I've seen some forum members express interest that these cars even came with cloth seats. I intentionally sought out a car without leather when I was looking at 850s because the leather in all the ones I looked at was incredibly worn. The cloth seats in my car look brand new, but it just doesn't have that luxurious look of other 850s.

And yeah, this is a pretty casual topic.
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I had cloth seats in my 1995 850 N/A. I hated them. Would never get cloth seats if my life depended on it.

 

I've got them in mine - I would never want leather with how cold it gets here in Colorado. I would be hating life if I had to climb into my leather seats before and after work every day.... ugh.

 

I had leather on the 142 but it was as hard as a brick when I bought the car. I had Velour on both of my 740s but I bought them brand spanking new and they were wonderful. One of my 850s has leather and I wound up changing out the foam because it hurt my bony butt. My son's 850 has cloth and it sits very comfortable.

At the end of the day I think it comes down to:

1) Was the leather ever conditioned by the previous owner - in my case I would say no in both cases.

and

2) How rotund was the previous owner. I get the impression that my 850 with leather had a big guy driving it which killed the seat foam. I get the impression that my sonsprevious owner was a lady due to some make up spills we had to clean off of the seats.

...Lee

 

The thing I don't like about leather, or even worse Mercedes Tex, is that my back sweats due to not getting any air, whereas with cloth seats I stay dry.

 

In very hot or very cold climates, leather just isn't as nice as cloth... heated seats make up for the cold though...

 

I saw an ad for a Toyota that has both heated and cooled seats. I wonder how that works??

 

Yup...i didn't even know they came without leather seats until i saw the one i bought. It's a '96 and the cloth seats are in mint condition. That's one thing i never liked about the leather ones, they always looked old and worn. Plus, being in the midwest, the cloth seats are so much better in cold weather than freezing your @ss off with leather. So while i usually like leather seats, the cloth seem to wear much better, are more 'temperature friendly', and actually sort of grip you to keep you from sliding around like you would in the standard leather seats. Two thumbs up.

 

Lots of the higher end Mercedes can be optioned with cooled seats I believe. From what I've heard it works by circulating air (not cooled or anything, just air) and that alone makes a huge difference. It continually blasts the inside of the perforated leather with air and takes away the heat from your back. I saw a SAAB a few years back with a solar-powered car-cooling system for hot days. The solar elements were on the upside of the moon-roof sun-blocker and power a small fan to circulate air into and out of the car while it's parked in the sun.

I for one love leather seats. They can be a bit uncomfortable in the extreme climates, but I'm willing to deal with that in order to not be shocked every time I get out of the car in wintertime. My fiancee has cloth seats and every-freakin'-time I get out of her car I get shocked. [:@]

 

The new S80's also have the option of heated and cooled leather seats. It is very nice in the summer having the cooled seats.

 

I personally like cloth seats (sure beats the vinyl seats of the cars of my youth) but I also agree that you cannot beat leather PROVIDED it is/has been well taken care of

GLenn

 

I notice velour hasn't been mentioned by anyone here.

Here in Australia, an Australian madecar I purchased new in the early '80's camesupplied with leather and velour trim (your thighs, buttockssat againstvelour but the rest of the seat was leather,door panel upper trimvelour,lower halfleather androof lining full velour).The car looked bothsmart andluxurious and the velour insertswere also extremely comfortable to sit onin all types of weather.

How did the velour wear?

Well, the last time I sawthat particular carit was about 20 years old andthe velour still looked great -it still looked nearlyas good as the day Ibought it.

 

That's the thing about the cloth in these cars. It's very high quality (not the garbage you'd find in a Honda or Chevrolet), and is incredibly durable.