mrb321us

Leather seating these days is tacky compared to what manufacturers were installing in the 50's. Back then they talked about leather upholstry, because quality hides covered the entire seat, backside, and around the bottom; and you could smell the leather for years. Today OEM's are decontenting, or selling the customer less for more money, so they now talk about "leather seating surfaces," which means any surface that touches your body is a thin layer of leather while the rest is vinyl. This is how $150 "leather" chairs from Office Max are made, whereas a quality executive's $700 chair would be leather all 'round. I'm in the leather trade I can tell you that most of the leather used in vehicles today ( except Rolls and higer end Mercedes, etc.) is thin crap that doesn't stand up very well or match the durability of leather seats on a JetBlue airplane. I haven't seen the Ford King Ranch SuperDuty, but judging by the pics they may be using quality leather. But I bet they still install vinyl on the seat backside and around bottom sides -- because they can get away with it! Anyone interested in adding quality leather seating to their rig would be well advised to forgo the overpriced factory option and find a reliable aftermarket auto upholsterer and order hide samples from one of the better leather stockists advertising in Hemmings Motor News. That way you can select top grade hides tanned to auto or aircraft upholstry specs which will last and smell good for a long time.