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2014 MINI Cooper - Edmunds Road Test
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2014 MINI Cooper - Edmunds Road Test
Let's start at the bottom. The seat bottoms have my favorite feature a seat can have: extendable thigh support. I don't have long legs, but I've got a long hip-to-knee length which means on most seats, my legs are mostly unsupported and I feel like I'm only half-sitting.
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Of note, the heaters cover ALL seating surfaces, including the extension part (but not the headrest). Not sure how common that is, but I know that many only head the bottom cushion.
we have never had a problem with breathability and the seat heaters are the best in any car i've been in. (our cx-9 heaters are WEAK!)
i've seen some pretty ugly leather seats though. the quality of leather and the care provided make all the difference. i'll certainly take a good cloth seat over a cheap leather seat.
The biggest plus for me is if you try to move around at all to adjust your seating position on a long drive with cloth seats the cloth will tend to keep your clothes in one place while you move, whereas the leather will allow your clothes to slide with you.
To me, it seems like the leather gives and conforms to you more than cloth too. You can see in the picture above the leather in the bottom cushion hasn't settled back to its original shape from being sat on and conforming to the sitter.
The best reason for leather? Most companies do a terrible job with cloth, it is hard to find comfortable, good looking, cloth seats.
One of the best reasons to buy a Mini is that you can order it exactly the way you like it. Unlike vast majority of other cars, these outstanding seats ARE available in cloth. Which makes this one of the very few cars I would consider buying.
Now days it is customary to create problems and then charge people money for solutions to these problems. Leather seats are the perfect example of this. Sure, let's market leather to make people want it. This creates several serious problems, such as breathability, slippery surface, cold/hot/sweaty butt -- let's now market solutions to these issues and charge people for them. Heated seats, ventilated seats, perforation -- all these are solutions for artificially created problems. Cloth seats are wonderful -- beautiful, durable, sanitary, breathable, etc., etc. They hold you in place while cornering. They feel neutral to the touch in both winter cold and summer heat. But NOOOO, we want the damp, sweaty, smelly, disgusting skin of dead animals to sit on in our cars. Something that requires 2 hours of hard labor every six weeks to maintain in order to stay reasonably presentable for more than a few years. More than 2 hours if you have child seats. Oh, it also makes child seats far more difficult to install! It is lunacy!
Also, as far as leather vs. cloth, leather is almost always a better choice unless the leather in question is of terrible quality (the 3rd gen Acura TL comes to mind). As long as it's regularly cleaned and conditioned, leather should last a long time and stay in decent condition, provided that it's not abused or mistreated. There are some cars with terrible quality leather that requires constant upkeep to keep it in decent condition (I've seen plenty of 2004-2008 TLs with deplorable leather), but even the leather on my 2009 Civic EX-L is in decent shape after 74k miles of regular cleaning and conditioning with Mother's VLR. Despite what Honda says, I'm not even convinced that it's genuine leather.
Also, perforated leather may breathe better and allow for cooled seats, but the perforations collect a ton of dirt and grime, making the seats a nightmare to clean. Since I've never experienced cooled seats that actually impressed me, I'd probably forego perforated leather and make the seats a little easier to clean.