Is this really leather?

[Fred Munro]

My guess (and it's only a guess) would be that the tanning process has been
changed to meet new environmental requirements, much like the recent switch
to water-based auto paints. The "old" leather we are used to was
chrome-tanned or aldehyde-tanned. They may have switched to a new "green"
tanning process. The tanning process determines how supple and
water-resistant the leather is.

Fred Munro
'97 S6


-----Original Message-----
From: quattro-bounces at audifans.com [mailto:quattro-bounces at audifans.com] On
Behalf Of NIck Miller
Sent: February 11, 2011 7:05 PM
To: Grant Lenahan; quattro at audifans.com
Subject: Re: Is this really leather?

I noticed the exact same thing at the san diego auto show this jan.  The
audi A3 I checked out made me cringe.  The steering wheel just felt so
weird, and smooth and akward compared to my miata or any other mazda with a
leather wheel.  Which is odd.  Same with a lot of other cars there.

Even the audi a3 seats were a bit of a joke, stained blue on the raised
portions from all the deneim that'd been in them.

I don't know if this is typical of brand new cars, auto show cars, or what
but its odd.  I've test driven near-new cars before and never noticed this
but the lowest mileage car I've ever had is 20k and the leather there was
nice and supple, and grippy on the wheel.  My lotus' seats had 15k when I
got them, as well, amazing feel to them if not a bit rigid still.
Weird deal, that new leather feel.
On Feb 11, 2011 4:47 PM, "Grant Lenahan" <glenahan at vfemail.net> wrote:
> Porsche leather, unless you special order the fancier interiors, is not
great stuff. So font go by that. My Audi's leather >>> my boxster's.
>
> Also, old leather softens and gets a patina. New leather looks like the
dye it is.
>
> But then again, my "new" car is 7 years old and my regular car is 9 1/2
years old, so what do i know?
>
> Grant
> On Feb 11, 2011, at 6:39 PM, Michael McLaughlin wrote:
>
>> The auto show is this weekend and I spent some time there this
>> afternoon. One thing that struck me was that the quality of the
>> leather in most of the interiors was not impressive at all - the BMW
>> leatherette seemed nicer to me than much of the actual leather, and
>> the leather in my nine-year-old Passat is nicer than the leather in
>> all but the most expensive cars there (Porsches, for one). There were
>> cars in the $40,000-plus price bracket where the leather felt like
>> vinyl to me. Am I being overly critical, or has the quality of leather
>> in cars gone downhill over the past few years?
>>
>> -Mike in Spokane, Wash.
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>
> Grant Lenahan
> glenahan at vfemail.net
>
>
>
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