# If you like leather, best get your Cruze now...



## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

For 2019, they are _entirely deleting leather_. 

Yep. They literally spent money to develop/create a new seat cover entirely out of leatherette, to delete the leather. One hopes there is a cost decrease, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

That said, if we were in need of a new vehicle for my wife, the 2019 Cruze Diesel Hatch is off the list. Granted, most seats are part vinyl (leatherette - generally on the sides, back and headrests) and part leather (the "seating surface" - inserts, and bolsters, and usually the upper backrest) - it's that seating surface I'm looking to be leather, not vinyl.

So, if you want leather - get your 2018 (or previous year) Cruze before they're gone.

http://gmauthority.com/blog/2018/06/what-is-new-for-the-2019-cruze


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## jmlo96 (May 2, 2015)

When I first saw this I immediately thought of the Spark/Aveo. They used to come with "Leatherette." It looks like the de-contentented the crap out of the Cruze for next year. I'm sure they didn't adjust the price accordingly either :mob:.


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## Cruzen18 (Jan 28, 2018)

jmlo96 said:


> When I first saw this I immediately thought of the Spark/Aveo. They used to come with "Leatherette." It looks like the de-contentented the crap out of the Cruze for next year. I'm sure they didn't adjust the price accordingly either :mob:.



but, but, but...we didn't RAISE the price will be the company line...you know just like all other product lines that CUT package sizes and keep the price the same.


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## SilverCruzer (Nov 30, 2010)

Sounds like those Chic Fil a cows have moved on to new campaigns.


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

Wat. The Cruze Premier is already massively overpriced anyway. The seats in mine are certainly not comfy Volvo seats, but **** they're comfortable and surprisingly nice for the class of car.

Looks like they're decontenting a lot of the GOOD stuff like they did with the Gen 1/2015 refresh (leather wrapped steering wheel vs the cheap plastic one), for a handful of "new" features. Blah.


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

Well, the leather steering wheel is still going to be available. And our 2014 has one, not sure what you mean by the 2015 refresh comment?

They did something similar for the 2018 Volt - in '16 and '17, the LT comes with a leather-wrapped wheel and shifter, no matter what (meaning, it's a standard feature, the Volt only has LT and Premier trim levels). But for 2018, those require the leather package, and you get the cheap eurethane wheel and plastic shift knob instead. No thanks.


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

MP81 said:


> Well, the leather steering wheel is still going to be available. And our 2014 has one, not sure what you mean by the 2015 refresh comment?
> 
> They did something similar for the 2018 Volt - in '16 and '17, the LT comes with a leather-wrapped wheel and shifter, no matter what (meaning, it's a standard feature, the Volt only has LT and Premier trim levels). But for 2018, those require the leather package, and you get the cheap eurethane wheel and plastic shift knob instead. No thanks.


They did the same with the '15 refresh - basically, decontenting the lower trim levels. The LS/1LT Cruzes used to be very nicely appointed, and then they gradually cheapened little things like that over the years.


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

Oh, okay - so the same bullshit they're pulling now. Aside from entirely removing leather even on the upper trims. That one is puzzling.


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## pontiacgt (Jan 12, 2011)

No surprise. Most luxury cars have leatherette on base and first trim models. Most people can't even tell them apart. I like the leather but really i would rather have cloth with heated seats. but when you get the top model they think everyone wants leather. Its funny though, vinyl/leathereate was considered the low cost interior and cloth was the upgrade. Now cloth is the low cost and leathereate is the upgrade.


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

Well, vinyl used to also be a lot shittier, too - generally very little or no grain at all. I know when I get the top model, I sure as **** want leather.


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## HBCRUZE2017 (Jan 25, 2018)

lol its a cruze not an impala i dont even want leather in my camaro ss


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## Eddy Cruze (Jan 10, 2014)

I grew up on Pleather in the Charger & Challenger. Long live the 70s!


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

HBCRUZE2017 said:


> lol its a cruze not an impala i dont even want leather in my camaro ss


That is a personal preference then - and you can get one without leather.

Many, many, _many_ people want leather, no matter what car it is. I have leather in my Cobalt, we have leather in the Cruze, and I have leather in my Volt. We'd want leather again, if we were to purchase a new car.


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## blackbird (Nov 6, 2017)

There are some very nice vinyl "leatherette" in new luxury cars that breathes well and the material has better wear characteristics than real leather. With that said, I doubt GM is going to use the best possible vinyl material on an economy car.

I'd usually prefer cloth but GM has a long-standing problem on economy cars of using pretty poor quality materials that looks bad, doesn't wear well, or a combination or the two. When the choice is a thin, ugly cloth I don't mind the leather upgrade so much.

There's already a lot of cost cutting things that bug me on the 2nd gen Cruze and with the downturn in sales it looks like GM is going to milk the car for what they can and try to maximize profits at the expense of the nameplate. They've done this too many times to count in the past and it's why a lot of the general public doesn't regard Chevys as highly as imports. When fresh and well executed the products may compete fairly well, but then GM (and Ford for that matter) strings cars along well past their best-by date, de-contents them and ruins their reputation.


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## SilverCruzer (Nov 30, 2010)

blackbird said:


> There's already a lot of cost cutting things that bug me on the 2nd gen Cruze ...


Some of that might be cost cutting, but much of it has to do with weight for fuel efficiency. I have owned both generations, and was a bit shocked the first time I sat in a second gen noticing the thinner lighter seats, cheaper ceiling, thinner control levers, etc etc. 
However...what I also noticed is that I get 44 mpg on my commute driving around 73 mph with gen 2, and my previous gen 1 I would get 38 mpg driving 69 mph. GM really needs better mileage from its cars to offset the trucks. Something else I noticed is that after a year and 26K, the "cheaper" interior build really hasn't been an issue. Will wait and see.


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

I think part of it was intentional to upsell the Premier model (which they then priced people out of). The Premier feels like a big step up in material quality...getting rid of the weird cloth on the dash/doors that was carryover from the Gen 1, as well as the radio surround being a nicer color that blends in more with the interior (and they made that even more of a "cheap" color for the LS).

Step up to the Kalahari interior on a Premier, and it's among the nicest interiors in the class of car.


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

jblackburn said:


> I think part of it was intentional to upsell the Premier model (which they then priced people out of). The Premier feels like a big step up in material quality...getting rid of the weird cloth on the dash/doors that was carryover from the Gen 1, as well as the radio surround being a nicer color that blends in more with the interior (and they made that even more of a "cheap" color for the LS).
> 
> Step up to the Kalahari interior on a Premier, and it's among the nicest interiors in the class of car.


It _was _- now it won't have real leather.


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## pontiacgt (Jan 12, 2011)

I have the Kalahari leather in mine and its nice but to be honest if you look at the head rest and that is vinyl and the seat that is leather you really cannot tell a difference. It looks and feels the same. Same with the sides of the seat the are vinyl. Its synthetic leather in theory and is easy to take care and acts the same in hot and cold. I think this is why you are seeing the leathereate in luxury cars because it looks and feels like leather. A recent story in Motortrend, when they were comparing the ATS Coupe to a Mustang for coupe comparison, the leathereate in the ATS looked and feeled like leather and better than the leather in the Mustang.


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## HBCRUZE2017 (Jan 25, 2018)

i work in the auto interior field and most of these new vinyls are way better than real leathers...also they are easier to clean and take care of. With vinyl you can literally take some simple green and water and wipe them down but with leather you have to clean and condition it because its an actually animal skin not a manmade material lol i try to talk people out of leather every day even though its like an extra $500 or so per order i take


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## jmlo96 (May 2, 2015)

HBCRUZE2017 said:


> i work in the auto interior field and most of these new vinyls are way better than real leathers...also they are easier to clean and take care of. With vinyl you can literally take some simple green and water and wipe them down but with leather you have to clean and condition it because its an actually animal skin not a manmade material lol i try to talk people out of leather every day even though its like an extra $500 or so per order i take


I can't say I disagree with you. I'm a big fan of Toyota SoftTex and Mercedes MBTex. I detail a lot of cars with leather on the side they just don't hold up well if you don't maintain them. 

The issue is the typical GM cost cutting. They think their customers are stupid and won't notice but they will charge the same price or more.


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

I worked in interior perceived quality for years - we did many evaluations, and a lot of the luxury cars with even the high-quality vinyl lost points for having an ingenuine material. 

It's real easy to tell, if you know what to look for, if it's real or not. Yes, you have to take care of it, but you have to take care of a car in general, so...it's not like it's anything new.


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## pontiacgt (Jan 12, 2011)

They think their customers are stupid and won't notice but they will charge the same price or more.[/QUOTE]

No different than any other manufactures customer. I bet if you ask a person what leathereate was and they most likely will say it was leather. It looks and feels the same.


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## blackbird (Nov 6, 2017)

SilverCruzer said:


> Some of that might be cost cutting, but much of it has to do with weight for fuel efficiency. I have owned both generations, and was a bit shocked the first time I sat in a second gen noticing the thinner lighter seats, cheaper ceiling, thinner control levers, etc etc.
> However...what I also noticed is that I get 44 mpg on my commute driving around 73 mph with gen 2, and my previous gen 1 I would get 38 mpg driving 69 mph. GM really needs better mileage from its cars to offset the trucks. Something else I noticed is that after a year and 26K, the "cheaper" interior build really hasn't been an issue. Will wait and see.


I initially thought weight reduction was a good explanation and I'm sure some choices were made to bring the weight down, but if you sit in an Equinox built on essentially the same chassis it still has the nicer cloth-type headliner that the previous get Cruze had along with nicer trim pieces and the transaction prices aren't much more than what GM wants for sticker on the Cruze.

For some other specific parts, I'm also not a fan of the newer control stalks. They work ok but I don't like the intermittent/delay switch placement on my stalk with the rear wiper switch and they look and feel a lot cheaper than the previous gen pieces. I'd complain of cost cutting, but I saw the same stalks in a new $41k Regal TourX yesterday.

I know Cadillac under their now-departed president Johan de Nysschen complained about Chevy models using the same control stalks and "de-valuing" Cadillac, so part of me wonders if that factored into the downgrade. In the early '00s the VW group made a big marketing push to show they used the same controls and switchgear on their Jetta that they did on higher end brands but when GM does the same it reflects poor on Cadillac and not being a good thing for Chevy.


The second gen Premier and models with leather do look nice but so did higher-end first gen models. I really like the tan leather, brown trim interior on my '14 Cruze TD. The kalahari (brown) and black on the second gen also looks great. My problem, or should I say concern with the second gen cars is that they _look_ fresher from a design standpoint with the corporate dash but the materials, fit and finish didn't really improve. Both generations seem screwed together reasonably well as far as noise,vibration and harshness (NVH) but the finishes are about the same and trim still doesn't align great in some spots, there's still a lot of bad reflections from cheap plastic chrome, etc.

I know this thread is about the change to vinyl next year so not to get too far off on a tangent, my biggest cost cutting pet peeves coming from a first gen diesel to a second gen diesel with leather package has been the loss of the auto-up driver window, removal of the auto-dimming rearview mirror, CD player, and less power outlets. There's also some design choices that bug me like the door pockets that take a contortionist to reach into while driving and moving the USB port to the dash from the center console so I can't leave an iPod plugged in without risk of it being stolen.


There's also a lot of things I like, especially with the chassis and powertrain. We have a modicum of steering feel now, especially on the RS package with 18" performance all-season tires (although it still doesn't want to self-center and load up correctly mid-turn). I also really like the new 1.6L diesel for drivability and power delivery. But it's like GM went to their usually focus groups when designing the 2nd gen car and spec'd out things to get people in the door at the dealer and optioning cars to look good on the showroom floor but feel like they cheapened out once you live with the car.

It's the same for a lot of automakers in the economy car segment but others do a better job on their base model cars and also seem to take greater consideration of long-term ownership satisfaction and not just getting the sale.


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## thebac (Jul 29, 2017)

Katzkin will just get more business if GM goes this route. We're going "back to the '70s", where vinyl was the base trim and cloth was the upscale. Trends do have a habit of "coming back around", but never thought this would be one of them.


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## spaycace (Feb 9, 2012)

There's always Katzkin leather interiors ... that way you can customize your seats to an extent ... and probably for a lot less than the $1,200 option for factory leather, with better quality


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## IPhantom (Aug 22, 2017)

OK maybe i got this wrong, but shouldn't they *upgrade* every year to keep the crowd interested - especially with decreasing sales - NOT *downgrade*?!
Now they not only made it uglier, they also turned it into a communists car. Sounds similar to the Chinese model options. Which has exactly 6 trim levels, no options at all. Why not just build them all the same and save even more?
And this is only what they tell you they deleted - god knows what happend underneath. Not very convincing.
Good bye GM, will not buy again.


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## 91794 (Mar 25, 2015)

Boycotting gm because people in China love GM and buy lots of cars and influence trim levels? But how happy are you they eliminated that silly redline edition, comrade?

Good riddance leather. Find a way to render the cows into manual transmissions instead.

Otoh, The 17 lt black leather looks great, reminds me of 05 gto black leather, the most comfortable car seats ever.


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## KenH (Aug 27, 2017)

To many it won't matter... It will look like the high end model, with leather.
Their unkowing neighbors will still be impressed.... and that's the point for many buyers.


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## Taxman (Aug 10, 2017)

thebac said:


> We're going "back to the '70s", where vinyl was the base trim and cloth was the upscale.


That was my opinion of the Spark EV, came in LT1 cloth and LT2 leatherette/vinyl. I consider the LT1 to be the top trim level, and it was $400 cheaper than the vinyl. 

The only vinyl I'd consider is MB Tex. That stuff can take 20 years of abuse far better than leather, the Tex requires no maintenance.


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## Neverender (Jan 1, 2018)

I've never cared enough about leather or leatherette to notice anything. Besides, living here, I much rather have cloth than anything else. It also feels more comfortable to me.


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