Kids and cloth or kids and leather

[James Gould]

what works better  -  2, 7 and 11 yr olds, baby chair, school/sports bags, less than considerate passengers etc on leather or on cloth?
Thnx
J

[mac7]

Leather is definitely easier to wipe clean, cloth will suffer more from spills and is more tme-consuming to clean up. But I usually have cloth and in 8 years with kids haven't had any stains which I couldn't remove. Unfortunately kids + car = wear and tear, regardless of interior finish.

I've always used a padded protector mat under child seats, which helps prevent marking and catches some of the spills. Our Passat has integrated pop-up child seats, which are really convenient and I'm surprised aren't offered as an option on all cars.

[James Gould]

thanks  -  I hear that one has to spend time with leather...conditioning and treating...that's just not me  -  yes, spillages are easy to clean if got leather but it's a question of how creased and maybe ripped the leather gets with kids  -  cloth doesn't sag nor crease like leather...

[rjwojcik]

Our beemer has leather and the leather has some identations (over five years) from the seats.  I haven't conditioned the leather since we had the car.

The Fiesta (which has cloth) has not suffered from the identations, but there are more dirt marks (stains, etc...).  The Fiesta is going once we get the Golf and we've gone for leather.

I am hoping the leather is better that in the Mk5.  I did see a lot of Mk5 R32's where the leather has sagged, especially on the bolster near the door.  HTH

[mac7]

thanks  -  I hear that one has to spend time with leather...conditioning and treating...that's just not me  -  yes, spillages are easy to clean if got leather but it's a question of how creased and maybe ripped the leather gets with kids  -  cloth doesn't sag nor crease like leather...

You only have to condition your leather once a year - if you choose to at all. I'm sure most people don't.

It's the big heavy bums you have to worry about creasing seats, not the small ones. Accidental tears are the biggest issue but they can be repaired. VW leather is often fairly low quality though.

I did see a lot of Mk5 R32's where the leather has sagged, especially on the bolster near the door.

The optional Recaros are bound to get creasing and wear on the side bolster because its so high. Having said that, I've not seen many of the similar Audi Recaros suffer like the VW's do - again, the low quality leather I think.

[Tailpipe]

Leather is by far the better option because it is more hard-wearing. The Recaros in the R32 and R are best avoided. The side bolsters soon get damaged. But the leather in the Golf is excellent and lasts well.

[dubber36]

Judging by the state of some of the leather trimmed Mk5's I've seen, I would have to go for cloth.

My 5 year old Passat which has leather and alacantara is shown signs of wear on the drivers seat outer base bolster, and the rear seats have indents from the kids booster seats. They do "pop" back out if left for a couple of weeks though.

On the other hand, my 20 year old 150k mile Mk2 GTI has no wear what so ever on it's rainbow cloth seats.  

[Exonian]

Kids toys and shoe buckles etc can easily scratch leather, plus it's very slippy. No so obvious to an adult but kids slide around more on leather and the back seats don't have the shaping like the fronts to keep you in situ.
Cloth can stain if you don't wipe spills off quickly.

I prefer cloth, but I put a folded sheet on the cushion part you actually sit on. This can be whipped out quickly if it get stuff spilt on it (very seldom) before it reaches the seat covering. The sheet is also cloth obviously so the friction of it means it doesn't slide around when you're cornering either, it just needs tidying and re-folding once in a while.
Then when it gets grubby it just goes in the washing machine and I shove another on the back seat. The rear part of the cushion doesn't seem to get dirty very often if ever and I don't let my kids eat in the car unsupervised anyway.

[James Gould]

but you could put the cover on leather back seats??

[Exonian]

And it'd slide about all over the place. No friction (unless you get a tailored cover = more expense).