Learned this from my local interior shop a few years back, according to them it was a production cost issue for most companies. Good leather is not cheap!
Uh-oh! Another novel! Lol!
Leather is sold by the square foot. But I can only purchase full hides.
Average hide is 45-50 sq.ft., but I've seen them as big as 80. (One F'n big cow!)
It takes 18 sq.ft. of leather to equal 1 linear yard of material. (54"x36")
When I order leather, I figure how much linear material I need, then convert that to square footage. The supplier then sends me the hides that get as close as possible to the total square footage that's required. It's always on the plus side of what I need.
I can get leather for $5.00/sq.ft., but I wouldn't offer any warranty on that cheap chit.
Good leather starts @ about $8.00-$10.00/sq.ft., but I've bought leather for $27.00/sq.ft.! (Includes burn tests & certifications for corporate aircraft)
The best leather comes from Northern Europe & Britain. Why?
For one, the environment. That colder climate helps the bovines produce thicker, stronger hides. The animals are raised specifically for their hides. Not like here, where leather is a by-product of the food industry.
And two, they do not use barbed wire for fencing. That's a North American cowboy thing. The fences in Northern Europe are made of stone, with many of them being the same ones that the Romans built. This helps to lessen any cuts/scars & provides a higher yield of useable leather per hide. Plus, they've been at this a hell of a lot longer than any of the North American tanneries. The one that I deal with has been in biz for over 400 years! I think that they've got this figured out!
So... if a 'very good' leather for auto's runs $12.00-$15.00/sq.ft., with an average sized hide of 50 sq.ft, the cost of one hide would be $600.00-$750.00/per. Plus tax.
50 sq.ft is the equivalent of about 2 & 2/3 linear yards. But there is much more waste with leather than man-made fabrics due to having to work around scars & natural flaws. And certain parts of the hide gets used for specific parts of an auto's seats. Figure that the amount of useable leather in that hide to be equal to 2.5 yards of a manufactured textile. Or less, depending on the hide.
That makes that leather worth $240.00-$300.00 per linear yard!
As opposed to a vinyl (to match) cost of $30.00-$40.00 per linear yard.
The advantages with leather though, is that it will last 3-5X longer than vinyl. Tough stuff.
And, leather mimics body heat within a few moments, + it breathes. This makes it warm in the winter & cooler in the summer than vinyl.
Plus you get that wonderful leather aroma! (Which is actually a manufactured smell. Without that added process, leather smells like death! Literally! Think...'Rendering Facility'. 'Slaughter House'! In aircraft, that smell is actually toned down, due to the amount of leather in that cabin, & the amount of time spent in that environment. Without that toning down, that smell can become overpowering after a while.)
Perforated leather is even more expensive. One more added process. But that perforation process can be only done 1/2 a hide @ a time. So that means more waste due to the sizes & shapes required for the parts of the seat where that perforated stuff is used.
To recover a set of buckets & a rear seat to match, in leather, just doing the faces, would require approx. 3 hides, with the rest in vinyl.
To do the same in all leather would require approx. 5 hides.
The difference in just the leather costs between choice 'A' or 'B' is $1200.00-$1500.00! And that's just for the leather.
Due to the costs of that leather, more time & care must be taken when patterning & stitching. Mistakes get very expensive, very quickly! So...that means more labor costs in time.
While the large auto manufacturers are getting a better price break, due to them being able to buy in mass quantities, the differences in the costs of vinyl & leather are still significant.
You can see why they opt towards the practice of just utilizing leather on the face of their seats.
