Limited owners, how's the alcantara holding up?
 

My experience when I was shopping around for a used BMW with alcantara steering wheels have me in doubt about alcantara. They all peeled after a few years and it was gross looking. Now that some of you have had your Limiteds for a while, how has it held up to use?

Would you say wearing jeans wear it down quicker?

Is it a mess if you get it wet (due to rain, not an uncontrollable bladder)?

While the alcantara isn't something that would keep me from going with a Limited, I'd just like to prepare myself :) If all goes according to plan, I could end up getting one in two weeks!

I have the 2nd oldest BRZ in the US and the alcantara is holding up pretty good. I have not done anything special to it except vacuum the car once a week.

The seats will be fine. I think the reason the steering wheels was gross is because it is touched by greasy or sweating hands. Your hand is never in the same position every single time either. You're always moving your hands all over the wheel. The seat, however, you sit and don't really slide around so it's not going to wear as much.

Jeans should be fine, unless you have many rivets or or studs on your pockets. I had a Evo IX and the seats looked damn near brand new when I sold it. There was slight wear on the leather portion, but the alcantara looked new

Got my Limited June 1st. That said, it only has 2,700 miles and drove it in the rain for the first time last week (I nearly cried it got so dirty!). My interior still looks like new - but again, not driven heavily. (3x per week). I don't see it being an issue, but if it does wear poorly, an upholstery shop can sew in some inserts for not much $$.

That's exactly what I was thinking. If my alcantara ever starts looking bad, it wouldn't be that big of a deal to have an upholstery shop replace it.

I've had alcantara seats in my cars since my first sti. It holds up really well. The alcantara in my brz has around 10k on it...looks brand new. I think the leather side bolsters will show wear far before the alcantara. I'm thinking about sending my steering wheel to be wrapped in the stuff actually.

Mines holding up well too.


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Yep, 8k miles since last August using her as a DD, and alcantara still looks like new. Even with getting in wet from rain, it doesn't ever get that damp/musty smell like some other car fabrics. But we'll see about that in a few years, I guess

2,200 miles on my limited since I bought it November 25th and the Alcantara still looks like new.

My seats definitely still look new after about 10K miles on it. It is daily driven but not long distances. What do you guys use to clean them?

10k miles since May. Seats are fine. 2 years in a spec.b prior to that, fine too.
However, alcantara seems to be eating the backpocket stitching in my jeans, lol.

70,000 miles on my 2008 STI with the grey alcantara/black leather seats and they still looked as fresh as when I picked it up with 37,000 miles on it.

The BRZ side bolsters definitely have me a bit more concerned about wear than the STI since there is an actual side bolster.

Here's a tip for helping prolong the life of your side bolster. When getting out of your car slide the seat back as far as you can. That way when you are getting in you're not rubbing your ass across the bolster as much since the seat is so far back. Of course this likely depends on factors like how large your ass is. :happy0180:

My ass is badonkalicious. :lol:


But honestly, I'm 5'8" and 145 lbs soaking wet.

seems the leather side bolsters on the side closest to the door is wearing more than the alcantara.... my ass is pretty big, lol.

10k miles on mine since May and the seats are fine. Bolsters are looking fine as well.

I was at the Philly Auto show and alcantara was part of the seats in a 300K super car (forget which one). So it must be good stuff!

I'm just over 4k mile and mine is holding up really well. Your experience with BMW steering wheels was primarily because peole didn't know how to properly clean and maintain alcantera as opposed to leather. Having owned a ZHP pkg car I can say that it does shed, but not to apoint I'd choose not to have a steering wheel in alcantera. Also, I might be wrong here, but I doubt that they used authentic alcantera in our cars. It's probably synthetic.

Not that I have any basis to disagree with you, but the thought of synthetic fake suede is funny to me.

Got my BRZ in May, I'm the only one that hates the seats... Alcantara is fine, but I have a lumbar support pillow and i use a sweater on top of that b/c the side bolsters are too small for my shoulders. I'm looking for a good upholsterer or parting out my drivers seat lol.

"Authentic" Alcantara is already synthetic.

Alcantara is a trademarked material, and yes it's "real" in the BRZ.

Real alcantara. Still a synthetic material.

68% Polyester, 32% polyurethane.

...that's why I put real in quotes. It was in reference to it being authentic Alcantara, which is indeed synthetic.

Maybe but there's certainly different grades of it.

its probably a solid 5 years too early to say how the interior is gonna hold up

That's for sure. Any comment before at least three years is insignificant to me.

I think you'll be ok. I've had mine since June and no problem. I've sat in a 2007 STI and the alacantra on it is pristine.

I just saw a kid's 2008 STi with about 60k on it. The Alcantara looked fine but the color was fading off the LH side leather bolster. I'd be more concerned about the leather than the Alcantara.

Agree with everything this ^ and I also had an Evo IX and the leather had some wear, but the alcantara looked almost perfect after 90K+ miles.

Chris

Another datapoint:

I had a 2004 STi and owned it from 2005 to 2011. The Alcantara on the seats didn't really wear much and I had a baby seat in the car a lived in VA where it got cold/muggy and we had snow and salt.

I wouldn't really worry about it. It's resilient stuff. I will echo what others said. Alcantara steering wheels will wear out and have to be recovered. Apparently the oils in our hands break it down. I was also told that if you have an Alcantara wheel you shouldn't use hand lotions or oils because they will work towards wearing down the wheel.

I'll still probably spend money on a suede or alcantara wheel. <nods head in the direction of jpmcoachworks>

lol....too funny. I have seven miles on mine and it's holding up great!!!!!!! :bonk:

In 2001, I buy an Opel Astra Linea Blue special edition with *real* or true alcantara (it's a registered trade brand). I sold it to my brother, he keeps the car for more than six or seven years (about 160000 km) and alcantara was still fine. Alcantara does not peal off but it is very sensitive to oil and grease.

I really enjoy leather and alcantara seats. I even prefer this combination because seats have better grip.

Had alacantara in my Mazdaspeed 3. Held up perfectly for 3 years and 50K miles.

i'm an audi guy and i have been around many different generations of audi's. they have been offering alcantara in their cars since 2000 in the us (originally in the b5 s4). The stuff holds up well, but it will definitely age. like some people said, its never going to be too expensive to just have the seats re-done, but for those of you that would rather maintain it, there are some pretty simple steps that i follow that get the job done pretty nicely.

the stuff will start to look "loose" if that makes sense. the material won't look as tightly woven and eventually it will start to "pil" up. thats when the material starts bunching up like an old rug or couch. all you need is a fabric shaver (you can buy one online or at any fabric shop) and a mach 3 razor to do a fine shave afterwards. to clean alcantara, all you need is a warm damp rag, but what us audi guys have figured out is that a magic clean eraser dipped into a very diluted solution of water and dish soap works extremely well. its pretty easy to maintain, but it won't look new forever.

i could be wrong though, i don't know if they have updated the material over the years. my experience comes from the stuff that was made between 99-02.

** be VERY careful about the detergents you use to clean alcantara. i have seen threads where guys have used "specifically for alcantara" type cleaners that have accelerated the wear of their seats and made the weave not as "tight" as it used to be. my recommendation is just use a damp rag. if you have oils or heavy stains, just be careful. most upholstery cleaners should not be used on alcantara.

I've had several cars with Alcantara. From my experience it has help up amazingly over time. Granted, I never kept the cars past 60k miles, but it hold up much better than leather, and even other cloths.

I'd be interested to hear about how your Alcantara seats are holding up now.

Wow! This must've been one of my very first posts :P I ended up getting the Limited a month after my original post and I'm happy to say the alcantara has held up very nicely. I haven't even washed it or scrubbed it even though I bought the tools two years ago lol. I mainly wear hospital scrubs, so the wear is minimal imo.

My seats are holding up perfectly. They would absolutely look brand new if it weren't for the left side seat bolsters getting creases and little scuffs on them from getting in and out of the car.

12K miles on mine. Alcantara is fine. Now, the leather on the other hand...