Experience of Leather/Alcantara heated seats in Polo

[wellsy]

Hi,
I am about to order a new polo (77 TSI with DSG) for my wife (and eventually to be passed on to my daughter) - I am keen to know what the alcantara/leather seat option is like - does anyone have it? (no dealers in melbourne have a stock vehicle with that option at the moment). We have a Golf GTI Mark V, with leather seats - however my wife thinks they are too hard, and that the side bolstering on the base and seat backs is too severe - am interested to know if I chose the leather option in the polo - will the seats be just like the GTI's or are they slightly different.
If anyone in Melbourne has these seats in their polo - can produce a nice bottle of wine if they are prepared to make them available for a 5 minute sit!!! (we will come to you).
Cheers!!!

[ATYPIC]

Hi,
I am about to order a new polo (77 TSI with DSG) for my wife (and eventually to be passed on to my daughter) - I am keen to know what the alcantara/leather seat option is like - does anyone have it? (no dealers in melbourne have a stock vehicle with that option at the moment). We have a Golf GTI Mark V, with leather seats - however my wife thinks they are too hard, and that the side bolstering on the base and seat backs is too severe - am interested to know if I chose the leather option in the polo - will the seats be just like the GTI's or are they slightly different.
If anyone in Melbourne has these seats in their polo - can produce a nice bottle of wine if they are prepared to make them available for a 5 minute sit!!! (we will come to you).
Cheers!!!

I have them and don't mind them at all. Heating option is good in winter. If you want to drive to Collingwood you can inspect them or if you can wait until this coming sunday I'll come for drive to Sandy.

Regarding the bolstering, I cannot comment too much there as its a subjective and personal matter plus I have a bad back so I feel uncomfortable in any seat.

[gavs]

Polo GTI runs nigh on identical seats to the Golf GTI and I believe the same can be said about the pleather seats, judging from the VW website. In the GTI, you loose out on bolstering of the seats when you tick the pleather option over the standard, jacky tartan seats but in the 77TSI, you will probably luck in and get better bolstering, in regards to comfort, there's only one way to find that out and I can't help out with that, ATYPIC can though

[wellsy]

Thanks for your kind offer ATYPIC, have left private message here for you to arrange further contact.
Cheers!!

[William_Foster]

There has been a lot of negativity regarding the upgraded seats in a number of forums, i.e. fake leather; but I have found them to be brilliant so far. As mentioned by ATYPIC, the heated seats are great value on a cold Tassie morning; and they heat your lower back as well.

[Hurricane]

[QUOTE=the heated seats are great value on a cold Tassie morning; and they heat your lower back as well.[/QUOTE]

And they heat well the bum as well . They are the best seats I've sat on in any car! Worth every cent. Great support. They just feel great.

I love them!

[mr_bzr]

Don't get why people are negative about alcantara seating calling it fake leather etc. VW or any other manufacturer for that matter never advertise them as real leather seats.

Super factories on discovery channel when touring the Lamborghini factory talk about the development of Alcantara as an alternative to leather for sports cars and the need for weight reduction as it is significantly lighter than real leather.

Personally I like the cloth seats because I ordered a GTI and I think the patter on it is most unique. On other cars though it is all personal preference, if anything the alcantara would be easier to clean? spills would wipe off compared to soaking in i think....

my 2 cents

[GTI mk6]

I thought the Alcantara part was the 'suede like' insert and the rest was leatherette due to the way it's always written as Alcantara / leatherette upholstery?
Love the heated seats too, (have them in Golf) especially the warmth on lower back region-both suffer lower back pain, main reason for this option in the yet to be conceived Polo.

Noticed on VW NZ website, they list this option as Alcantara/leather (not leatherette) @ a cost of $2500 for GTi or $4000 for comfortline models, all options are more expensive there though, at least they have the 17" Detroits ($400) would have def. gone with this option had it been available here!
Dealerships may not advertise these seats as real leather, but they were written in my contract as leather upholstery package?
Great to hear those of you who have really like them, as we still haven't seen them in the flesh, so ordered sight unseen.....like most options on the Polo due to lack of spec'd up dealership demos

[Smacca]

Polo GTI runs nigh on identical seats to the Golf GTI

Are they really that similar? I was of the impression the Golf GTI's seats had more bolstering and were much more supportive than the Polo GTI. The Golf's seem to feel more "aggressive" in the way they hold you, but that's only from a very quick comparison. If the Polo does has the same seats, then sweeeeet!

[gavs]

Well, when I was originally at the dealershpi, they felt identical and looked identical, the mechanics might be different though.

The leather in many cars these days (well, other than cars like aston martin, bentley etc) is the thinnest of thin coats over a fabric backing, hence why it splits apart and rips so easily so you can't really call it leather. Alcantara is fully synthetic but is super grippy and lightweight, hence why they use it to upholster many supercars

I bag the "pleather" because of the way the leather is made, it's not real leather, it's a synthetic composite leather that is made cheap and nasty, that's all. Not having a go at anyone who orders it because damn those heated seats are nice

[Tsuku]

Are they really that similar? I was of the impression the Golf GTI's seats had more bolstering and were much more supportive than the Polo GTI. The Golf's seem to feel more "aggressive" in the way they hold you, but that's only from a very quick comparison. If the Polo does has the same seats, then sweeeeet!

The Golf does indeed have different seats than the Polo and they are far more aggressive, as you say. That's my biggest problem with the Polo, the seats are nowhere as supportive (for my body atleast) as they look. I wish it had seats like the Focus ST (XR5 Turbo over there), those really hug you tight.

Golf GTI:


Polo GTI:

[Lima]

I had this very car as a loan car from Lennock Volkswagen a couple of months back and the heated alcantara seats were really good. Heated seats are definitely required in Canberra for full leather. I was surprised how well the heating worked on the alcantara as well.

[LRich]

I absolutely love my heated seats, don't think I'd buy a car without them now.. Atypic- I'm in Mentone if you want to try them out..

[LRich]

I absolutely love my heated seats, don't think I'd buy a car without them now.. I'm in Mentone if you want to try them out..

[LRich]

Sorry that was for wellsy, not atypic, got a bit confused! Stupid Monday brain...