I LOVE the Checkmate interior...Leather and cloth. Its not the standard cloth either...real nice and high quality

 

 

I'll chime in with my seating comparison experience.

ive tested several used minis with leather and leatherette.

Driving feel is on par with each other. Leatherette (really vinyl) feels nice (when clean) but real leather feels and smells softer and nicer.

Leather seats always showed the worst aging on the drivers seat. Wrinkling was the number one problem, cracking were on cars that were clearly neglected.

I eventually purchased my 06 mcs with cloth seats. The cloth seats were taken off the market for 05 due to the manufacturing company supplying mini going out of business. These seats are sourced from another company now and the quality is top notch.

After a month's ownership, we were given a loaner for 3 days with leatherette. both my wife and I were finding ourselves slipping from left to right on our drives in leatherette. We both agreed that cloth was the way to go.

 

See the Bold ^^. I knew I was too lazy to do this religiously, so I got the Leatherette. With the amount of light the interior of the MINI gets (especially with the sunroof), it was a no-brainer for me.

 

I attended a local autocross event as part of my MCS purchase decision. I checked out all the Minis competing in the event when they were parked. I'd roughly guess that 99% of the Minis competing had cloth.

I asked why cloth not leather? The answer was always leather is too slippery for autocross. These drivers took their in class competition seriously. They didn't want to be slipping around in their seats while driving those tight autocross courses. They also had a separate set of wheels and tires for autocrossing. Some even had two sets of wheels and tires - one for dry conditions and one for wet. So function drives selection.

The choice between cloth, leather, and leatherette was the only option that I felt I made a wrong choice on. With the cloth option temporarily not available when I made the purchase, I regret not spending a little more for leather. The 2006 leather quality looked pretty good - dang.

Even so as the weather cools down or the A/C kicks in, the smile returns to my face as I motor on down the road.

 

Vinyl...err, I mean leatherette will suffer the same fate as untreated leather. It will get hard, degrade, crack and peel over time, especially in hotter, sunnier climates. The difference is, with leather, you can do something to prevent it. With plastic, err, I mean leatherette, you cannot.

And you can definitely tell the difference.

I've had both leather and vinyl seats in my cars, and the leather wears infinitely better.

 

My Solid Gold MINI had leatherette seats. Now my new one has cloth seats. I like the feel of the cloth ones a lot better, however the leatherettes look so much better. The cloth ones look......well........cheap.

 

I feel this way, too. Although I love all things leather, I can't spring for it this time, as this car is my second car and the wife can pull the plug if the cost is a penny too high. So the decision was reduced to either cloth or pleather (oh, dang... I said it). I chose the leatherette because it's visually more appealing and because we have a dog that will insist on taking Sunday rides to the beach. (Fur and cloth have a permanent relationship.)

If ever... and I mean a remote, nearly inconceivable ever... decide to track my car in the future, out goes the standard leatherette and in go the Recaro seats. But, until hell freezes over, I'll be alright with leatherette and a genuine leather jacket.

Thanks everyone. Let the comments continue to flow...




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I agree with you about the dogs and cloth. My wife has 7 pomeranians, and I already have added a lint brush to my glovebox arsenal. But Leatherette is fine, as they look great.

 

I would go for leather always - no matter how well you look after cloth it always ends up getting stained and sorry I just cannot get with vinyletta.

As an aside my wife has a 2000 Z3 (Tink) which she has to top down on all the time. It has beige leather seats that had gotten both hard and dirty. I found this stuff - leatherique (http://www.leatherique.com/products.htm) which is absolutely amazing - get both the cleaner and the conditioner . It apparently works on vinyl too, but I haven't tried it

 

I think they should have some kind of solid version of the space cloth for those that do want cloth... I prob wouldn't have chosen it even if they did have this, but the light coloured back seats were definately a turn off (and a dirt magnet). I mean you can get the solid black with the reg. MC seats, but there is no solid cloth with the sport seats...

 

No one has mentioned what I think is the best of both worlds. I have the Tartan Red Cloth/Black Leather option ordered on my new MCS. You get the black leather look around the edge and the red cloth in the center. I think it will look great on my DS/B MCS with the anthracite dash and headliner.

 

I've had my MINI for about 9 months and am still very pleased with leatherette, especially considering the $aving$ over real leather. It's supposed to stay in like-new condition for a longer duration as well.

 

I'm warming up to leatherette now that the weather is cooling down again. Still wish I had spent the extra money on leather though.

 

the english panther leather is worth the money if you have to spend. I upgraded to an MCS and the money was whisked away for me.

400 dollars more is such a bargain for such a nice look and feel. 1700 over 0 dollars is a bit steep for some like me.

I normally love cloth. I hope I do not regret it. I am going to ask detailers about treating the leatherette. There is no question that a thick piece of leather is best like the 1700 option. You can always trreat it well. being a big person kills all seats however, and you cant help that if you are. my 150 lbs on the leatherette with some sort of treatment will probably last a while.

I plan on covering them with something custom tailored in a few years. I want like a heavy stitched leather on them. Something really morbid and gothy.

 

I know what you mean about the extra money for leather. I was looking at total out the door costs and the leather option made me wince so I settled for leatherette.

Then we had that pre-view of global warming in Southern California - hotter than Hades. I was regretting my expense cutting decision big time. Those black leatherette seats get almost hot enough to fry an egg on when the sun shines on them directly.

I guess what I'm saying is if you really love leather, don't count the beans like I did when I made the decision to economize and stick with leatherette. Find some way to cough up the money. It's a decision that will stay with you as long as you own the car.