by Melvin Palmer

Created on: October 17, 2009

I have owned cars with both cloth and leather seats. Each covering has it advantages and disadvantages. Heat, cold, kids and animals can take their toll on each.

Leather or a good grade marine vinyl easily handles the spills from kids, and any rain that may enter your auto. A sponge or towel easyly wipes away the uninvited liquid. The spill leaves no tell tail stains on these surfaces. Not so for fabric, which is easyly stained. The fabric seats need a shampoo to eliminate the blemish. After it dries you have a very clean spot that looks brighter against the non washed surface. Eventually the seats need to be cleaned from head to rear rest.

Leather is more durable and very luxurious. You're paying extra for the leather. Most car manufacturers will require you to buy an upgrade package to obtain the leather seats.

Heat's effect on leather can cause some extreme discomfort to bare legs. During the California summer in the San Joaquin Valley temperatures can teach in the triple digits. Sitting on leather can transfer that heat to your legs very effectively. I used a beach towel to cover the seats, eliminating the pain. I didn't like the look. Cloth seats are very nice to sit on any time of year, heat or cold not withstanding.

Animals in cars are a challenge to cloth. I hope yours doesn't get carsick. Then there is the hair issue. I lost my German Shepard a year and a half ago but she still travels with me. Her hair will probably never be totally removed from my cars' fabric. It has been vacuumed from the seats easily enough, but the cloth sides still cling to her memory. Fur deposits easily clean up from leather. I always covered my leather with an old sheet to protect from nails piercing the surface.

My Acura was 15 years old. The leather had cracked on the driver and passenger seats. The back seats were in good shaper. I decided to have the two front bucket seats upholstered. The center of the bucket seat was covered in cloth and the remainder of the seat was covered in leather. Now when I sat down in the car in the summer I didn't need a towel to prevent heat transfer to my bare legs.

The answer is best of both worlds. A leather seat with fabric centers avoids the unpleasantness of summer heat, while providing the luxurious look of leather.

Learn more about this author, Melvin Palmer.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.