widlfiresd

Actually you will save $1280 on an ES when ordering a car with cloth.

There are cloth vehicles for every Lexus model in the U.S. however there are rare. Most folks buy whatever is on the lot.

It is like a manual BMW. You have to order if you want one, the dealer stocks autos.

JZA80MHU38

Not according to offical Lexus website. And no there's no point making by showing a pic of RX350 in fabric in the US.

Baby ///M3

I think we're starting to discuss the flexibility and freedom of choices rather than what the original poster had intended to do.

The same argument can be stretched for the E36 M3, which came with leather on 99% of the U.S. bound cars. However, its European counterpart, despite having more options/more powerful Euro engine, included cloth seating as a popular configuration.

Remember the sunroof delete configuration that's common on many BMWs? Whether you put this configuration as an option, or as standard equipment really doesn't matter. How much you pay for this configuration also depends on the vehicle's availability (since it's very rare) even though arguably, the sunroof-equipped cars should be more expensive.

That being said, who's to say that tall people who want to forego the sunroof to save some headroom are the ones who are buying the "less luxurious" car?

If leather must be had on all cars that are considered luxurious, then I may as well as suggest the old days' "genuine wire wheels", "steel construction", "hand laid veneer", and "white wall tires" to go with it as well. While we're at it, throw in some extra layers in chrome too!

Jon

newr

It's better than free. when you "order" cloth.. you actually save $$$

Och

iTrader: (3)

Oh yeah, leather in older GM's was horrific, but when I said that Lexus has the best Leather and Lincoln has the worst, I meant to make a comparison between luxury cars.

widlfiresd

My neighbor has a Chevy Tahoe. The leather they use is a cross between a banana peel and a condom.

Och

iTrader: (3)

Well my 94 LS400 was stolen and stripped last september, and when I recovered, I had to get a new interior, and I bought seats from a junk yard, and reupholstered them with the kits from leatherseats.com. What a mistake, the leather in these kits is such utter crap, the driver seat already shows more wear and dirtier than the original seats after 12 years of use. So leatherette isn't necessary a bad thing, unless the real leather is of high quality.

Cloth on the other hand is a completely different material, and can't be compared to leatherette. While leatherette is a cheaper, more practical alternative than leather, but cloth may be right for someone who just doesn't like leather and anything similar to leather. I personally can't stand cloth in cars, but I prefer cloth for home furniture.

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

I'm surprised at your leatherseats.com experience. I have their kits in my old 93 Legend and my NSX. Kit in the Legend is from 2001 and the NSX from 2004. Both still look great with no signs of wear. The seats in my 93 SC400 was very worn and my 04 RX330 shows no real wear, but very wrinkled on the drivers seat bottom edges.

Och

iTrader: (3)

I'll never buy from leatherseats.com again. First of all the covers do not fit anywhere near as well as the original, second they are not pefect match, so they require some cutting and modifications for installation. And the quality of leather is pure garbage, its comparable to Lincoln leather, but nowhere near Lexus grade.

Och

iTrader: (3)

This is what my original seat in my 94 LS looked like after 12 years of use. No wonder the bastards stole the car and stripped the interior.

Och

iTrader: (3)

This is my old 94 GS300, after 11 years of use... Not too bad, considering that the car had around 160K miles when I sold it, if my memory serves me right.

Och

iTrader: (3)

And this is my 2001 GS430, I swear to god, this car has the bestest, softest, smoothest leather I've ever seen in any car.

Mr. Jones

pour liquid on "real" leather and it gets absorbed instantly. not the case with vinyl. The protective layer is neither thick or made of vinyl. It's probably just part of the dye. The leather's grain and texture are still there.

picus

Most automotive leathers are protected aniline; they have a clear water based top coat applied for protection; it is not thick and not made of vinyl - it does allow the leather to absorb moisture (slowly) and breathe (to some extent). It is not plastic but it acts in a similar way. Any leather that absorbs water immediately is not protected aniline, and is usually a higher quality semi-aniline or pure-aniline. There are only a few cars I know of that use this.

Automotive leatherette is not vinyl, it's polyurethane.

Threxx

Whatever it is, it's not leather, and I'd definitely describe it as thick on the cars that I've cut swatches from and/or sanded down the dye on... I'd say on those cars it almost seemed kinda silly. Your skin never touches anything but top-coat... the leather is just what happens to be underneath all of that. As you get down to the cheaper leather it gets more and more ridiculous... I remember seeing a swatch from a '99 Trans Am once and it seemed more like a vinyl seat with a tiny paper thin layer of leather glued to the back to pass on the technicality of calling it leather.