How is the leather interior holding up?

LilHog

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Oct 24, 2004
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Anyone having second thoughts on the leather interior? Hot in the summer, Cold in the winter. I personally prefer cloth over leather anyday, but when I saw the new leather interior on the 05 mustang GT and sat in it I was shocked at the quality. It is very nice and very comfortable, im hoping it will hold up and not crack and last a long time. Anyone else have this happen, or opinions on the leather interior?
 
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Any car gets hot

LilHog said:
Anyone having second thoughts on the leather interior? Hot in the summer, Cold in the winter. I personally prefer cloth over leather anyday, but when I saw the new leather interior on the 05 mustang GT and sat in it I was shocked at the quality. It is very nice and very comfortable, im hoping it will hold up and not crack and last a long time. Anyone else have this happen, or opinions on the leather interior?


I live in Alabama and also suffer from the high heat, high humidity summers. I've had leather in about my last 6 cars and wouldn't trade it for the world. Any material, unless it's the space shuttle's tiles, will get hot when sitting in direct sunlight. Cloth interior is no different. Cloth suffers from fading, staining and it wears easier. It also doesn't hold "smells". (Since I am a smoker, this is big). That's the reason to go with leather. I have never had a leather interior crack, fade, break down, etc. Leather wears over time but it really just "breaks in", getting softer as it goes.
Now, would I have black leather in south Texas heat? I dunno. I probably would but I would make sure to crack the windows and air the car out before plopping down on a seat. And never in shorts!!!! Ouch. Fried egg. :nonono:
 
OCpony05 said:
I have the leather interior in my V6, just wondering what is the best technique and product to treat the leather seats?


Treat them for what? :D Do they gotta case of the clap or something??? :rlaugh:

I kid, of course. I suppose you mean take care of or upkeep on the seats. Armor-all makes some pre-treated wipes I have been using for some time now. Saves a lot of wasted product since you are not squeezing too much cleaner from a bottle. Make sure you keep the tab top down or they can dry out. Eagle one makes some great products as well. Just about any good leather care product from Walmart or Autozone will do the trick. Clean em every other time you clean your car and they will stay looking great. I don't eat in my car or drink in it but I do smoke and the ashes can be a pain in the back seat. (Yuck).
 
thunderstorm144 said:
Any material, unless it's the space shuttle's tiles, will get hot when sitting in direct sunlight. Cloth interior is no different. Cloth suffers from fading, staining and it wears easier.


Mmmm, I think there was a time this was true, but materials are a lot better now. I have 85000 miles on my 2000 convertible with cloth interior and like it a lot because it still looks like new. I leave the top down 80% of the year in Oklahoma, so it gets a lot of humid +95 degree sun and wind. The cloth doesn't get hot, hasn't faded at all and cleans really well. I even had one of those great big Oklahoma bugs splatter its guts on my back seat, which cleaned up fine with a little help from seat cleaner. Now I admit my interior is tan and black cloth probably would get hot in the Oklahoma sun.

Not that I don't like leather, we have in our other cars and like the feel of it.

As for the new 05 mustang cloth, I sat in one at the dealer other day and it doesn't really feel like cloth. Not at all like my 2000. It felt more plastic to me, so I'm waiting to test drive a vert in the hot sun where I can feel it in the most extream condition.

Oh, we have a saying around here for black leather Verts, "Your girl friend will only ride with the top down once". Black gets really hot and is is painful on the legs. I read somewhere that ignoring the interior color, the inside of black cars get 25 degrees hotter just from the paint alone.

I am also waiting to hear from you guys on how well the leather is wearing. Should hear something by the time the Verts get out.
 
beary58 said:
Mmmm, I think there was a time this was true, but materials are a lot better now. I have 85000 miles on my 2000 convertible with cloth interior and like it a lot because it still looks like new. I leave the top down 80% of the year in Oklahoma, so it gets a lot of humid +95 degree sun and wind. The cloth doesn't get hot, hasn't faded at all and cleans really well. I even had one of those great big Oklahoma bugs splatter its guts on my back seat, which cleaned up fine with a little help from seat cleaner. Now I admit my interior is tan and black cloth probably would get hot in the Oklahoma sun.

Not that I don't like leather, we have in our other cars and like the feel of it.

As for the new 05 mustang cloth, I sat in one at the dealer other day and it doesn't really feel like cloth. Not at all like my 2000. It felt more plastic to me, so I'm waiting to test drive a vert in the hot sun where I can feel it in the most extream condition.

Oh, we have a saying around here for black leather Verts, "Your girl friend will only ride with the top down once". Black gets really hot and is is painful on the legs. I read somewhere that ignoring the interior color, the inside of black cars get 25 degrees hotter just from the paint alone.

I am also waiting to hear from you guys on how well the leather is wearing. Should hear something by the time the Verts get out.




Lucky that nasty Okie bug didn't end up in your grill!!! :D Yuck.

I agree with a lot of what you said, but I would still think that cloth will wear much faster than leather. That's why I still have my leather jackets from 15 years ago. (They're gonna come back in style one day dangit!!! :D ) There are exceptions to every widely held belief though. Nice to hear your cloth is holding up well. Leather is just a more resilent material. Always has been. (Aside from the idiot who sits in your seat with a pen in his back pocket!! :nonono: )

I had leather in my F-150 Lariet (three year lease) and all I ever did was put leather care from Armor-all on it. It was in awesome shape when I traded it in on my new Stang. But I am really good to my cars. I've already waxed my stang twice and it's only got 1700 miles on it!!! :nice:
 
From what I understand, the only real leather is on the driver and passenger seats, but not the entire seat. Everything else is vinyl including all of the back-seat.
As far as the south tx heat, my brother had a black GT with the dark charcol leather surface and is not all hot.
 
Cloth seats get hot too. But leather cools down faster, and warms up faster. Leather over cloth any day.

And yes, only the fronts of the driver's and passenger's seats are leather, the rest (and the rear seat) is vinyl. Same as previous gen's.
 
thunderstorm144 said:
Treat them for what? :D Do they gotta case of the clap or something??? :rlaugh:

I kid, of course. I suppose you mean take care of or upkeep on the seats. Armor-all makes some pre-treated wipes I have been using for some time now. Saves a lot of wasted product since you are not squeezing too much cleaner from a bottle. Make sure you keep the tab top down or they can dry out. Eagle one makes some great products as well. Just about any good leather care product from Walmart or Autozone will do the trick. Clean em every other time you clean your car and they will stay looking great. I don't eat in my car or drink in it but I do smoke and the ashes can be a pain in the back seat. (Yuck).


I've never used the Armor-all wipes but I know wipes are just a quick clean-up item. You need to use a cleaner and a conditioner periodically to maintain the leather's appearance
 
DarkFireGT said:
Cloth seats get hot too. But leather cools down faster, and warms up faster. Leather over cloth any day.

And yes, only the fronts of the driver's and passenger's seats are leather, the rest (and the rear seat) is vinyl. Same as previous gen's.

Yes, cloth seats get hot, but they never seem to get as hot as leather. I really like leather since I think it is more comfortable but I ordered cloth. I live in NC and it gets really humid here in the summer so leather is a byotch since I hate the sticky feeling. Cloth also grips you better and I think that is the number one reason that I chose cloth over leather. You are not alone darth bob :cheers: .
 
DarkFireGT said:
Cloth seats get hot too. But leather cools down faster, and warms up faster. Leather over cloth any day.

And yes, only the fronts of the driver's and passenger's seats are leather, the rest (and the rear seat) is vinyl. Same as previous gen's.


Does this apply to the red leather interior as well? Are the back seats vinyl too?
 
I have the red leather - no problemo. I do have tinted windows (black GT). Protect the seats with Mcguires leather conditioner towels.

scarypat2001 said:
Does this apply to the red leather interior as well? Are the back seats vinyl too?
 
What leather seats are you talking about? I ordered "leather" seats and my seats are about as plasticky a vinyl as any car I have ever owned. These seating surfaces are so cheap that I don't even bother using a leather conditioner since it is pure 100 percnt vinyl I am"protecting" I use Vinylex on the seats, the first time I ever had to do that on "leather" !!
 
ExCon said:
What leather seats are you talking about? I ordered "leather" seats and my seats are about as plasticky a vinyl as any car I have ever owned. These seating surfaces are so cheap that I don't even bother using a leather conditioner since it is pure 100 percnt vinyl I am"protecting" I use Vinylex on the seats, the first time I ever had to do that on "leather" !!

Its leather.....

-Dan
 
Cleveland my good friend! Yes it may be leather but it is a SORRY excuse for leather. You gotta admit that when you compare our "leather" seats to a REAL leather seat say for example a G35 Infiniti the Mustang "leather" looks alot more like plastic than it does leather. LOW BUDGET seating materials.
 
ExCon said:
Cleveland my good friend! Yes it may be leather but it is a SORRY excuse for leather. You gotta admit that when you compare our "leather" seats to a REAL leather seat say for example a G35 Infiniti the Mustang "leather" looks alot more like plastic than it does leather. LOW BUDGET seating materials.

The point is that its not vinyl.

You seem to forget that the base price of a GT is $25000 and $30000 for the premium fully loaded Coupe. The leather material may not be to your liking but you could always just reupholster that, couldnt you?

Everything you hate about this car can be changed, you can probably do your mustang some greater good and and give it a loving owner. The poor thing.... :(

-Dan