[Direwolf]

Just curious what you are all going for and why...

My original intention was to get the space cloth. It looked pretty good on the MINI USA site and I didn't want anything too slippery. But now that I've seen close-ups of it (thanks to Paul), it kind of scares me.

I've had leather in other German cars and even though I conditioned it every 6 months or so, it always ended up looking crappy after about 2 years. Maybe I needed to condition it more often???

Leatherette is really a mystery to me, though. Is it more vinyl or more leather? How does it wear? Does one need to condition it, or is it good to go with just periodic cleaning?

I appreciate any insight you guys might have. Cheers.

[MGB Boy]

Simply on principle, I decided on Space Cloth over Leatherette. Past experience has invariably shown that cloth is nicer than vinyl. Period. Then I saw Leatherette in the dealer showroom. Hmmm, very nice, not at all like the vinyl seats of old. Then I saw the Space Cloth pics. Hmmm, "Space Cloth" is an appropriate name given that they look like they were made out of left over material from the uniforms for "Star Trek: The Motion Picture". Hmmm. So now, against everything I've always believed about auto upholstery, I'm going for Leatherette, not Space Cloth. Looks nice, feels nice, and it's easier to clean than cloth or genuine leather.

Oh, what about genuine leather? It's nice, I've got it in my MGB, but given the quality of the Leatherette, I can think of quite a few better ways to spend the $1250 that genuine leather would cost...

-Ricardo

[gromit]

For me it was pretty simple...I'm getting an S with just about all the trimmings so I really couldn't justify $1250 additional for leather, especially after hearing the horror stories about it looking bad after a really short time. A search on "leather" should bring up some posts on the subject. I was torn, no pun intended, between space cloth and "leatherette". "Leatherette" sounds so cheesy, I thought it would be like the vinyl on a cheap couch. Boy was I wrong. Drove an "S" with leatherette this weekend and it was love at first sight. Honestly couldn't tell the difference without a sniff (no leather smell). Wipes right up, very heavy (thick), looks like it will last forever, I'm sold.

"Leatherette" - It sounds so Bad but Feels so Good!

[MadAboutMINI]

I'm with MGB Boy. I had planned on Space Cloth, but after seeing the leatherette in the Cooper that I test drove (I'm still waiting for my S test drive) and seeing the recent photos of Space Cloth, I'm going for the leatherette. $1250 is better spent on other options than leather.

[Direwolf]

Thanks for the replies guys. Sounds like I'll be going with that magical leatherette material. Hope I can still change my order...

Just thought of something else. Those of you that have seen the MINI at auto shows, how would you rate the wear of the 3 materials? I'm guessing that having a few thousand people sitting in the car would accelerate the wearing process and make it look like what we can expect in a couple of years.

[Fallschirmjeager]

The MINI that arrived at Global BMW in Atlanta had a few light scratches in the leather after only about 45 minutes, but I think that was due to one guy who was dressed rather like a cowboy. (Big buckle on leather belt with silver medallions on it). I'm not sure it it was leather or leatherette on the seats, but I seem to remember them being a rather plain black.

[noahe]

The Space Cloth and Leatherette never made it to any autoshow that I'm aware of. All the autoshow cars had gravity leather or profile leather. So most people learnt of how good the leatherette was, or how poor the Space Cloth was, right here, or on their test drive.

I agree with the comparison to an old Star Trek uniform reject. Funny, but pretty close. Haven't seen it on a car, but the fabric sample I saw sent me running.

The leatherette really is fantastic. But do a search, because these are just our opinions, and a few people seem to hate it. Personally, it took me 20 minutes to find out from the sales staff if it was leather or leatherette, no one could tell. I failed the sniff test, because the whole car and dealership were so new, all I could smell was paint and plastic. I'm pretty sure if I don't tell anyone, everyone will assume it's leather.