Why do cars have leather 'luxury' seats.... Grrrr

[Nic]

So went to look at a new car yesterday, it comes with cow skin covered seats and steering wheel !

Asked salesman if I could do a special order with cloth and same options, but he says they come as they come ... He gave me a very strange look until I said the V word.

Would have expected better from Ford, but expect that the salesman was trying to sell me what they have coming in to stock as opposed to what I want.

Im of to VW to ask the same question next week.

 

[AeryFairy]

Ack, sorry I remember seeing a problem on a different forum where it would cost someone hundreds of dollars extra to opt out of the "luxury upgrade" of leather seats. Sense, it makes none.

 

[TreeHugger]

It's disgusting isn't is

It's hard to get way from with a lot of new cars by the looks of it as well.

 

[TreeHugger]

Ack, sorry I remember seeing a problem on a different forum where it would cost someone hundreds of dollars extra to opt out of the "luxury upgrade" of leather seats. Sense, it makes none.

That **** cray?!

 

[spud]

I asked BMW once if they could sell one of their 'Approved Used Cars' with cloth seats instead of leather. The salesman said that people often ask for leather instead of cloth so he couldn't see why they couldn't sort it out the other way around. I was pleasantly surprised. When he asked why I wanted to do that, I replied that I didn't want to drive around with dead animals in the car.

 

[CrazyCatLady]

Is it only the seats that are leather in cars? I always thought bits of the steering wheel, hand break and gear stick were. Probably/hopefully wrong, just assumed xxx

 

[spud]

I think it varies from vehicle to vehicle. Some have leather steering wheels and gear knobs, and the gaiters for the handbrake and gear stick can also be leather, but you can get non-leather ones. I made a corduroy gaiter once for a previous car.

 

[Pirate]

Anyone else really grossed out by the phrase "heated leather seats"? More than just normal leather seats. mmmm warm cow skin.

I wont ever be in a position to buy a new car, and im sure the level of used cars Im looking for wont have leather seats anyway, but it must certainly be a pain. I dont get why that can't be an added option. Surely leather can be quite impractical too (and sticky in summer) anyway so even omnis might not want it.

 

[RabbitLuvr]

Anyone else really grossed out by the phrase "heated leather seats"? More than just normal leather seats. mmmm warm cow skin.

Yes, so gross!
Do heated seats even come in non-leather? I'd love to have heated seats, but not if they have to be leather.

 

[Freesia]

You could just say that you dont like the way leather heats up and sticks to you and you dont like the texture. Perhaps they would be more accommodating if they thought it was a personal dislike.

 

[beancounter]

To answer the OP question directly..It's because the majority of consumers regard leather as luxurious. This won't change unless the majority no longer demand leather.

 

[mlp]

What Beancounter said.

It's much easier to avoid leather seats than it is to avoid leather covered steering wheels.

 

[Clueless Git]

Not just a 'luxury' issue, sometimes ..

For many moons I had to have a vehicle which had to double up as a family car and a load lugger for work whilst being 'posh' enough to ferry around business clients in. Cloth seats really were not practical and, other than leather, wipe-clean seats are non existent apart from in Wartburgs left over from the 70's.

That and why vegan shoes and cloth sofas cost more than leather shoes and sofas was a mystery to me untill I visited a shoe factory, a major leather purchaser. I asked the chap there and he explained the economics of leather to me thusly;

Leather is a waste product of the meat industry. Leather that cannot be sold costs the meat industry money to dump. Ultimately this can give leather a negative price because at anything less than the cost of dumping it the meat industry will actualy pay people to collect excess leather and take it away.

Manufactured leather alternatives can never have a negative cost and the higher the quality of the alternative the higher the cost, obviously.

Niche markets being the one exception to the rule, the rule is basicaly this; Anything that poses a significant threat to the sale of leather simply causes the price of leather to drop. Not necessarily a price drop to the consumer, mind. It simply means that, at the manufacturing level, quality leather alternatives simply get priced straight out of the mass production game.

Bottom line: There is no way any product that costs money to produce can possibly compete with any product that can be dumped on the market as waste.

 

[Clueless Git]

To answer the OP question directly..It's because the majority of consumers regard leather as luxurious.

There is that perception, yes. There other factors also though ..

One of those being that if you buy the type of vehicle that will have value for 20 odd years, or more, cloth upholstery will be knackered in less than 10. The cost of re-upholstering a vehicle, just the once, far exceeding the cost of having leather upholstery in the first place.

Unfortunately that makes leather a sound financial investment for anyone buying new vehicles in certain quality bands.

 

[Poppy]

Anyone else really grossed out by the phrase "heated leather seats"? More than just normal leather seats. mmmm warm cow skin.

Yes, so gross!
Do heated seats even come in non-leather? I'd love to have heated seats, but not if they have to be leather.

Yes! My 2010 mini has heated, non-leather seats. I was thrilled to find that option - I think it's still fairly rare, though.

 

[Mr Crunchy]

The places I checked into don't convert leather to cloth only the other way. They said they typically only get requests to upgrade from cloth to leather or to reupholster old leather and that it didn't make sense for me to spend all that money downgrading to an inferior upholstery. I gave up trying after a while.

 

[das_nut]

One of those being that if you buy the type of vehicle that will have value for 20 odd years, or more, cloth upholstery will be knackered in less than 10. The cost of re-upholstering a vehicle, just the once, far exceeding the cost of having leather upholstery in the first place.

Leather, 20 years? I have a 14 year old car outside with leather seats. It's not holding up well. It's better than the plastic seats, but I don't believe it's better than cloth.

I can take pictures if you want.

(The car was acquired used, of course.)

 

[Clueless Git]

Leather, 20 years? I have a 14 year old car outside with leather seats. It's not holding up well. It's better than the plastic seats, but I don't believe it's better than cloth.

I can take pictures if you want.

(The car was acquired used, of course.)

Depends on the quality of the leather Das ..

Little known (I suspect) fact gleaned from another contact who has a leather renovation bsusiness; Every cow hide is shaved into 5 seperate cow hides. The qualities of each hide varying dependant on from which depth of the original it has been cut, how thick the cut is and the qulity of treatments from thereon. Cheap weak leather comes from the layers deepest inside of the skin and won't last any time at all compared to other more expensive cuts.

An "all leathers are VERY far from equal" kinda thing going on there?

My 10 year old Porsche with nearly 120,000 miles on the clock has leather seats that, quite honestly, still look as good as new.

This was a £45k vehicle when originaly purchased, mind.

 

[ledboots]

I have a 2003 Chysler PT Cruiser with cloth seats (and plastic everything else ) that are still in fine shape. This car has been parked outside in the blistering Florida sun, never garaged. Cost $13,000ish.

My last (used) car was an old Volvo with cracked and peeling leather seats and splits in the leather dash. I covered the seats with cute beach towel covers.

 

[amhappy1]

Yes, so gross!
Do heated seats even come in non-leather? I'd love to have heated seats, but not if they have to be leather.

I just got a 2013 Subaru Impreza that has heated cloth seats. It really annoyed me that I couldn't get options like a moonroof, navigation and a back up camera because they were only available in vehicles that had leather.