Fact: Leather is used so much because it is literally dirt cheap, thanks to America's generous meat subsidies from the government making us have a gigantic population of cow that we kill off! 
Also, leather sucks in car interiors. It's hot (or cold), smells, and has all of the traction of a greased banana, and looks dumb to boot.
I'll take cloth every time. Tartan, pasha, houndstooth, you name it! Easy to clean, high wear, looks great, won't burn your buttcheeks.
Thanks for reminding me I need to clean and condition the leather seats in my 'Stang.
Also, I like perforated leather seats. They really aren't any hotter than cloth seats in the summer, IMHO, and the heaters built into them make them very comfortable in the winter.
...and add a lot of weight. 
Leather isn't nearly as hot in the summer as vinyl seats, and I don't find them colder than anything else in the winter.
stuart in mn wrote: Leather isn't nearly as hot in the summer as vinyl seats, and I don't find them colder than anything else in the winter.
This. Like others have said, if taken care of the leather will last and look good for a long time. Leather is the only way to go if you have kids, easy to clean, no stains to make the inside look like crap.
On the heat in the summer front, use a sunshade in the windshield and you should be good to go. Also the ventilated seats in my 9-5 are the bomb, turn on the fans and you get an ice cold back and butt.
I wish I could find a way to reproduce (at a reasonable cost) the ultra-awesome sport cloth interior that BMW offered in their cars in the late '90s. I would replace the leather interior in my car with this in a heartbeat.
I love leather seats. The wife does too. I just wish I could get her to wear some.
This is coming from an oldster whose early cars had vinyl seats that would get so hot they would blister your skin. I have no problems sweating bacuse of leather. Maybe I'm just too cool for that.
dyintorace wrote: I wish I could find a way to reproduce (at a reasonable cost) the ultra-awesome sport cloth interior that BMW offered in their cars in the late '90s. I would replace the leather interior in my car with this in a heartbeat.
That's a little too 90's for my tastes... Reminds me of a Neon's interior.
dculberson wrote: That's a little too 90's for my tastes... Reminds me of a Neon's interior.
i thought the exact same thing.
Javelin wrote: Fact: Leather is used so much because it is literally dirt cheap, thanks to America's generous meat subsidies from the government making us have a gigantic population of cow that we kill off!
+1
I've not bought several cars because they had leather interiors. They are so much hotter and more uncomfortable than cloth. Plus they aren't as cold in the winter.
I'll even take ugly cloth rather than have to try to sit on leather. Short skirts are bad in the summer on leather.
dyintorace wrote: I wish I could find a way to reproduce (at a reasonable cost) the ultra-awesome sport cloth interior that BMW offered in their cars in the late '90s. I would replace the leather interior in my car with this in a heartbeat.
The standard seats on a ZHP were basically this without the goofy '90s squiggle pattern:
My wife's Prius is the first car we've ever bought together that has cloth seats. My kids think cloth is the ultimate luxury feature. They hate to ride in anything that doesn't have "fuzzy seats" now.
As for everybody going on about good and bad leather - not sure it matters. All mass produced cars have leather with a thick coat of paint on it.
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