Why the hate on cloth seats?

I personally love the smell. I never thought about it that people might not like it. In any case, my favorite chairs in the house are leather too.

Also, anyone who says that they're hot in the summer (other than the first minute or three, depending on the AC strength) hasn't sat in high-quality leather seats. My dads BMW (E30) with Leatherette? Yeah, I sweat like a pig. His Infiniti G37? No problems whatsoever.

Grandpa's Avalon even has cooled seats. That is a nice feature.

mtn wrote: I personally love the smell. I never thought about it that people might not like it. In any case, my favorite chairs in the house are leather too.

You probably like the smell of MEK and Toulene too!

I figured that there are smell engineers at the automakers that want you to be happy. I have heard that before and just don't understand the positive. Zero smell would be the ultimate new car smell for me.

In reply to Apexcarver:

Yeah I like the Suede/Alcantara cloths.

Nick_Comstock wrote: In reply to NGTD: Not -30 but it got very cold in Ohio. I don't like heat in general, just enough to get the windows clear and I'm good to go. Absolutely never have the heat coming from the dash vents pointed at my face. I can not stand that, makes me want to punch babies.

Well I am in North Bay, ON and HitempGuy is in northern Alberta. Last winter we were hitting those kind of numbers quite often and HITemp would have been worse off. Heated seats and full hot defrost is the only way you get to work. I can remember days where I had frost on the side windows because the heater on full blast couldn't keep up.

I am not a heat guy, but now that I am getting older a warm butt and back make it a little more tolerable.

Enyar wrote: Because I can't get in a car with cloth seats after surfing/mountain biking/ boating/ other outdoor activity without creating major stains.

See this is what I have an issue with. The Pleather and cloth seats are made of the same stuff. Plastic. So staining and cleaning shouldn't be that different.

I am honest to say that I never cared to figure out if the non-cloth in my infiniti was real leather or pleather. So I can't say for sure if I was ever in a true cow skinned seat. Only spilled some hot tea on that seat and no stain but I cleaned that one up fast as I was at home and about to start a long trip so didn't want to start out messy.

Advan046 wrote:

mtn wrote: I personally love the smell. I never thought about it that people might not like it. In any case, my favorite chairs in the house are leather too.

You probably like the smell of MEK and Toulene too!

What are MEK and Toulene?

Adrian,

That is the exact reason I skipped on the Black with the White middle seats in my C30. I went with the all black and glad I did.

I personally love cloth but I live in Texas and I sweat a lot so leather seats always make me look horrible then I get out of the car. I just carry a towel in the car for when I need it.

NGTD wrote:

Nick_Comstock wrote: In reply to NGTD: Not -30 but it got very cold in Ohio. I don't like heat in general, just enough to get the windows clear and I'm good to go. Absolutely never have the heat coming from the dash vents pointed at my face. I can not stand that, makes me want to punch babies.

Well I am in North Bay, ON and HitempGuy is in northern Alberta. Last winter we were hitting those kind of numbers quite often and HITemp would have been worse off. Heated seats and full hot defrost is the only way you get to work. I can remember days where I had frost on the side windows because the heater on full blast couldn't keep up. I am not a heat guy, but now that I am getting older a warm butt and back make it a little more tolerable.

Yeah some places the seat heater was the only way to get warm. I remember a day in the Infiniti where the inside plastics were still cold to the touch after driving 45minutes. And like NGTD mentioned I have driven in cold enough weather to keep the side windows frozen after hours of running time on the engine just wind chill and super cold ambient temps with the right humidity. I only use the floor vents with heat or the defrost/floor combo. I too hate heat blasting on my upper body.

I remember with one rental car, Corolla I think, in Illinois that didn't have enough defroster power to defrost the rear glass!! Wicked windchill on the plains of north west Il. I split the rental car keys so I could let it warm up outside the hotel and lock the doors. It just barely made the zebra stripes of clear and the rest stayed frosty.

mtn wrote:

Advan046 wrote:

mtn wrote: I personally love the smell. I never thought about it that people might not like it. In any case, my favorite chairs in the house are leather too.

You probably like the smell of MEK and Toulene too!

What are MEK and Toulene?

I see you may be too young to know about them. I used them on model building and working with my Daddy. They are both later found to be rather mean nasty chemicals if exposed to them chronically.

My reference was due to their STRONG smells. No offense.

http://www.epa.gov/chemfact/f_mek.txt

Advan046 wrote: I remember with one rental car, Corolla I think, in Illinois that didn't have enough defroster power to defrost the rear glass!! Wicked windchill on the plains of north west Il. I split the rental car keys so I could let it warm up outside the hotel and lock the doors. It just barely made the zebra stripes of clear and the rest stayed frosty.

Uh... You do know that you're supposed to use a scraper for that? In a pinch, you can use a credit card to scrape the window.

The E36 M3 lightweight came with cloth manual seats and they were awesome.

mtn wrote:

Advan046 wrote: I remember with one rental car, Corolla I think, in Illinois that didn't have enough defroster power to defrost the rear glass!! Wicked windchill on the plains of north west Il. I split the rental car keys so I could let it warm up outside the hotel and lock the doors. It just barely made the zebra stripes of clear and the rest stayed frosty.

Uh... You do know that you're supposed to use a scraper for that? In a pinch, you can use a credit card to scrape the window.

not when the frost is on the inside … you'll end up destroying the wire defrosters eventually … and even here in WNC I've experienced weather cold enough that an hr of driving with the heater/defroster on full hot, hadn't cleared the inside of the windows of frost … much less the outside

wbjones wrote:

mtn wrote:

Advan046 wrote: I remember with one rental car, Corolla I think, in Illinois that didn't have enough defroster power to defrost the rear glass!! Wicked windchill on the plains of north west Il. I split the rental car keys so I could let it warm up outside the hotel and lock the doors. It just barely made the zebra stripes of clear and the rest stayed frosty.

Uh... You do know that you're supposed to use a scraper for that? In a pinch, you can use a credit card to scrape the window.

not when the frost is on the inside … you'll end up destroying the wire defrosters eventually … and even here in WNC I've experienced weather cold enough that an hr of driving with the heater/defroster on full hot, hadn't cleared the inside of the windows of frost … much less the outside

You have a leaky car. I've had the problem of frost on the inside of the car about zero times in my 8 years of driving in Northern and Central Illinois.

KyAllroad wrote:

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: I have kids. Leather is wipe-able.

QFT

My mom had a kid. She impressed upon him to not spill stuff in the car.

There was that one time he was bleeding somewhat from a head wound, towels were put down so he wouldn't bleed all over the seat.

Somehow the cloth seats managed to live stain-free.

(and that is why Knurled only has half an eyebrow on one side...)

mtn wrote:

Advan046 wrote: I remember with one rental car, Corolla I think, in Illinois that didn't have enough defroster power to defrost the rear glass!! Wicked windchill on the plains of north west Il. I split the rental car keys so I could let it warm up outside the hotel and lock the doors. It just barely made the zebra stripes of clear and the rest stayed frosty.

Uh... You do know that you're supposed to use a scraper for that? In a pinch, you can use a credit card to scrape the window.

Or drive with the windows open so they don't ice over on the inside because of the humidity-spewing driver.

mtn wrote:

wbjones wrote:

mtn wrote:

Advan046 wrote: I remember with one rental car, Corolla I think, in Illinois that didn't have enough defroster power to defrost the rear glass!! Wicked windchill on the plains of north west Il. I split the rental car keys so I could let it warm up outside the hotel and lock the doors. It just barely made the zebra stripes of clear and the rest stayed frosty.

Uh... You do know that you're supposed to use a scraper for that? In a pinch, you can use a credit card to scrape the window.

not when the frost is on the inside … you'll end up destroying the wire defrosters eventually … and even here in WNC I've experienced weather cold enough that an hr of driving with the heater/defroster on full hot, hadn't cleared the inside of the windows of frost … much less the outside

You have a leaky car. I've had the problem of frost on the inside of the car about zero times in my 8 years of driving in Northern and Central Illinois.

The rental car scraper was not up to the task for the frozen mist that was on the car and I think I would need some pretty awesome credit card to break through that stuff.

Apexcarver wrote: I have to say that my favorite might be what Ford did for the 2003 Mustang Cobra. Leather edges with suede centers. Durability of smooth leather for the edges, non-burn yet soft and durable suede centers.

The V wagon is like this, leather on the outside and alcantra that is hated/vented in the middle. I've always been a cloth man, but I'd buy these seats again.

Cloth for me please, and +1 on my parents teaching my sisters and myself not to make a mess in the car. The velour in the Gran Marque only had some standard wear and no stains on the seats at 12 years and having hauled around 3 kids.

That said I like the micro suede trim in my civic. Micro suede edges, mesh cloth centers, and an eye catching silver stitching. Those seats along with micro suede on the arm rest, leather wrapped wheel, alloys, and a lip spoiler make up the "Sport" part of the LX-S(port)

In the SAAB c900s that I've owned, I definitely preferred the cloth seats to the leather, they are more comfortable and hold me in place better and they were heated cloth seats too, its a shame that they've quit working by the time that I've owned them.

I like most leather seats more than most cloth seats, but leather seats due tend to wear out faster, very few people take the time to properly clean and condition them, or in the case of nearly all the SAABs that I have owned, the stitching comes apart even though the leather itself is intact.

I really like the way that the leatherette seats in my wife's e34 are holding up. She is convinced that its leather, I'm not going to argue about it. The w114 chassis Benz that she learned to drive in also had M-B's version of leatherette, called MB Tex, they held up really well too.

MB Tex is some amazingly durable stuff, I'll give them that.

My '85 Fiero had sheepskin and suede seats. Sadly it was nearly 15 years old when I got it and didn't look so hot anymore. Suede tends to get all matted together as it ages. I like cloth seats whenever possible, however good leather does smell nice.

Ah leather. High price vinyl. Burn your ass in the Summer. Freeze your ass in the Winter.

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: I have kids. Leather is wipe-able.

x2, and that's my only reason. i love cloth seats.