Leather vs cloth interior


Anyone have any experience with the cloth interior of the Model S? I'm on the fence about it and find myself leaning towards leather pretty much because I think a car at this price point should just have a leather interior with heated seats (I do really like heated seats though...).



Get the leather!

I was on the fence too. With everything there are trade-offs. I don't like taking care of leather. It cracks and needs more care than cloth IMHO. Cloth, you can wash and it doesn't seem to wear out as quickly as leather. I never use my heated seats, but I am in Texas.


twin chargers

I too can't stand the way leather cracks. Plus it smells bad and does not breathe like cloth. Good quality cloth seats can last and last. I had 150k miles and 15 years on one car and the cloth seats looked as good as new. Not sure how Tesla cloth will pan out. Anyone know if this is a high quality cloth?
Also I wish Tesla would get some other colors for the cloth seats. Maybe something like grey and light tan. If Tesla had those they could go without black IMHO.

In the south, leather seats are painful to sit on in the summer. In addition to the cost and care requirements, that is why I went with cloth.

The heated seats would be useful for a handful of days in the winter, but not enough to go with leather or wait for the new cloth seats.

I saw the cloth seats at the Newport store--they looked nice. They have a pattern that will help hide the usual wear and tear.

Yes I am 100% cloth too. I've sat in several leather Model Ss and enjoyed it, but found it kinda weird after using cloth upholstery for 10 years in my other cars.

Another thought: the little cloth sample in the Tesla stores feels pretty good and seemed in good shape after being touched by hundreds or thousands of people.

My little brother is a tech for BMW and says that after an auto show, they have to replace the seats because so many people sit in their cars the seats effectively receive a lifetime of wear.

Heated seats are really good even if you are NOT in a cold climate. I live in Sydney Australia - winter temps around 45degrees. BUT, if you have a bad back, then multi adjustable seats with heat are fabulous in term of pain and discomfort relief.

Neither leather or textile is a better one size fits all. It is very much a personal preference as everyone will have different preferences and needs. The majority of people posting their configurations of the forums seem to choose leather. However, having had both leather and cloth seats in the past I myself much prefer cloth. I also prefer the piano black decor to all other choices except carbon fiber. Since I don't need heated seats or seat memory function the textile is the clear winner for me and as a bonus it saves $1,500.

I am torn between cloth and leather. I have leather in both my cars and it cracks easily. However, I got the cracked part replaced by a professional for not much. On one hand, leather looks nicer. But I am a sporty driver, and leather is slippery for aggressive cornering.

Now, ifmTesla could offer cloth in lighter shades.... Also, why not offer microfiber? On my sofa, the microfiber never seems to wear out, most any stains can be cleaned up with damp cloth, and it feels luxurious.

Anyone from Tesla listening?

I have had good experience with microfiber too.

It has been mentioned, but to make it explicit once again:


The problem with Teslas cloth seats are that they are not cloth. They are cloth+vinyl. And vinyl/faux leather is the last thing I want in my car. We have had it on furniture, and it always cracks after a while.

So I would personally like 100% cloth seats in light grey, and available on the Performance-model too.

I've changed from leather to non-leather, back and forth for years. For all the negatives on leather listed above, i've gone with the black micro-fiber with silver.

We test drove in the Cloth and it was surprising good. However, we are going with Leather because it has heated seats (for PA winters) and lumbar support (which is not included in the Cloth).


You bring up an interesting point. Since many of the early adopters most likely chose leather, would any produced after January automatically have the 12-way adjustable seats anyway?

@TimJ--I double checked with my Tesla rep by email after the price increase was announced. The heated, 12-way adjustable textile seats will be based on reservation dates after Jan 1, not on production dates after Jan 1. My rep indicated that those reserving before Jan 1 who order textile will get the 8 way, non-heated seats regardless of when their car is built; further that there will be no option to upgrade to heated, 12-way seats without paying the $2,500 price increase.

I'm heavily inclined to get the cloth seats (mainly just to save $1500), but I haven't been able to sit in a cloth-seated car. Neither the San Diego, Newport Beach, Santa Monica or Topanga stores have a cloth interior vehicle (either showroom or test drive) anymore to view. I'm likely going to try to push my reservation back shortly, but still I'd really like to at least see the cloth before I have to confirm my order.

What's with the leather-hate? I've had leather seats on every car I've owned and never had problems with cracking or ugly excessive wear. Seats wear out and crack because the bolsters inside them are poor quality and end up sagging after you drag your butt across them over the years.!

@archibald ... if you feel like a trip to the East Coast, the DC demo car (not the floor model) has textile seats. Of course that would blow the $1,500 you'd save by not getting leather :-)

The textile seats are alright. They're a little "funky" with the vinyl style inserts and they don't have any "nap" to them. I'm not really sure if they would wear any better than the leather. Frankly, unless the $1,500 is an issue, or you object to the leather on moral or aesthetic grounds, I would get the leather. But, that's likely because I did chose to get the leather in my S.

Yeah it's just the $1500, my car will likely be a black 60kwh with air suspension (for my steep driveway) and that's it. If I had Scrooge McDuck's money pit in my backyard I'd get the leather.

As mentioned by many: the cloth has vinyl side bolsters. This is where the
Maximum wear occurs, and where cracks appear. So really, leather is probably better for
me, since I can get it in grey.

I briefly contemplated cloth seats but decided to go with leather. For me, spending this much on car, I couldn't justify cloth seats.

This is all rehashed from before, but I have a Chevy with leather, so not some super high luxury thing. I have not done anything special to take care of it other than to keep it clean. The car is five years old.

I have parked the car in the sun for hours and hours on many occassions. The leather is still perfectly supple, no cracking or anything like that. It's more comfortable than cloth seats and looks way nicer.

It's so easy to clean too, perfect for a guy like me, eating fast food in the car. If I drop something, it's so easy to wipe off. It's easy to clean the surface and vacuum the crevices too.

Cloth. Use no gas, use no animals!

I have leather in our other cars. I will never own a car without leather. It doesn't crack, easy to take care of (wipe it with a clean damp cloth), and to keep it fresh - just treat it once a year. Todays leather does breath - when compared to leathers in the past 10-15 years.
However our other cars are all german and they use a better grade of leather than the US car markets do.

My vote is leather (obviously)

I am going cloth primarily to have the $1500 to use on other options since I don't mind the cloth or any of the related items (heated seats, 12 way, etc.), however I do wish lumbar was standard, and that seat memory was at least part of the tech package...

So I'm not sure if I'm going with cloth or leather I'd like to here someone's opinion after having the car for 6-12 months... Do the cloth have wear marks?

I've had the cloth for almost 4 months, but the car gets tons of use (8,500 miles so far) and I have 3 kids. The cloth is holding up fantastic. It's not really cloth. It's got inserts of imitation leather and the "cloth" is treated so it's resistant to stains. I just drove a loaner with the grey leather, and I'm very happy that I went with the textile seats.

Well now they will be building more MS's for Germany with cloth seats instead of leather!

Why is that the naturalists who like to flaunt their natural bodies in public are always the grannies with jiggly parts hanging by their knees?

The over sized grandpa's in this same group are also shameless in sun bathing in the buff to terrorize toddlers and infants...

@Rheumboy - I'll buy you a plane ticket to feast on the horror show any day. Let me know where to send the ticket. Them boys from Brook-a-lyn will happily hand deliver it to you...

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