When you think of cars such as Rolls-Royce and Ferrari, sumptuous, aromatic leather interiors come to mind.
Nothing signifies automotive luxury and quality like the grains and textures of buttery leather upholstery.
To be sure, the finest leather is found in the finest cars. Attend an auto show and you’ll see a $360,000 Maybach (a luxury marque of the 1930s revived by Mercedes) with an interior described as “grand Nappa” leather. But you’ll also see a $16,000 Hyundai Accent with less grand, more vinyl-like “leather seating surfaces,” the rest of the interior trimmed in vinyl.
According to Jeff Godshall, automotive historian and senior design manager of Dodge Truck Interiors at Chrysler Group, leather was once all you could get.
“In the era of open touring cars, leather upholstery could stand up to the elements,” he said, and cloth would not. He said the turning point was the 1922 Essex Coach, the first closed car at a reasonable price-$1,495, or about $300 more than the open model. No longer open to the elements, the car could have mohair upholstery like the sofa at home.
Then leather divided the automotive classes.
“An eight-passenger sedan would be all in cloth,” said Godschall. “A limousine [the same car with a divider] would have the chauffeur compartment in hard leather for durability, while the owner’s compartment was in soft cloth for comfort.”
Some early limos even had chauffeurs sitting out in the elements on leather.
Library-like leather and wood interiors have long been associated with luxury marques such as Rolls-Royce and Bentley. Because they stayed with leather for driver and passengers, such car seats became widely associated with quality.
Leather has become democratized over the years, as manufacturing methods reduced costs while car prices rose. Leather is available in a range of vehicles and is gaining popularity in trucks, including Dodge’s Ram Laramie and Ford’s King Ranch models.
Thirty-percent of North American cars sport leather interiors, up from 10 percent 20 years ago, according to Craig Tonti, vice president of sales and product development at Michigan’s Eagle-Ottawa Corp., which processes animal hides for automakers.
“We have about 30 percent of a $2.2 billion worldwide business,” he said. He explained that steer hides from the U.S. and Europe are the most costly; they’re less likely to be blemished by raising methods and are large at about 55 square feet.
Hides from Argentina, South Africa and Australia are more blemished, he said, requiring more finish on them, and they’re smaller at 35-40 square feet. China is entering the market with lower prices and quality, he said.
Hides must be treated (tanned) to vehicle manufacturer specifications. Among the trials the leather undergoes is the “sliding entry test,” which cycles an automated buttock across the seat to simulate years of use.
“Automotive leather is a highly engineered product,” said Tonti. The more “finish” added to hide imperfections, the more “vinyl like” the leather becomes.
So an inexpensive car is likely to use cheaper, highly coated leather. More expensive leathers are often lightly finished with transparent, aniline dyes, allowing the natural grain to show. These dyes are added in a drum so the color absorbs throughout.
Supple leather is often called “Nappa.” According to Terry Scheller, president of Boston’s Bugatti Inc., which manufactures fine leather goods and is not affiliated with the famed Italian carmaker. Nappa refers to sheepskin or lambskin. “Because lambskin is so soft,” he said, “it became a euphemism for soft leather; but lambskin isn’t used in cars because it doesn’t wear well.” Pigskin isn’t used either, because the hides are too small.
Blair Taylor, an interior designer at Volvo’s Camarillo, Calif., based Monitoring and Concept Center, said leather breaks down over time, so in cars it’s treated with non-harmful chemicals.
In most cars, buyers get leather on seat cushions and backs; seat sides and door and instrument panels are vinyl. Vinyl has been heavily used on cars starting in the ’60, but early vinyl looked like vinyl. “Today’s vinyl, or urethane plastic sprayed with touch paint,” said Taylor, “can feel leatherlike.
“You can feel different sensory experiences with higher leather grades,” said Taylor. “We keep sacred the places people touch–the back of the steering wheel, gearshift levers and knobs, which can have thin leather to get the contours correct. People pay for contact with leather.”
Tonti agrees, saying that manufacturers see a direct correlation between leather quality and their scores on automotive quality surveys.
Within car companies, there’s a leather hierarchy. Jaguar offers leather seating surfaces on the entry-level X-Type, though more expensive models have full leather seating. Volvo offers leather seating surfaces for $1,500 on its near-luxury S80 models. Its $48,000 S80 Premium features “soft leather seating surfaces,” with higher quality leather.
You can add leather to your car or change the leather you have. Dealer-installed leather is usually added to low-end cars. It’s usually stiffer and averages around $1,200.
Johann Merkofer, who runs Coach Trim in Stamford, Conn., restores the interiors of fine automobiles. He recently installed a cognac Ostrich hide interior into a burgundy 1937 Bugatti Type 57 Graber convertible, at a cost of $16,000.
If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, you could try a leather kit from suppliers such as J.C. Whitney that costs about $699 and is available for many car models. British-based Connolly leather, an original supplier to Rolls-Royce, was once the standard. But after 100 years, the company folded in 2002 due to competitive pressures. To replace Connolly, the Spinneybeck Co., a leather supplier based in Getzville, N.Y., provides its Derby leathers in matching original colors and grain.
Luxury marques slug it out for leather bragging rights.
“Connolly leather was great for its time” said Bob Austin, spokesman at BMW’s Rolls-Royce unit. “But it was surface finished, thick and rugged; you had to apply hide food to keep cracking down. We wanted a softer, more supple glovelike leather.”
The interior of each $325,000 Rolls-Royce Phantom requires 17 fine cattle hides, which are sewn into coverings for every surface not wood or wool.
The Rolls-Royce factory in Goodwood, England, has 400 workers; 150 dedicated to leather work, 150 to woodwork and 100 to mechanical assembly.
The $360,000 Maybach is at top of the Mercedes leather pyramid. While the merest C-Class offers “full leather” as a $1,500 option and the $113,000 SL55 roadster touts Nappa upholstery, the Maybachs trumpet the first automotive use of Grand Nappa leather.
Chrysler Group, for a time, offered one grade of leather from Neon through Jeep and Chrysler 300.
“Our leather option is a combination of leather and vinyl,” said Margaret Hackstedde, director of Chrysler’s Color and Trim Studio. “We’re moving toward a strategy of using different, distinct grains.”
The grains are produced by embossing the hides. Hackstedde said Chrysler’s smooth grained leather is called Royale, and its Torino grain is pebbly. The carmaker also uses a strongly pronounced grain called Sutton.
