Seems to Me Leather Seats are Way to Go for Max Comfort

I hate the cloth seats in the Prius. They get discolored and unlike leather which looks better with age with proper care, cloth always gets discolored and worn.

The steering wheel feels rough and cheap too compared to a nice leather wrapped wheel...

 

I see you live in NorCal according to your profile. If you live in the valley, unless those leather seats have cooling built-in they're going to get WAAAAAAAY too hot in the summer. Been there, done that. Ouch!

 

Good point--I had a loaner a few weeks ago, with cloth seats and plastic steering wheel, and the wheel was rough and cheap looking, and much thinner, than my leather steering wheel.

 

So you sat in $50,000 cars and noticed the seats were more comfortable than the $30,000 Prius. What a surprise!

In -most- cars only the centre panels are leather. That's the seat bottom centre panel and the seat back centre panel. The rest is vinyl. Personally I prefer the "perforated leather" (holes in it to allow better breathing), but if someone sitting in the car has something bulging in a back pocket, it can cause the leather to tear at a perforation.

I have found leather is easier to care for, but you do have to treat it at least once a year, especially in hot or dry areas. Pearl has cloth (bisque) and so far has been easy to clean, with a wet towel. The car Pearl replaced (the anti-Prius, a 2001 Nissan Pathfinder LE AWD) had cheap leather, but it was ok. The above tear happened on the passenger seat bottom centre panel. But it didn't continue to grow, so I suppose it isn't a major issue. I used Zaino leather cleaner and leather treatment. The leather treatment smelled like new leather, so it had an additional benefit (if you like the leather smell). The leather was beige, so needed cleaning once a year but solar heating was less an issue.

When loving leather, it's easy with expensive product. It's the cheap stuff (like what you will get with a Prius) that is harder and needs treatment more often that will try your patience.

The "hot setup" for leather is sold at Jaguar dealers, and is called "Hyde Food".

 

Actually, most car leather seats have leather seating surfaces, which is the upward facing surface of the seat bottom, and the forward facing surface of the seat back--not just the center panels.

 

Hyde Food will only work on uncoated leathers, the leather in the Prius is coated in a vinyl clearcoat, so conditioning it with anything doesn't do a whole lot for it...

 

Another good point.

The Prius leather, being vinyl coated, has a much less natural feel than the drum dyed leather I've had in others cars. And since it's coated, using expensive leather cleaners and conditioners is not money well spent.

I suppose the upside is that it's very low maintenance. My car will be a year old next week, and I've done nothing to clean/condition the seats, and they look almost new. But I do miss the supple feel of natural, drum dyed leather.

 

I had a 2010 Lexus RX350 loaner and was surprised how much more vinyl it (and the IS convertible I checked out at the dealer) had vs. real leather/pleather compared to my 2007 RX350. Really no different from the Prius leather interior in terms of coverage.

 

x2. Actually, i have never really conditioned any leather on any car of mine. I have had all sorts of leather (NAPA in my BMW M3 and G500 to Toyota leather in my Sienna and Prius to Acura TSX leather)...conditioner and whatnot do not really do much. I did use conditioner on my M3, but it ended up with creases quickly...just like if i had not treated it.

Even in my Mercedes G500, the leather is on the seating surface only. However, the leather itself is top-notch...after 67k miles, you won't find a visible crease (much less a crack)!! Compared to my brother's Lexus LX470, the MB leather was a lot tougher and more durable. Lexus leather is almost too soft to a fault...crease will form just by looking at it!

 

Yeah I feel that way too when I compare the new cars vs my car...

 

That's one way to look at it. The other way is that by coming from an animal used for food it is a renewable resource,

3PriusMike

 

+1

 

We've just for the first time in about 10 years order the Prius with cloth...a) it is actually pretty nice almost suede like and b) come on it is a cheap runabout ;-)

I actually like it that you can get all the gadgets on it and not have to specify leather...especially after loosing a lot of weight, I am currently slipping and sliding in both our leather seated cars....

Giving the choice I wouldn't go for it, but with most of our previous choices of car there was just not the choice...

 

Disadvantages to Leather
- Hot in the summer. It'll bake. And it can making sitting on your seat with shorts or a skirt very, very, very painful. Don't know if they've somehow solved this problem with fake leather, but in the car I had with leather it was a big problem on really hot days.
- Cold in the winter. For the same reasons they're hot in the summer (faster heat transer), they freeze you if the car is cold in the winter - modern stuff still does, I test rode several this winter in Minnesota. Do you know why all leather seats seem to come with seat heaters? It's because they're terribly cold and uncomfortable without them.
- Leather may or may not require maintenance to keep from cracking

Advantages to Leather
- Seems to not stain as easily, easier to clean off.

Matter of Opinion
- Leather is slicker. You slide around on it easier. Some people seem to think this is a good thing. I'm not a big fan of sliding around in my seat - for me cloth has just the right balance - I'm secure, but not stuck. Leather makes me feel like I'm on a waterslide - but it is mostly just personal preference.
- Ambiance - leather is marketed as an "upscale, luxury" material. I find a car with leather often has a "I'm a deutschbag" feeling to it, but again - personal preference, ya know. :-D

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The question is - are leather seats more comfortable than cloth seats?

The technical answer is that I don't think there's anything about intrinsic about leather that's more comfortable than cloth seats. With the heat and cold issues, I'd say leather is actually less comfortable. And I don't like the slidy feeling in it - maybe I'd get used to it.

But because car makers market leather seats as "upscale" and "luxurious", they often have 2 choices for seats - the base cloth ones, and the more well-shaped upscale leather ones. If you re-covered the leather seats in cloth they'd be the exact same the same level of comfort ('cept for the things mentioned above). But since leather seats are often only offered with the more comfortable version, or because they sometimes *only* offer the more comfortable and more expensive seat in leather, in the real world there is a correlation with leather seats being more comfortable.

It's like how, if a Prius has a sunroof, it also has navigation. It's not some sort of intrinsic quality of the car that a sunroof lends itself to a navigation system, but because of what car makers offer it's still a valid correlation - if you have one, you have the other.

 

I also live in a hot place, and cloth does not feel as hot against your skin. I didn't like the quality of the leather in the car, and went with cloth.

Please don't find it insulting that the leather felt bad to me. I
was coming from a lexus, and toyota does not charge for, or make available leather of that quality (even on the hs250 they make you buy the premium package to get the higher quality leather).

 

I've owned leather interior for a while now untill the Prius. I find the £1,750 ($3,600) upgrade a bit excessive.

So far I find my cloth to be fine. I don't let food in the car except the trunk.

To tell you the truth I rather have some high tech cloth (Audi seats) than leather. Audi high tech cloth seats are great. They are dirt and water resistant and feel actually high tech.

leather seats I find not as confortable. Summer it gets sticky and sticks to you even when you have aircon on. Winter it gets too cold and you need to have seats warmer. But even with seat warmer you need to wait a few minutes before you feel confortable.

So I prefer high tech cloth but not the factory cloth that Toyota gives us on the Prius. I find it very cheap compared to all other european car manuf's cloth interior. Shame.

 

My two sense about Leather and the Cars I have Owned
'79Mustang (Leather)
'83RX7 (Leather)
'89 Taurus (Leather)
'93 Altima (Cloth)
'97 Subaru (Leather perforated)
'00 Infiniti (Leather)
'03 Acura (Leather)
'06 Murano (Cloth)
'09 Prius (Cloth) Not to mention dw's 00 BMW and 97 Infiniti and 05 Pilot Cloth

As you can see I have gone back and forth. I like both for the reasons outlined above...My one observation is that not all leather is created equally. I have been universally dissatisfied with the quality of the Nissan / Infinity leather. It is a coated product and after about 3-years the top coat starts to come off (especially on the steering wheel). This is impossible to repair inexpensively in my area and made me glad to get rid of the Nissan vehicles. The best leather was oddly in the Subaru Outback..supple, great feel, no wear ever showed.