Sof Tex or Leather?

I have recently purchased a 2016 Limited, with what I thought had leather seats. How can I tell the difference between the two. I want to get cleaner and conditioner for them, but would like to determine what I am actually cleaning. Thank you all in advance. Don

 

Thank you.

 

Limited should be real leather.

Softex is what my 2018 TRD Offroad Premium has and is nice, I'm curious to how long it will last though.

 

For the softex, water with a drop of dawn dish soap works great for clean up. The lanolin in the soap is a great "preservative" for the vinyl.

 

cloth seats wear out because of dirt getting into the fibers and then it breaks down the cloth.
the softex is a synthetic leather and I was just at dealership last week the leather seats are much harder stiffer then the softex. also I have had this softex for 2.5yrs easy to clean and so far durable .

I do have leather seats on my 1996 and 2000 GM vehicles . leather is still looking good but I put on the leather cleaner then conditioner .. the leather also has a water based dye on it so over time it will wear down .. I purchased dye and applied it to the seat area that got worn .. the leather did not crack or split still soft because of the conditioner .

 

If I'm not mistaken the recommended cleaning method for SofTex seats (according to the owner's manual) is 1 part wool cleaner (Woolite, I believe) to 10 parts water.

I'd have to look it up again to verify...

 

I learned this "tip" from an old guy that re-upholstered a chair for me. He's had a vinyl biz for decades. Figured he knows what he's talking about. He said the lanolin will keep vinyl looking new for many years. And it only takes a drop of soap in a bucket to provide the lanolin.

Kind of anecdotal, but it can't hurt anything.

 

Pretty sure it says just use water. I'd have to look again to verify...

 

My opinion-- leather will resist punctures and snags better. But as far as appearance goes, I bet the softex will look almost new after 10 years, while the leather will look worn. Just a guess. We will see.

 

The softex feels thin to me. Like, if you poked it with a mechanical pencil it'll put a hole in it. The leather feels a little thicker and more resistant in that regard and not as stretchy.

 

Page 341, depends upon what is being cleaned...

 

If needed I do use some dish soap spray it on a soft cloth and then use a wet cloth to wipe it down .. material does not absorb most stuff.. leather does so this softex is stronger on stains. leather is better if it gets stabbed .. thicker material but the dye does wear out over time .

 

So far I like the softex in my new to me Pro. Seems like it should last longer than leather and I know it will require much less maintenance than leather does.

 

One of the reasons I bought my 2018 ORP was because of the non leather seats. I am committed to doing my part to reduce the use of animals for superfluous purposes like this, since it’s totally unnecessary. That skin you’re sitting on was once a living creature that lived and breathed just we do.

 

I had a wonderful venison roast tonight. Yummm

 

We eat venison, don't buy ground beef. Why would a cow that has been ate miss its skin, to me it seems like a positive they are using all of a cow they can.

 

Yeah, it’s a pretty gruesome industry and is a significant contributor to climate change. Every individual can make the choice, it’s a free country. I do what I can to make the world a better place.

 

Wrong place for you to judge. If somebody wants leather get it. My wife's acura has very nice leather seats. We aren't making the world a worse place.

 

Haha, no judgement intended 2016Pro, life is full of choices. Leather’s not illegal, it’s a choice.

 

Climate change has been a constant presence in the history of the earth. Climactic shifts, often fast and destructive, altered ecosystems and caused extinctions a long time before humans enjoyed the freedom of the internal combustion engine. The idea that we can really tweak the climate, as if adjusting a thermostat, is the height of human arrogance. While our behavior may be responsible for very minor changes, it is absurd to think that we can actually undo or re-write the evolution of a planet.

P.S. Yes, I agree that it's a gruesome industry. I have no problem paying more (and I do) for humanely farmed meat and eggs, etc.

 

Hey Mass4runner, your choice of a softex interior produced fewer greenhouse emissions to produce, according to Toyota. A lot of environmental choices like that are win-wins. A greener choice and a superior product.

 

Toyota says it's a superior product. I have heard that it doesn't breathe as well as leather (I have cloth).

 

I’ve found softex to be good. Time will tell.

 

I prefer my meat organic - deer, hogs and wild Turkey i harvest. No steroids, antibiotics in any of them.

 

Wrong.

Quite the opposite, actually. It's extremely arrogant to think we can't have an impact on climate.

While science isn't very good at conclusively proving something like climate change, it does a very good job at disproving things like the null hypothesis of climate change......that anthropogenic CO2 will not have an influence on climate.

It's a fact that CO2 in the atmosphere has increased 40% since the Industrial Revolution. It's also a fact that CO2 is a greenhouse gas. Physics tells us that a doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere will yield a 1.2* increase in the planets surface temperature. Therefore, the null hypothesis is disproven.

You can argue all day long how an increase in CO2 will interact with the Earths complex system of interrelated energy flows and the types of far out predictions made about how climate change will impact the planet, but you can't argue that humans are incapable of having an influence on climate since that's already been disproven.

 

Climate change has zero to do with man and has been going on for eons. My humble opinion.

 

Softex --> leather --> cows --> CO2 --> global warming debate. I didn't see that coming.

 

Back on topic, which is 4Runners.....I have cloth but my second choice would have been softex only for the ease of taking care of it. My next mod is going to be Carhartt seat covers.

 

Have the softex and the Carhartts and I like both of them.

Also setting in my brand new Leather Lazy boy, having no regrets! Have lots of leather, think someone is a little overboard!

Shouldn't someone that believes leather causes Global Warming also be a vegetarian?