Do you have vinyl or leather seats? It’s often difficult to tell at a glance because modern vinyl material manufacturers do such a good job of emulating the look and feel of leather, even incorporating the grain in some instances. However, it’s a question you need to answer if you’re getting ready for an mobile interior car wash & detail because these materials have big differences in how they’re cleaned.
Telling the difference between the two means looking for telltale signs present on your seats, some of which are less than obvious.
Difference 1: Vinyl Costs Less Than Leather
Vinyl seats are almost always cheaper than leather seats. We can see that when checking out the differences in buying seat covers. A single vinyl seat cover would set you back between $30 and $100 – depending on the manufacturer – with leather always being more expensive. Eco leather costs between $50 and $150 per cover. Genuine luxury leather has an even wider (and larger) price range from $200 to $800 depending on whether you choose basic or premium leather.
Of course, this is all data for car seat covers and it may help if you have covers in place. If you don’t – meaning your car seats are pre-installed by the manufacturer – you can still use this cost difference to see which you have. Check if the manufacturer has leather and vinyl variants of its car seat covering. If they do, find the prices and compare them to what you spent on the car to get an idea of which material you have.
Difference 2: Check the Seat Labels
Check around your car seats and you should find a sticker either on the side or bottom of one of them; usually the driver’s seat. That sticker often provides some useful information. You’ll usually find a model number or manufacturing date (ideally both) on the sticker along with barcodes and some other irrelevant info.
How does that sticker help you determine if you have leather or vinyl car seats?
A little research reveals all.
There are several car specification databases – such as Cars-Data and Auto Evolution’s databases – that let you pull up all of the key details about a car using the model number. Those details include seating specifications, which should tell you the material used to make the seats.
Difference 3: Look at the Grain
The grain we mentioned that many vinyl manufacturers build into their materials to give it that leather look can also be a big giveaway that you’re actually looking at vinyl. The trick is to look for repetition. Vinyl is machine-made, with those machines being programmed with a finite number of grain patterns they use to create the leather look.
These patterns tend to repeat.
You don’t get that repetition with leather because the grain is individual to the animal from which the leather came. Think of it like a fingerprint – leather grain will always be unique whereas vinyl will have repetitions both across your car seats and within a single seat.
Difference 4: The Heat Test
We’re not talking about how the material feels when it’s heated up here, though that can also be a giveaway. Vinyl tends to get sticky when hot and can even experience warping. If you’re seeing that, you have your answer about your car seat material, as well as an issue you have to fix.
Our heat test is a lot simpler – place your hand on the material and hold it there for a couple of minutes. If you have genuine leather car seats, the material should start to heat up surprisingly quickly. The reason comes down to leather being a good conductor of heat. Because it's porous, it readily absorbs and transfers the heat from your hand. Vinyl, being poorer conductor of heat, will warm up more slowly and will develop the telltale stickiness faster.
Difference 5: The Finger Tip Test
You’re still getting handsy with our next test, only you’ll use your fingertip instead of your whole hand. Find a place on your car seat that’s cushioned (the seat itself and backrest work here) and give that cushioned area a quick prod with your finger.
If you have leather seats, that finger prod should lead to wrinkling around the area where your fingertip is pressing, almost like the ripple you get when you throw a stone in water. Vinyl won’t wrinkle that way, instead, it remains taut. If your seat covers are fairly loose, you can also use a pinch test to achieve the same result – leather wrinkles while vinyl regains its form quickly.
Difference 6: Quick Wipes Don’t Work on Leather (All The Time)
Our last difference becomes evident when there’s a spillage on your seats and you have to engage in a little mobile car wash cleaning at home. You’d like to think that leather wipes down easily, and it can, assuming the stain doesn’t bed in. If you do get a bedded-in stain, you’ll soon find that warm water and a mild detergent aren’t enough to get rid of it. You’ll need a specialized leather cleaner to solve your problem.
Vinyl doesn’t stain as easily and can generally be cleaned with a quick wipe using a cloth, warm water, and mild detergent. Meanwhile, over the years, you’ll also notice that leather seats develop a patina – a sort of sheen or darkening in areas of frequent use that doesn’t happen with vinyl.
