# Fake leather or cloth + scotchgaurd



## EaglesFan (Mar 10, 2015)

I'm about to buy a 3 year old car mostly for personal use but I also drive Uber part time. I generally drive cars till they die or close to die so I plan to own this for 10+ years. I see 2 cars that are roughly identical but car 1 has fake leather seats and a few other features for $1k more. Car 2 has cloth seats and 15k less miles. Obviously car 2 makes more economic sense but my one fear since I do sometimes drive bar hours is that some drunk is going to spill something or worse yet barf on the seats and I get stuck with a stain that never comes out and smells bad for the next 9 years I own the car. BTW I do plan to use weather tech floor liners. Also have tried seat covers in the past but found they don't fit well, look cheap, and don't completely cover the fabric unless you block off access to the seat belt receptacles. So my questions are:

1) Has anyone used Scotchgaurd on cloth seats? How well does it protect the seats when a spill happens?

2) Which car would you go with?

Thanks


PS before anyone tells me to buy a beater this is not my full time job, I currently own a 14 year old beater that cost me a lot of money in maintenance and I need something more reliable and to maintain my sanity.


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## Iann (Oct 17, 2017)

By the car with the cloth seats with the lower miles. 

Buy a set of vinyl/leather seat covers off ebay that are oem. 

Now you have the same car but with lower miles.


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## kingcorey321 (May 20, 2018)

i use leather conditioner and protection on my couch. spill food or the dogs sleep on it couch still looks brand new.
when im done with my couches 3 or 4 years later i give them away somebody usually wants them to use for them self still looking new .

https://www.homedepot.com/p/8-oz-Ge...JsPjrSd2GyqEBEQZ56EaAg9XEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.dsi love leather at home in a car its not good. you first jump in its HOTTTT. you sit on it for 4 or so hours the body heat gets trapped you will start to burn up ! there is no relief even with the air on the heat is trapped hot ass hot back . do not buy leather


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## Cold Fusion (Aug 28, 2019)

Scotch guard & cloth seats were Never meant for ride share. Cloth seats convey amateur working poor driver

faux leather or $50 rear seat cover (the smartest $50 you'll ever spend) Especially with Uber phasing-out driver cleaning fees.

?for the Professional Working Poor driver ✔


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## doyousensehumor (Apr 13, 2015)

EaglesFan said:


> 1) Has anyone used Scotchgaurd on cloth seats? How well does it protect the seats when a spill happens?


I used a very similar product from the 303 line. And yeah, water can beat up on it, but honestly didn't do much for actual messes. Also when you first apply it it took 3/4 days before the paint smell went away. I would keep it simple if I were you. do you do days and nights? How often do you drive for Uber


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

EaglesFan said:


> I'm about to buy a 3 year old car mostly for personal use but I also drive Uber part time. I generally drive cars till they die or close to die so I plan to own this for 10+ years. I see 2 cars that are roughly identical but car 1 has fake leather seats and a few other features for $1k more. Car 2 has cloth seats and 15k less miles. Obviously car 2 makes more economic sense but my one fear since I do sometimes drive bar hours is that some drunk is going to spill something or worse yet barf on the seats and I get stuck with a stain that never comes out and smells bad for the next 9 years I own the car. BTW I do plan to use weather tech floor liners. Also have tried seat covers in the past but found they don't fit well, look cheap, and don't completely cover the fabric unless you block off access to the seat belt receptacles. So my questions are:
> 
> 1) Has anyone used Scotchgaurd on cloth seats? How well does it protect the seats when a spill happens?
> 
> ...


seat covers & used seats are cheap.
Buy the lower mileage car !


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## Don't swim in pools (Sep 8, 2017)

EaglesFan said:


> I'm about to buy a 3 year old car mostly for personal use but I also drive Uber part time. I generally drive cars till they die or close to die so I plan to own this for 10+ years. I see 2 cars that are roughly identical but car 1 has fake leather seats and a few other features for $1k more. Car 2 has cloth seats and 15k less miles. Obviously car 2 makes more economic sense but my one fear since I do sometimes drive bar hours is that some drunk is going to spill something or worse yet barf on the seats and I get stuck with a stain that never comes out and smells bad for the next 9 years I own the car. BTW I do plan to use weather tech floor liners. Also have tried seat covers in the past but found they don't fit well, look cheap, and don't completely cover the fabric unless you block off access to the seat belt receptacles. So my questions are:
> 
> 1) Has anyone used Scotchgaurd on cloth seats? How well does it protect the seats when a spill happens?
> 
> ...


Buy the cheaper car and have leather seats installed. 1k to 1.5k gets you some nice leather seats. Tips go up with leather as well but dont make that the only reason you get it. I I'll install leather in all my cars just cuz I like it, it doesnt hold odors and it's easy to clean liquids.


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## doyousensehumor (Apr 13, 2015)

Buy the cheaper car and find rear seat in leather for $100 or so


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## kingcorey321 (May 20, 2018)

buy a new seat as needed . most of them cost 75 to 250 very average i would say 100 . i used to repair used cars the seats were always burnt up from smokers adding new seats is only 2 to 4 bolts adds thousands to the value 
http://www.car-part.com


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## Stevie The magic Unicorn (Apr 3, 2018)

Don't go with cloth seats, they will get nasty quick and are impossible to clean.

Go with leather/pleather, vinyl, baby seal, leatherette ect.

The way to get the best of both worlds is to get vinyl seats and get a cloth seat cover for the driver seat.


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## EaglesFan (Mar 10, 2015)

Thank you all for the replies. I'll answer some of the questions you guys have and add some info



kingcorey321 said:


> buy a new seat as needed . most of them cost 75 to 250 very average i would say 100 . i used to repair used cars the seats were always burnt up from smokers adding new seats is only 2 to 4 bolts adds thousands to the value
> Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market


That's might be a good solution if the worst happens. Are front and back seats of 2016 Mazda 3 easy to remove also?

So the more expensive car I'm considering is a 2016 Mazda 3 S Touring. In addition to the fake leather seats it has a sunroof and a slightly more powerful engine and the dealership is a lot closer but I mostly cared about the seats. The cheaper one with less mileage is a 2016 Mazda 3 Sport.

My current beater car has leather seats and while agree cloth would be my preference if I was not doing Uber it is very easy to clean. I also briefly owned a 2016 Mazda 3 Sport with cloth seats for about a month until a senile old guy totaled it. It appears Mazda does not make rear seat covers for it and I bought one of those "universal" seat covers off eBay or amazon. Honestly it didn't fit perfectly, looked cheesy, slid a little bit and because the seat belt receptacles don't come out of the seat I had to leave a lot of the seat exposed to make them easy to access and prevent the covers from slider over them. So not saying covers don't have some value but not a perfect solution hence why I'm considering non cloth this time.

I like the idea of going with the cheaper car and replacing the seats if/ when needed. Wasn't aware it was that easy and inexpensive. The $1k price difference is what was listed online. I'll be calling them up tomorrow to see who negotiates. Depending on that I might go either way.

Also I drive very part time and gross about $6k a year. I'd say about 2/3 of that is at non-drinking hours and is mostly destination rides but I do drive the big nights of the year and some Saturday nights.


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## kingcorey321 (May 20, 2018)

EaglesFan said:


> Thank you all for the replies. I'll answer some of the questions you guys have and add some info
> 
> That's might be a good solution if the worst happens. Are front and back seats of 2016 Mazda 3 easy to remove also?
> 
> ...


4 bolts only . very easy . you may require to remove the carpet just pull up some plastic it has snaps .
honestly its very easy ,


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## Amos69 (May 17, 2019)

kingcorey321 said:


> 4 bolts only . very easy . you may require to remove the carpet just pull up some plastic it has snaps .
> honestly its very easy ,


I'll second this, and take it one further. Most cars have Meh or just OK drivers seats. It is fairly easy to take a great seat and put it in your car! A little research is necessary to source a seat with similar mount points, and around 90 minutes to instal.


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## VictorD (Apr 30, 2017)

EaglesFan said:


> I'm about to buy a 3 year old car mostly for personal use but I also drive Uber part time. I generally drive cars till they die or close to die so I plan to own this for 10+ years. I see 2 cars that are roughly identical but car 1 has fake leather seats and a few other features for $1k more. Car 2 has cloth seats and 15k less miles. Obviously car 2 makes more economic sense but my one fear since I do sometimes drive bar hours is that some drunk is going to spill something or worse yet barf on the seats and I get stuck with a stain that never comes out and smells bad for the next 9 years I own the car. BTW I do plan to use weather tech floor liners. Also have tried seat covers in the past but found they don't fit well, look cheap, and don't completely cover the fabric unless you block off access to the seat belt receptacles. So my questions are:
> 
> 1) Has anyone used Scotchgaurd on cloth seats? How well does it protect the seats when a spill happens?
> 
> ...


http://www.seatcoversunlimited.com/


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