Seats: cloth or leather?

[rwb]

I'm very happy with my cloth seats. Four hours no problem. Although taking the lumbar support out of the D9 has been an irritation from day 1.

Leather when hot or cold is pretty unpleasant, and the cloth seats don't suffer from this.

So sell the leather seats to me! Are they more comfortable for long journeys? The only time I've traveled far on leather was in an Audi, and that was just a bad seat.

Another question: how do these compare to the 'hard' cloth that you find on newer cars (the 406 cloth is 'fuzzy')?

[GingerMagic]

I used to have the opinion that leather is cold in the winter and roasting hot in the summer and, to a certain extent it is a bit, but no worse than a dark cloth seat or the new hard scratchy cloth.

I am happy to say the leather is not as bad as I feared it would be and I am very happy with it, maybe it is better as it is not a 'hot' black or a 'cold' beige???

Also, the leather just needs a wipe to clean it, crumbs from the kids just brushes off and looks well plush when its clean.

Thumbs up for the leather seat

[steve_earwig]

Leather:
Plusses:
Looks nice
Electrics
Heaters
Delusions of grandeur

Minssessess:
Needs the heaters in the winter - brrrrrrr
If the sun shines on them they're lethal
Need more input than a vacuum and a wipe down
Cat stropping paranoia.

Cloth:
Plusses:
No extremes of temperature
No creams, cleaners, cloths etc. - just hoover 'em
At least they're not vinyl.

Minusses
No heaters (as far as I know, although I know they came with electrics)
Fluffy grot (cleans off with a damp cloth btw)
They're not leather.

[DaiRees]

I dunno how to persuade you, I just prefer leather. I find it more comfortable and you don't get the issue of your clothing bunching up like you do with cloth because there's an element of slide on the leather. I never found it cold in the winter (even if they were cold, the seats are heated) and I don't have the problem in the sun because they're light in colour, although I can appreciate how that would be a problem with black leather. Much easier to clean too, you just need a pack of baby wipes

[Fuzzdog]

Wait, I have half-leather in my 406 - what do I vote?

[Doggy]

Didn't particularly fancy leather when shopping for my first 406 - almost bought a 2.2 GTX, but it turned out to have clutch problems, so I eventually settled for the original dogmobile, (moonstone blue 2.2 exec estate with cream leather). It just grew on me and now I wouldn't want to change back to cloth, true they're a bit parky of a winter's morn until the heaters get going. Don't notice too much of an issue with them baking in the sun, but maybe black's worse and both of my execs have had athermal windscreens, which might help too.

(Guess grasmere's might be a tad warm if he has to have the heater on full blast to stop boiling the water).

[plod]

I always thought the seats in my GLX were more comfortable than the Leather I fitted.
Yes, the leather looks nice, and it's great having all the electrics, but by crikey, a darkish coloured car with black leather when you've got your shorts on, BLOODY HELL!! lol

Maybe it was an age thing? No I don't mean me but maybe the velour in my glx moulded to you better, whereas the leather came out of a car with 65k on it, and maybe it had a lot less give ( not that leather wouldn't have)

[trem1]

never had leather but my cloth 407 seats are as comfy as my cloth 406 seats were

[waue1978]

If you're talking 406 interiors, you need to add the half leather in. My SRi seats were superb & more comfortable than any cloth or leather 406s that I drove.

But if you're talking about cars in general then the answer would change depending on which car you were looking at. The leather seats in my last E39 5 Series were massively better than the cloth seats I had in my first E39 as they were much softer & you sank into them like an armchair. It was the same with my Mk2 Mondeo.

VW & Audi though seem to make their leather seats harder than the cloth ones - at least they did in the odd few Mk4 Golfs & A4s that I've driven - & so I'd plump for cloth in one of those.

[rwb]

Is the cloth part of the SRi seats 'hard' rather than the usual 'fuzzy'? It's 'hard' cloth in the 407 isn't it trem?
I'd say half leather counts as cloth because it's the cloth bit you sit on.

[waue1978]

Is the cloth part of the SRi seats 'hard' rather than the usual 'fuzzy'? It's 'hard' cloth in the 407 isn't it trem?
I'd say half leather counts as cloth because it's the cloth bit you sit on.

It is a little bit harder than the cloth, but the seat itself is still quite soft & the sides wrap around nicely in the corners. The cloth part is like a very small weave.

[rwb]

Doggy: since your petite posterior does not fill the seat, do you find that you slide about?
It's true Dai that the cloth does keep you anchored -- or rather your clothes anchored -- bollocks in potential danger.

One emerging idea is that it depends how flexible the covering (whether cloth or leather) is. I was a passenger once in an Audi that had rather inflexible leather, and it was like you're sitting on the seat rather than in it. I was shuffling about after an hour.

[Doggy]

Doggy: since your petite posterior does not fill the seat, do you find that you slide about?

Probably would if I didn't drive so slowly.

Oh and it's petit, BTW

[teamster1975]

Definitely leather, mainly for the sake of cleaning up the aftermath from the kids!

[dirtydirtydiesel]

Definitely leather, mainly for the sake of cleaning up the aftermath from the kids!

Know what you mean teamster, I'd like leather for mine but I don't realy like the look of the exec int, I fancy leather recaros in the front & D8 leather in the rear if I can find any