Usually I go with leather, but it appears that Skoda is providing real leather/artificial leather combo. If it's not a real leather it will last significantly shorter, unless the main wear area is covered with real stuff and artificial leather is just covering non important seat surfaces (like backside of the seat and head rest). Is Alcantara a safer bet? What is your opinion on this?

Edited 24 October, 200916 yr by Horror

Not a new thing my Mercedes was the same ie artificial leather on the back of the seat

The Alcantara/leather combination on my Octavia L&K was great. Very grippy and extremely comfortable. I await the really cold weather to see if the full leather seats in the Superb are as good.

Only the front faces are leather and the other surfaces are matching plastic. I would imagine you would have to purchase a seriously pretigious brand to enjoy full leather.

The Alcantara/leather combination on my Octavia L&K was great. Very grippy and extremely comfortable. I await the really cold weather to see if the full leather seats in the Superb are as good.

Only the front faces are leather and the other surfaces are matching plastic. I would imagine you would have to purchase a seriously pretigious brand to enjoy full leather.

I had Alfa 156 with great real leather, and have Lancia Lybra with even better. I see no signs of artificial or plastic as you said. But that's a different story, Italians have the best leather, and I don't think just Masserati and Ferrarri.

Back to Superb..When you say "only the front faces are leather" do you mean the whole seating area, not just the middle of the seat? Those little surfaces around your hmm.. butt that prevent skidding are also leather?

whats the point paying out all that money for leather and then not actually getting real leather? that appalling how you get ripped off like that. Alcantara on the principle that you are not getting robbed!

I had Alfa 156 with great real leather, and have Lancia Lybra with even better. I see no signs of artificial or plastic as you said. But that's a different story, Italians have the best leather, and I don't think just Masserati and Ferrarri.

Back to Superb..When you say "only the front faces are leather" do you mean the whole seating area, not just the middle of the seat? Those little surfaces around your hmm.. butt that prevent skidding are also leather?

The whole front face of the seat is leather, and the quality looks quite good. It is just the sides and the backs of the seat that are "plastic", but in this day and age they match up quite well.

Regarding Alcantara. This material is used in some of the best cars in the world. It is not cheap and I supppose that the price is not too far from that of leather!!

I had Alfa 156 with great real leather, and have Lancia Lybra with even better. I see no signs of artificial or plastic as you said. But that's a different story, Italians have the best leather, and I don't think just Masserati and Ferrarri.

Back to Superb..When you say "only the front faces are leather" do you mean the whole seating area, not just the middle of the seat? Those little surfaces around your hmm.. butt that prevent skidding are also leather?

I really doubt you would know if the whole seat wasnt leather the easiest way and sometimes the only way to tell for sure is to use a good quality leather treatment on the seats you can see by the way it soaks in whether its all leather or not , most cars are not all leather

In the Superb the areas where the seat will wear is all leather its just the headrests and the back of the seat which isnt , that said the quality of the leather isnt that good , its a case of you get what you pay for , i personally prefer alacantara/leather mix as well but with kids leather is very practical and easy to keep clean

Hmmm....leather or alcantara ? I`ll answer like this :

for my personal car, alcantara, and for my taxi, only leather. Because leather is the only material that is easy to clean if my customer has a little "accident" during the ride, if you know what I mean....

With leather seats, those "accidents" are easy to just wipe away, contrary to alcantara...

I have an SE and hence the alcantara/fake leather combo, the alcantara is lovely and really comfortable but I think the front side facings are fake leather and this isn't standing up particularly well - not much worse than cloth but I can already see signs of wear on it. If the leather option is the whole front of the seat I'd reckon it'll last better.

Alcantara will not burn your bum on sunny days or freeze it on cold days (untill the heated seats kick in)! I do prefer it to leather. The sides and back of both types of the seats are fake.