So to the cheeze burger eating Porsche drivers on here.

How does Alcantera stand up to use?

Does it wear really well?
Does it clean up ok if you get something on it like food or wear from greasy sweaty hands at the track if it was on a steering wheel?

Thanks so much

 

I was just about to post the very same question when I saw this...

 

Yeah me too... I could really see it standing up well in areas you do not touch but not so well for the things you do.

I was thinking it would be nice feeling on a wheel, but not wears so well. Even a perforated leather on a wheel might not be a good idea.

Think I will end up going full no perf leather and carbon on the S wheel I want.

 

From my experience it's generally pretty good. There are different quality's like any other fabric. But I will say the sun makes it fade as far as color. So try to protect with tint and minimum direct sunlight. Lastly on steering wheels shifters it will ball up but that's with anything other than smooth leather.

Cheers

 

I don't eat cheese burger in my car so I don't know how well they're being cleaned. One thing that I can tell you is the Alcantara steering wheel feels so well with your hands; I haven't been using my driving gloves since it was installed a few months ago, even in the cold weather.

 

yeah, no Carl's Jr.!

 

I am wondering this too. I am thinking it is best left to the roof liner. Even though it looks good, I'm guessing it collects lint on other surfaces and the shifter/wheel would be exposed to too much wear, dirt, and sweat

 

Dont know about cleanup, but it is surprisingly wear resistant, imo...

 

Well a few thoughts on this. First off Alcantara is to micro sueded as glad is to trash bags. A well known name and a good product, but not the only game in town. You will pay a premium for Alcantara and with some research you will find other makers like Ultrasuede makes the same product with a better double rub rating and better color selection and price. For alcatara or other micro suedes make sure to get proper backed stuff with over a 200000 double rub rating. In fact you will find countless interior parts manufacturers using the name "Alcantara" to describe another brand of micro suede.

As for wear, it wears worse than leather and better than tennis shoes. Stay away from light colors and do not use it on things you always have your hands on. It can be cleaned carefully with Mr Clean sponges and a vacuum to removed excess moisture. The pilling can be removed with a sweater/fabric shaver.

 

i think it's cheap sh*t. i had boots made out of it when i was a kid. hey hey we're the monkee's.

 

Stick with leather, alcantera will not last long.
My old BMW came with an alcantera steering wheel, it ended up look like a bald beaver. I ended up replacing it with standard oem leather M3 steering wheel.

 

On steering wheels it soaks up oils from hands and gets gross. On seats it pills up like a cashmere sweater from rubbing on entry/exit. BMW was nice enough to replace the disgusting alcantara steering wheel on my BMW at 33k with a month of warranty remaining. 5 years/50k miles later the replacement leather wheel looks like new. I need to do gymnastics getting in&out of the car to avoid touching the alcantara side bolsters.

If you never touch it then it's very nice!

 

Here's the math. Animal skin that is the source of leather is too thick. The skin is split in two. The top grain leather is the upper layer of the animal skin and is "tanned" and dyed using several various methods. Analine being the best (drum dyed or spray dyed being the other less expensive methods). The bottom layer (or split) is made either into "bonded leather" (heat rolled with a pattern to give the impression of being the top layer) or to make to make suede. Suede does work very well on wear surfaces like seating as it tends to loose it nap and mat down with. Alcantera is a synthetic version of suede. Alcantra was developed to have the look of suede without the matting issues. Unfortunately it doesn't work as well as planned. It is no more expensive to make than any other cloth seating material so the price premium is unjustified. Porsche typically uses top grain leather for it's seating. Porsche uses alcantra as an alternative to leather were its smooth surface is less than a perfect solution, but were plain cloth would be considered "cheap" looking. MBZ also uses top grain as an upgrade to the standard MBTEX. BMW uses bonded leather as an upgrade in its 1 and 3 series cars/SUV and top grain in the 5 and up series. Japanese and American manufacturers vary depending on model and cost.

 

I have never had or wanted Alcantera in a car and so much of this sums up what I always thought about it. Head liner sure, seats and such not my thing. I really do like a top gain leather.

 

im going to do my dash where the leather crinkled up from the sun , im replacing that with alcantara....