!) a drag on the engine, decreasing its efficiency. You 'pay' for the power required to heat the car via a decreased mpg. The issue that I point out above is that range isn't an issue for most ICE cars, whereas in a current EV it's a major issue. As pointed out above, for EV cars the feature is really intended to be used when connected to a charging point, rather than with the car parked on a lonely hillside whilst you're enjoying an icy (pun not intended) winter walk! Essentially, it's a feature available in both ICE and EV cars, it's just more useful in an ICE car.

Yes, but with modern tech, the batteries are charged using wasted energy from braking. BMWs certainly are, the the drain on fuel is minimised if not totally eradicated.


EDIT: Freudian slip on autocorrect of Braking/Breaking.... Ironic perhaps.

Edited by Ares on Friday 22 September 16:18

[Ares]

clowesy said:

Alcantara centres with leather bolsters in the best combo. Had this on the Recaros in my old Megane R26. Hard wearing where it needs to be, warm and grippy where you sit. Perfect.

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

[Ares]

nickfrog said:

Magic, innit ? ;-)

Not really. Tech progress ;-)

[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.

[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