Is Naugahyde really leather?

[fphinney]

I need some input here...

I bought a #7 Prius 6/9. I was told that by my local dealer that they can easily recover the seats with leather, so as to make it appear like a #8. Sounded good to me.

I have had some suspicions & finally I took a close look last weekend. HORRORS! I now have a Prius with Naugahyde seat covers!

I feel I got cheated. How do I go about convincing them that they still owe me LEATHER?

[archermoo]

Well, if they told you you were buying leather, rather than something that looked like the leather seats in a package 8 car, you certainly have a legitimate complaint.

[Begreen]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Frank Phinney @ Aug 1 2006, 10:04 PM) [snapback]296097[/snapback]</div>

I need some input here...

I bought a #7 Prius 6/9. I was told that by my local dealer that they can easily recover the seats with leather, so as to make it appear like a #8. Sounded good to me.

I have had some suspicions & finally I took a close look last weekend. HORRORS! I now have a Prius with Naugahyde seat covers!

I feel I got cheated. How do I go about convincing them that they still owe me LEATHER? [/b]

Naugahyde ain't from any animal and it sure isn't leather.

[rufaro]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Begreen @ Aug 1 2006, 10:23 PM) [snapback]296108[/snapback]</div>

Naugahyde ain't from any animal and it sure isn't leather.
[/b]

You are belittling all those poor Naugas who gave their lives to be sat on? Horrors! Oh, the humanity...

[Godiva]

No Naugas were harmed in the recovering of this Prius' seats.

The hyde would be a dead giveaway.

But wait. You should know that no car has 100% leather seats. I had a leather interior in my 1996 Saturn SC2 coupe. I had to have the seats redone after they cracked and shrunk do to a car wash steam cleaning them. (And yes, I had to take them to small claims court to get them to pay. They never did admit they were stupid.)

When I had the seat redone I was told by the auto upholsterers that only the seat part was leather, the sides were vinyl. I thought I had been cheated but they told me this was standard practice in car interiors due to wear.

So maybe the sides are vinyl and only the seats and back are actual leather.

Now if it's all vinyl and they charged you for leather, then you have a beef. (That's beef, not nauga.) If you have something in writing and they violated the contract, they you have grounds. If it's verbal...you're screwed.

[priusenvy]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Begreen @ Aug 1 2006, 10:23 PM) [snapback]296108[/snapback]</div>

Naugahyde ain't from any animal and it sure isn't leather.
[/b]

You're wrong because I'm watching Discovery Channel right now and they're covering the big annual Naugas roundup and rodeo in Conneticut right now. From Wikipedia:

"...the Naugas are nocturnal, hairless, aquatic mammals of many colors that live in the Naugatuck River, and can be made to come to the surface at night by shining a flashlight into the water. The Naugas are then captured and sorted by color to be made into the various colors of Naugahyde. When rolled together on a mechanical press, the seams between the Naugas disappear, resulting in a seamless, leather-like product."

They also mention that blue and purple Naugas do not occur in nature but were created in a laboratory via genetic engineering, and then re-released back into the wild.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Aug 2 2006, 12:51 AM) [snapback]296144[/snapback]</div>

But wait. You should know that no car has 100% leather seats. I had a leather interior in my 1996 Saturn SC2 coupe.
[/b]

This is usually advertised as "leather seating surfaces", which is a strong hint that the surfaces you don't sit on aren't leather.

[Syclone]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusenvy @ Aug 2 2006, 06:35 AM) [snapback]296161[/snapback]</div>

They also mention that blue and purple Naugas do not occur in nature but were created in a laboratory via genetic engineering, and then re-released back into the wild.
This is usually advertised as "leather seating surfaces", which is a strong hint that the surfaces you don't sit on aren't leather.
[/b]

There was so much naugahyde used in the 70's and 80's that the Nauga was on the endangered species list for a while. The ones being bred now are still too small to be used for larger surfaces. That's why you only see naugahyde on the trim areas of seats and the armrests.

[mikepaul]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Frank Phinney @ Aug 2 2006, 01:04 AM) [snapback]296097[/snapback]</div>

I feel I got cheated. How do I go about convincing them that they still owe me LEATHER?
[/b]

All hyde jokes aside, if your sales receipt says 'leather' without weasel-wording, ask what happened. If they say the price was for fake leather and they won't retrofit real leather without extra cost, call your local TV ombudsman/consumer reporter.

Perhaps when a reporter shows up asking questions, the real leather will become cheaper...

[RichBoy]

If you feel like you have been cheated, you probably were. Also, Naugahyde is Vynal, a form of plastic. the dealer aftermarket/ascessory market can be so cruel.

[naterprius]

The real deal? The whole "leather interior" thing was settled years ago by a lawsuit by a Nissan Z owner. He complained and sued, and the net result now is that all leather packages are now advertised as "leather-trimmed" "selected leather upholstered" or some other such words to the effect that when you buy leather, even from the factory, you get mostly vinyl, with leather on the the part that touches your butt and your back, and that's about it.

Why do you think car manufacturers continue to push leather? Because it costs LESS than cloth, and they can charge MORE for it!

It blows my mind that anyone would want upholstery in their car that is hot and sticky and burns your bare legs in the summer and is cold and slippery in the winter so you have to have seat heaters.

Somebody will always respond and say something about cleanup, but hey, you don't sleep on rubber sheets, do you?

Besides, have you ever actually tried to clean the Prius interior cloth? Mine always comes clean!

I refuse to own a car with vinyl interior, no matter how many times they call it leather.

Frank, yes, you have been scammed, but no more so than anyone else who has a "leather-trimmed" interior. If you check carefully, you will likely find the butt part and the back part of your seats are leather.

Nate