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When I bought the first Caterham back in 1988 they still produced the basic car with the same bench seat fitted in 1957 upholstered in lovely PVC. There were 2 options, cloth bucket seats and leather bucket seats. Not a hugely expensive option so which one? I knew from previous experience with a Triumph Spitfire cloth in an open top car is a stupid idea so leather it was. No regrets, made selling the car much easier since it was an option virtually all buyers looked for, in fact the car was bought and exported to Japan by a trader and he only bought cars with leather seats.
Bought the current Caterham in 1992, 30 years ago. Went for leather again and 30 years later they still looks great, a nice patina has developed with wear, all I do is wipe them occasionally with a damp microfibre cloth.
The current Superb is the first "normal" car we have had with leather. No choice in the matter, it is what that model had even on the base spec. After 2 years we are more than happy with them, even during the recent heatwave we had no issues and the leather in our car is dark grey - basically not quite black.
Despite being more than happy would I pay a substantial sum for leather in our next car should they not be standard, probably not.
But one thing that truly p***es me off are those manufacturers that sell cars with "leather" than is actually plastic. Mercedes has already been mentioned but others are available. Buyers see the word "leather" and ignore the word before or after that confirms they are fake, Mercedes used the word "artico" before leather 2 years ago when we looked. Probably enough to prevent them getting into trouble.
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