[WhiteDevil]

I'm considering purchasing a Volt, and was wondering what people's opinions are of cloth vs. leather interior. In browsing through posts, it looks like most have opted for leather. I am not a fan of leather in cars, but the Volt I test drove did have leather and it was nice. I haven't been able to find a Volt with cloth interior, so was wondering what people think of it.

 

[Bacardi]

Was reported there are 6000+ Volts on the lots right now...Go on autotrader/cars.com and search, take a test drive in both of them and pick...Perhaps you already knew this but if not, leather is a option in a LT and standard in the Premier...

 

[srs5694]

Leather comes standard with the Premier trim and is a popular option on the LT trim. Thus, if you want features available only in the Premier, you'll have to accept leather to get them. If you prefer an LT model, you can do without leather, but you may need to hunt a bit or even do a special order to get the car equipped the way you want.

FWIW, I'm a vegetarian and was trying to minimize the amount of leather in my car. I test-drove a car with leather, since that's all the dealership had on hand, but bought one (via a dealer trade) with cloth. Aside from the type of surface, the seats are the same -- or at least, I didn't notice any difference, although it was a few days between my sitting in the two cars, so the comparison was not back-to-back.

 

[Dutch]

If you are the type to do the basic maintenance, as in keep the seats vacuumed and wipe them down with a wet microfiber cloth once a month or as needed... then the leather seats are going to hold up a lot better than cloth over time.

 

[jeff_h]

This was the catch-22 when I ordered mine -- I prefer cloth seats, but in order to get the convenience packages that I wanted it needed to be Premier trim level, which only comes in leather. So I have leather seats since I wanted the various gizmos.

 

[Joe67]

I'm considering purchasing a Volt, and was wondering what people's opinions are of cloth vs. leather interior. In browsing through posts, it looks like most have opted for leather. I am not a fan of leather in cars, but the Volt I test drove did have leather and it was nice. I haven't been able to find a Volt with cloth interior, so was wondering what people think of it.

I much prefer leather for ease of cleaning and better looks. Transport a dog? Leather is what you want.
YMMV

 

[Taser54]

I'm considering purchasing a Volt, and was wondering what people's opinions are of cloth vs. leather interior. In browsing through posts, it looks like most have opted for leather. I am not a fan of leather in cars, but the Volt I test drove did have leather and it was nice. I haven't been able to find a Volt with cloth interior, so was wondering what people think of it.

I like the suede seats in my volt.

 

[eDreamin']

I prefer cloth. And my marriage. The wife is a vegetarian who won't buy leather shoes....
I feel that cloth is cooler in the summer (even though it's black), and I had no problems cleaning the cloth seats of my previous car.
And the dog doesn't care-- as long as he gets to stick his nose out the window!

 

[ChiVolt]

If cloth and leather seats were the same price, I'd choose cloth. If cloth seats were more expensive than leather, I'd choose cloth. To each his own when it comes to cloth or leather.

 

[16513]

The air conditioner in Gen 2 is good enough that hot seats in summer heat are not a problem. ref: Aug. 2016, 1,400 mi. 90-98F

 

[VoltFish]

For me the forced leather in the Premier steered me to the LT. I think Chevy would be smart to offer some kind of fake leather option in the future (as Tesla and Toyota do) as I'm sure some subset of the electric/green car demographic is also part of the "I don't want to sit on dead animals' skins" demographic.

 

[mike100]

The leather seats really bring the interior to a premium level for a compact car, but after a few months, I realize I would have been happy with cloth too. My one must-have was the heated seat/mirrors/steering wheel pkg.

 

[Dutch]

I have to confess that it just never even occurred to me that people would care about sitting on "dead animal skins".

Seriously , I'm not being snarky or anything about this, in fact it's a bit of a shocker to realize what a huge blind-spot I have/had where that is concerned, I mean the thought literally never occurred to me before this thread.

Something new to think about.

 

[srs5694]

I have to confess that it just never even occurred to me that people would care about sitting on "dead animal skins".

Seriously , I'm not being snarky or anything about this, in fact it's a bit of a shocker to realize what a huge blind-spot I have/had where that is concerned, I mean the thought literally never occurred to me before this thread.

Judging by the prevalence of leather in modern cars, I'd say that most auto designers have the same blind spot. Aside from "penalty box" vehicles and Prii, just about everything today comes with at least some leather. The Volt is typical -- even with cloth seats, it's got a leather-wrapped steering wheel and leather trim around the shifter and on the center console/armrest. Other cars I considered both this time around and two years ago (when I got a VW Golf diesel that I'll be returning very soon) are similar -- the Golf, Ford C-Max, and Mazda 3 all have similar amounts of mandatory leather, even in their base trims. Oddly, the Golf has mandatory fake leather seats but mandatory real leather on the steering wheel and shifter.

I seem to recall reading or hearing in a review that the Prius uses a fake leather all around, at least in part because it weighs significantly less than real leather, and so contributes to good fuel economy. My Golf's fake leather seats were convincing enough to passengers that they thought it was real, so I'd say the fake leather has come a long way in quality. If the weight savings are real, and not just marketing hype, it may be time for others to follow Toyota's lead on this matter, simply to help with fuel efficiency.

 

[mdchaser]

I have to confess that it just never even occurred to me that people would care about sitting on "dead animal skins".

Seriously , I'm not being snarky or anything about this, in fact it's a bit of a shocker to realize what a huge blind-spot I have/had where that is concerned, I mean the thought literally never occurred to me before this thread.

Something new to think about.

The reality is there is almost no leather in modern leather seats. Real leather seats would cost thousands and thousands of dollars. The BEST you get (even going up to a Merc or BMW) is leather inserts. Almost the entire seat is sealed vinyl that looks like leather. Given the price of these seats I'm curious to know if there is any leather in them, I would be surprised if there was! Have you ever wondered how modern leather seats look so uniform? It's because no matter the material (leather/vinyl) they are painted and sealed, real leather would have lots of different colors/textures or be insanely expensive to properly color match.

If anyone has any evidence of the makeup of the volt leather seats I would be interested!

 

[Bacardi]

We can hate the Vegan agenda but that doesn't make it false...Multiple studies have shown raising cattle (oddly they fart a lot of methane) which includes growing their feed, all that transportation of clean water and the distribution of the end product populates more than personal vehicle ownership...With that being said, my Volt had leather, I'm wearing leather shoes and had quite a bit of meat today already...

 

[Mister Dave]

We can hate the Vegan agenda but that doesn't make it false......

I don't hate them, I just don't invite them to dinner.

I wear leather in winter. Leather coats against leather seats makes for quite a static buildup. I get tired of getting a hard shock touching my door every time I get out. Cloth is better for me. I don't have dogs or kids. If I did I'd want cellophane wrappers that I can switch out.

 

[accelerus]

Even with the boiling hot texas summers we have here -- I go leather. Besides the awesome smell, easier to clean, and just feels better.

I had a bottom of the barrel Kia Rio with cloth seats (tan) and they showed dirt like crazy. The secret for me and my leather seats is Zaino's "leather in a bottle" cleaner and conditioner. I've never found another product that keeps that brand new rich leather smell going and going and going.

 

[llninja]

I like the suede seats in my volt.

With my g1, I was dead set against leather because the wife and kids hate scalding their legs getting into a hot car in the summer (CTS and 5 series BMW). But my dealership had a pebble beach suede interior which was leather, but stayed cool like cloth. I absolutely love these seats, don't know if it's available in a g2.

 

[llninja]

We can hate the Vegan agenda but that doesn't make it false...Multiple studies have shown raising cattle (oddly they fart a lot of methane) which includes growing their feed, all that transportation of clean water and the distribution of the end product populates more than personal vehicle ownership...With that being said, my Volt had leather, I'm wearing leather shoes and had quite a bit of meat today already...

I had a gluten free vegan pizza the other day. The toppings were ok, but the crust was like eating plastic (the knife I was given wouldn't cut it). My wife (who is the vegetarian, but not necessarily vegan) had a horrible gastro-intestinal reaction to it, so much so that I think it effectively ended her attempts to eat vegan. Don't do it, not even once...