2022 lack of leather

[Don C]

6 minutes ago, Barry14UK said:

Manufacturers are always looking at ways to cut costs so offering 'leather' as an upgrade at extra cost suits them.  Then you have some largely followed testers who always make a point of extoling models that don't have leather seats or where non leather options are available for the benefit of those who believe it is more environmentally friendly and preferable to avoid using 'animal skins'.  George of Autogefuhl, who does good and in depth tests, is a case in point and when challenged on this in comments gives a strong defence of his opinion.  However, my preference is for good quality leather and being an old fashioned guy I prefer genuine wood dashes and cappings to the carbon fibre (fake or real) and colored plastic highlights generally substituted nowadays.      

I’m with you on the wood cappings (mostly). I certainly prefer the dull plastic in the MkI to the current trend of piano black but I’m with Thomas on the leather, it’s not so much the animal skin aspect, if you’re killing it for meat you might as well use the hide.  I just don’t particularly like sitting on leather and I certainly don’t like the feel of it.   My mate has a Jag which uses various grades of Alcantara which is super comfortable in my opinion.  

[Don C]

7 minutes ago, peniole said:

I'd rather have these seats/material

https://www.gearpatrol.com/cars/a472764/fourth-generation-toyota-century/

Wool seats, yes now you’re talking!   Comfy in all weathers and the wee beasty lives.

[mitadoc]

34 minutes ago, Don C said:

Wool seats, yes now you’re talking!   Comfy in all weathers and the wee beasty lives.

Will they survive 2 kids eating chocs, spilling juices and throwing crisps or fries everywhere?

[Las Palmas]

In the Honda Accord Coupé we had real leather, that should be taken care of like real leather.

The CT has plastic leather, but rather well made and ventilated so not really bad.

[peniole]

1 hour ago, mitadoc said:

Will they survive 2 kids eating chocs, spilling juices and throwing crisps or fries everywhere?

Ah the joys of procreation

[NemesisUK]

1 hour ago, peniole said:

I'd rather have these seats/material

https://www.gearpatrol.com/cars/a472764/fourth-generation-toyota-century/

As I posted on another thread sometime back, luxury cars always had wool or velvet seats for the passengers and only the driver/chauffeur sat on leather. My uncle had a big Mercedes and as a child (in the 1960s) I remember travelling in the back sat on big soft seats covered in plush velvet... 

[Linas.P]

12 minutes ago, NemesisUK said:

As I posted on another thread sometime back, luxury cars always had wool or velvet seats for the passengers and only the driver/chauffeur sat on leather. My uncle had a big Mercedes and as a child (in the 1960s) I remember travelling in the back sat on big soft seats covered in plush velvet... 

Just simply not true! Yes some cars at some points in time had wool/velvet for passengers and leather for drivers - but this is rather exception than the rule. Velvet was as well used as upgrade on low end car brands - like Ford or Renault which were not "luxury" cars offered velvet over plain cloth, so some people incorrectly attributing velvet as being "high-end", but that is only true for cheap cars and not for all cars.

In either case this statement is not at all the case for all cars all the time. You just need to look at most luxury car brands throughout the years and you will see that leather was always at the top of the range - Roylls-Royce, Bentley, Cadillac, Jaguar etc. From the beginning of the time offered leather option and that was optional extra (an upgrade). Velvet was in particular short lived fashion in late 60s to early 80s, again I have explained that in detail in my previous post - simply because it offered more colour options and stylistic choices as affordable price (leather being just to expensive to process).

[mitadoc]

1 hour ago, peniole said:

Ah the joys of procreation

Yeah, nice technology, incredible results. 😆

[peniole]

1 hour ago, Linas.P said:

1 hour ago, NemesisUK said:

As I posted on another thread sometime back, luxury cars always had wool or velvet seats for the passengers and only the driver/chauffeur sat on leather. My uncle had a big Mercedes and as a child (in the 1960s) I remember travelling in the back sat on big soft seats covered in plush velvet... 

Just simply not true!

Actually @NemesisUK is right historically. Driver seats were outside the car cabin, exposed to the elements (mimicking horse drawn carriages). Hence, leather was used for durability, not comfort, while interiors were not leather, for comfort, not durability. Leather was seen as a suitable seating surface for the driver/commoner, not the occupants. It's only later in the 20th century that leather gained the air of luxury.

[peniole]

Interiors would look like this

while driver seats would look like this

this was mimicked like in this early peugeot from 1899

 

[Linas.P]

Great - and as I said I am sure there were several cars like that, but you said as it is was the rule and all cars were like that, which is simply not the case.

I do agree that leather was actually rare - but not because it was not desirable material, but rather because it was expensive, so only the richest and top of the range cars had it. So it does not surprise me that it is still to this day considered choice of absolute luxury. Not that not only the interiors were leather, but Bentley, Royce's and Jags even had lambs wool carpets!

Once we look in the modern form of cars, where driver sits inside, they often have leather interior. Now the issue I have with copying some pictures are that many cars are resorted and you can make an argument that they were not originally leather and whoever restored them chosen leather (which may be true) - so I tried to find cars with still surviving leather interior and that is more difficult:

 

 

[Don C]

6 hours ago, mitadoc said:

Will they survive 2 kids eating chocs, spilling juices and throwing crisps or fries everywhere?

No idea, don’t care if they wouldn’t because they won’t be going in my car.  When my kids were little they didn’t do things like that.  

[First_Lexus]

12 hours ago, Don C said:

No idea, don’t care if they wouldn’t because they won’t be going in my car.  When my kids were little they didn’t do things like that.  

When I was a child, we were never allowed to eat or drink in the car - it simply wasn’t done. Then again, we always carried a picnic in a wicker basket for longer journeys and stopped in a farmer’s field somewhere to eat. Different times. Warm smoked salmon…mmm, childhood memories! 😆

We were also always dressed up to visit relatives, or for any trip out. Garters on socks to keep them up, proper shirts (or dresses for my Sisters) with a tie or bow-tie. Life was so much more formal then.

17 hours ago, Las Palmas said:

In the Honda Accord Coupé we had real leather, that should be taken care of like real leather.

The CT has plastic leather, but rather well made and ventilated so not really bad.

^^ Agree. My first NX had Tahara, and my second had leather. I actually found the Tahara slightly more comfortable as it was softer, and it seemed to be just as durable albeit I didn’t keep the cars past 2-4 years so that may change with age and mileage. The only thing I didn’t like about the Tahara was the plasticky smell in hot Summer weather!

[Dealkent]

On 1/13/2022 at 4:25 PM, Alan305 said:

It’s not just leather, it’s Lexus leather. The seats on my old LS430 were just as good at 220,000 as at 7,000 when I bought it. Anything else is just cheaper.

The cream leather seats in my 2014 IS 300 marked and scuffed really easy and aged badly very quickly. I had drivers seat replaced. The cream leather seats on my current NX 300 seem to be much more durable but I am wondering if they really are leather 🤔

[Al D-Much]

I'll stick with real leather. I mean you've got to do something with the skins after you've eaten steak.