As you can see in my dull 'which mpv' thread, I'm buying a family car. I've never owned a car with a leather interior, but thought it could be a good idea for a family car, where mopping up spillages will no doubt be required. The family includes two babies, and I'd hope to keep the car for many years.

My wife doesn't like the idea of a car with a leather interior - perhaps an old prejudice to hot leather seats before air con was all around, I don't know.

So my question is, when buying a family car, is it worth paying the extra for a leather interior?

Thanks for any advice.

 

Depends on the type of car. If buying a decent Merc or BMW then no question, go for leather. For a regular car/(MPV) go for whatever the market standard is. Cloth is nicer to live with but there is no doubt that leather will wear better.

 

Not all leather interiors wear well. Quality ones are OK, but cheaper ones tend to damage with ease. Cracks and tears are not that uncommon

My advice, look at older versions of the car you intend to buy (or a model with same trim standards) and check the wear of both cloth and leather.

 

I got the best of both worlds - alcantara suede leather.

My boss just bought an A3, and I told him to get leather because of spillages, and he said no, we've had the Golf for years without problems.

A month into ownership, and you can guess what his 1 yr old did, on a 200 mile journey on one of the hottest days last summer...

 

I'm looking at some sort of MPV, and I guess standard would be no leather. Interesting that you say cloth is nicer to live with though.

Interesting point, thanks. I'm currently looking at the Seat Altea, and Honda FRV, and it wouldn't be that easy to see older examples.

 

I'm not a fan of leather, although it's mandatory on most luxury cars. But on normal ones I'd take cloth anyday, favourite would be alcantara though.

 

I would opt for leather, I will be getting my scoob retrimmed in leather soon

 

More expensive if they get tears (with kids, this'll be likely).
Air con or not, they will be hot in summer and cold in winter, forget wearing shorts. Kids bare legs will get hurt so mucho crying as they aren't comfy. Air con and heated seats are all well and good but they don't cool or heat the seats for a few minutes do they, by which time too late (imagine open car, start engine, run air con and stand outside car until it's cooled down). Having said that, we had a Cadillac hire car in Canada last year with Air-conditioned-seats, nice touch. Lighter leather seats will be better hot/cold-wise, black will result in very hot interiors.

On the plus-side, leather looks nice, wipe clean, nice feeling to be in etc.

Leather looks good in german and decent quality cars, looks (and wears) crap in cheap french/vaux/jap/small-german/etc. cars ( a lot of these will use fake plastic leather-like stuff for a lot of the interior).

For the sort of cars you are thinking of, I wouldn't bother, it will hardly affect re-sale and be harder to find.

 

Easier to wipe down when the little bu99ers honk on it !

T.

 

Pretty much all leather interiors are worht having - just make sure you treat it properly ie. liquid leather it on a regular basis.

I've got it in my S4, and compared to my Scoob, keeping it clean with two kids is a piece of cake

Dan

 

Grandson puke is much easier to clean off leather as is dog hair, chocolate and some other ....cough.....body fluids!

Prefered interior of doggers...........so I am told.

 

The leather on my Honda Accord Exec is looking a little worse for wear after 2 years and 50k miles. I didn't want leather, but wanted all the other toys that this model came with. I went for the beige leather (instead of black) so it's not as bad in the summer, and it does have heated seats although they do take several minutes to warm up. Either way you can't get away from the fact that it is too hot in summer and too cold in winter.

My wife has a Fiat Multipla that we cart the kids and dogs about in. In this we opted for a decent set of seat covers and floor mats which will stay firmly in place until the kids are old enough to be trusted.

Cheers

Steve.

 

Leather would be better I'd imagine... but do any of the stain treatments stop thinks like puke soaking on?