Sadly I've nicked the 'leather' panel at the side of my 4x4's driver's seat - must have had something sharp in a pocket. The cut is only a cm or so long and I'll try and glue it. But what is does reveal is that the 'leather' seems in reality to just be 'vinyl' (or PVC if you prefer) and on a woven cloth backing (like a car from the 1970s)

The term eco leather has various definitions, but I think to Fiat 'eco leather' is a bit like MDF is to wood: it seems to be made from leather dust bound together in a plastic carrier, a long way off being made from the tanned hide of something animal-shaped.

Be warned - it certainly isn't anything like the stuff my Volvo's seat are trimmed with.

(clearly, thread title should have said 'plastic')

I have heard somewhere about reconstituted leather. A bit disappointing if that is what is used.

However, for many years, cheaper models have used leather on the main seat facings only, and vinyl on the sides, back and the front below the seat. So this is possibly the case on yours. This was the case in the seventies, and the manufacture of vinyl to look and feel like leather is probably better now. Only the really expensive cars use full leather. I don't suggest you damage the seat facings to find out though.

It's plastic. Cheap and nasty plastic, at that. There's nothing 'eco' about it, apart from the fact that it's more economical for Fiat to use plastic in its seat-production than real leather. It looks like plastic, feels like plastic, and smells like plastic. If there's some ground-up bits of leather dust in there, they may as well not be.

Big con.

Reckon the steering wheel n gear stick option is real leather?

The wheel and gear knob are real. I had the leather on the knob peel off on mine, and it was real.
Probably only takes about 1square foot of leather to trim those, so Fiat will stretch to that (after they've taken your £100 option though )

The eco part is that no animals have been abused and slaughtered for the seats in your car, and as raising cattle is one of the most detrimental things for the environment, it’s more eco friendly to have faux leather. If rightly done it will be as durable as real leather.

tomeranaray said:

The eco part is that no animals have been abused and slaughtered for the seats in your car, and as raising cattle is one of the most detrimental things for the environment, it’s more eco friendly to have faux leather. If rightly done it will be as durable as real leather.

Click to expand...

And more plastic is just great for the environment, of course.

My beef with Fiat is that the material is misrepresented as leather. I'd be happy if they called it "eco plastic" (which is, of course, an oxymoron).

On the wider environmental issues, I reckon buying and running a car - any car - has a much greater environmental impact than the small amount of leather (a by-product of the food chain) used to cover the seats in that car.

*sits back and opens popcorn*

In Mercedeslingo this is called ArtiCo (short for Artificial Cow).
All manufacturers are the same when it comes to misleading their customers

gr J

gar074 said:

On the wider environmental issues, I reckon buying and running a car - any car - has a much greater environmental impact than the small amount of leather (a by-product of the food chain) used to cover the seats in that car.

*sits back and opens popcorn*

Click to expand...

It's a common misconception often thought about cows and leather, but it's the other way around, the meat and bones are the byproduct of leather production.

Ermintrude is specially breed and farmed for her skin as it's her most profitable part, if produced correctly.

She's kept and away from barbed wire to stop cuts and nicks and is feed a special diet to stop her bloating and stretching (she's often actually poisoned to help stop the stretching), most won't be allowed any romance either, they don't want her in the family way with sagging udders! (but some do, see below).

This produces the right quality of leather that's needed for most items.

Some items of really soft leather come from newborn or more regularly these days, unborn calves, which certainly haven't been breed for meat.

The rest of her, the meat, bones etc is the byproduct.

Leather from your normal milker or beef cattle isn't really that much use.
It's often too nicked, cut and stretched to be of any real use or value.

So what you're saying is I need to eat more burgers to a) offset the environmental impact of leather production by consuming the byproduct and b) make it profitable to breed cattle that will sufficiently supply both needs.

I will take this sound livestock and ecological advice to heart (and artery) and go out for beer and burgers tomorrow. In the name of saving the planet and getting real leather seats on the next generation Panda, of course.

On a more serious note, wasn't there someone who re-did the upholstry in real leather or am I thinking of a different forum?

"She's kept and away from barbed wire to stop cuts and nicks and is feed a special diet to stop her bloating and stretching (she's often actually poisoned to help stop the stretching), most won't be allowed any romance either, they don't want her in the family way with sagging udders! (but some do, see below)."

Or she could be a he? Just saying, this is probably where some of the unwanted boy cows end up; its all bullocks...

BTW; you will find that most of the major polymer producers have castor oil based products these days (rather than hydrocarbon) but I am not qualified to comment on their sustainability. Much of the crop is produced in India which may well be more profitable than food crops but I don't know.