Tesla Unveils Vegan-Friendly Car

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It seems that Tesla has knuckled under to the pressure from vegans demanding the company offer non-leather interior options. The company now offers an option for synthetic leather seats or, as we used to call it in the old days, pleather.

One proposal called for the company to stop using animal-based products, the other aimed to decrease the use of the products over time. “We find that customers enjoy both leather and nonleather options for their Teslas,” Khobi Brooklyn, a company spokeswoman, tells the NYT. “We are committed to giving customers the ability to build the Tesla that meets their needs and lifestyle choices.”
 
I utterly despise leather seats. They're too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter, and they age badly.

The only thing that belongs even less in a car than leather is wood.
 
M76 said:
I utterly despise leather seats. They're too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter, and they age badly.

The only thing that belongs even less in a car than leather is wood.
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Agreed. I find a nice quality cloth seat much more comfortable.

I really hate that on some cars, you are forced to pay extra for leather (or even worse, fake leather) seats if you want some of the high-end options. More than once it's cause me to buy a different brand of car that I could get the options I wanted without leather seats.
 
nutzo said:
Agreed. I find a nice quality cloth seat much more comfortable.

I really hate that on some cars, you are forced to pay extra for leather (or even worse, fake leather) seats if you want some of the high-end options. More than once it's cause me to buy a different brand of car that I could get the options I wanted without leather seats.
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There are a few brands like this.. I dont understand why they dont just make every option ala carte instead of this stupid ass package options where you have to buy things or get things you dont want.
 
nutzo said:
Agreed. I find a nice quality cloth seat much more comfortable.

I really hate that on some cars, you are forced to pay extra for leather (or even worse, fake leather) seats if you want some of the high-end options. More than once it's cause me to buy a different brand of car that I could get the options I wanted without leather seats.
Click to expand...
If you go directly to a dealer they can sometimes override the system to order something in a combination of options that you want. Finding one willing to do so is another question. I prefer leather simply because it's easier to get in and out for me. I also hate moving around in a seat and having the friction take a deathhold on my clothes. If you take good care of your leather seats they'll be as good as new and last for as long as you own the car.
 
I'm a leather fan. Honestly, to those who say it doesn't hold up - I'd question whether it's being properly cared for! The leather in my car (2010) looks and feels like new. It gets cleaned and conditioned a couple times per year. I'm happy people have a choice, though. If you don't like leather seats, don't get them :)
 
nutzo said:
Agreed. I find a nice quality cloth seat much more comfortable.

I really hate that on some cars, you are forced to pay extra for leather (or even worse, fake leather) seats if you want some of the high-end options. More than once it's cause me to buy a different brand of car that I could get the options I wanted without leather seats.
Click to expand...

A lot of manufacturers only put heated seat options in leather. Which sucks in the colder regions of the US...
 
M76 said:
I utterly despise leather seats. They're too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter, and they age badly.

The only thing that belongs even less in a car than leather is wood.
Click to expand...

Properly tinted windows for the summer, heated seats and remote start for the winter all options that should be in a car this expensive. This and proper care of said leather and wood makes your argument moot and simply (I don't like leather/wood..which is fine).

Fuck Vegans..that is all.
 
M76 said:
I utterly despise leather seats. They're too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter, and they age badly.

The only thing that belongs even less in a car than leather is wood.
Click to expand...

Ha,

I'm the absolute opposite. any car I buy has to have wood trim and has to have leather seats, or I won't touch it.

I find that leather ages MUCH better than cloth seats, which tend to get dingy beyond what an upholstery cleaner can easily get out, and often pill up in places and sometimes rip.

In every car I've owned with leather, it's looked just as good when I retire it as it did the day I bought it, and I don't even do fancy leather treatments or anything like that.

What cars have you had problems with? Maybe they used cheap seats?

Four things tuns me off completely in car interiors, and I will refuse to buy any car that relies heavily on them:
  • GM Style hard plastics in the dash. I have a very low tolerance for this stuff. Rubbery deformable plastics are good, but hard black or grey (or pretty much any color) plastics just turn me off completely from a car.
  • Carbon fiber trim. seriously. This stuff just looks dumb.
  • Stainless/Aluminum/Chrome/shiny trim. Same as the carbon fiber. Hate it. Won't buy a car with it. I actually bought a car once that had aluminum trim. I went to the junk yard, got the dash from an equivalent car with wood trim, and ripped the entire thing out of the car myself, ad replaced it. I don't think I have the patience to do that again, so I'll just not buy one.
  • Instrument clusters that light up in red. Green is fine. Blue is fine. White is good too. If it lights up in red, I want nothing to do with it. I used to get Pontiac Grand Prix type rentals with red instrument clusters, and I hated them. Used to jokingly refer to them as the "anger mobiles". Would never buy a car with a red instrument cluster.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
Properly tinted windows for the summer, heated seats and remote start for the winter all options that should be in a car this expensive. This and proper care of said leather and wood makes your argument moot and simply (I don't like leather/wood..which is fine).

Fuck Vegans..that is all.
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I'd never have tint in any car of mine. Visibility is too important. I hate it when you enter a tunnel or a parking garage and have to roll down the windows and take sun glasses off in order to see anything.
 
Zarathustra[H];1042085650 said:
I'd never have tint in any car of mine. Visibility is too important. I hate it when you enter a tunnel or a parking garage and have to roll down the windows and take sun glasses off in order to see anything.
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There are normal tints and there are omg im black rolling blunts in my car tint. As long as you get a normal tint you never need to do these things. They protect the interior of your car and protect you from dem rays.
 
Zarathustra[H];1042085643 said:
Ha,

I'm the absolute opposite. any car I buy has to have wood trim and has to have leather seats, or I won't touch it.

I find that leather ages MUCH better than cloth seats, which tend to get dingy beyond what an upholstery cleaner can easily get out, and often pill up in places and sometimes rip.

In every car I've owned with leather, it's looked just as good when I retire it as it did the day I bought it, and I don't even do fancy leather treatments or anything like that.

What cars have you had problems with? Maybe they used cheap seats?

Four things tuns me off completely in car interiors, and I will refuse to buy any car that relies heavily on them:
  • GM Style hard plastics in the dash. I have a very low tolerance for this stuff. Rubbery deformable plastics are good, but hard black or grey (or pretty much any color) plastics just turn me off completely from a car.
  • Carbon fiber trim. seriously. This stuff just looks dumb.
  • Stainless/Aluminum/Chrome/shiny trim. Same as the carbon fiber. Hate it. Won't buy a car with it. I actually bought a car once that had aluminum trim. I went to the junk yard, got the dash from an equivalent car with wood trim, and ripped the entire thing out of the car myself, ad replaced it. I don't think I have the patience to do that again, so I'll just not buy one.
  • Instrument clusters that light up in red. Green is fine. Blue is fine. White is good too. If it lights up in red, I want nothing to do with it. I used to get Pontiac Grand Prix type rentals with red instrument clusters, and I hated them. Used to jokingly refer to them as the "anger mobiles". Would never buy a car with a red instrument cluster.
Click to expand...
I'm surprised that more manufacturers don't let the user control dash lighting like Ford does. I have the dash and interior in my Mustang light up purple to complement the Ruby Red exterior :cool:. But the purple does define the numbers in the gauges really well, offering good contrast in both lighter and darker conditions.

Kenjiwing said:
There are normal tints and there are omg im black rolling blunts in my car tint. As long as you get a normal tint you never need to do these things. They protect the interior of your car and protect you from dem rays.
Click to expand...
Exactly ;) I couldn't live in south Florida without window tinting on my car.
 
Tiburon1186 said:
Is there a non-vegan option? Otherwise I wouldn't consider it.
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I can't imagine they would ditch their more traditional offerings. This is probably just an option.

That being said, I'm not sure I'd be opposed to an alcantara version. Alcantara can be very suede-like and nice, depending on how it is implemented.
 
Armenius said:
I'm surprised that more manufacturers don't let the user control dash lighting like Ford does. I have the dash and interior in my Mustang light up purple to complement the Ruby Red exterior :cool:. But the purple does define the numbers in the gauges really well, offering good contrast in both lighter and darker conditions.
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I experienced this when I had a 2010+ Taurus as a rental once. Pretty sleek setup, (and just about the only thing I liked about that car)

The current Taurus - IMHO - suffers from a reverse Tardis problem. It is HUGE on the outside, but feels very small on the inside. I was shocked at how bad I thought it was. I owned a third generation Taurus-based Mercury Sable LS when I was in college, and I always thought it was a decent - while boring - car. I would never buy a current Taurus.

Armenius said:
Exactly ;) I couldn't live in south Florida without window tinting on my car.
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Interesting. Well, I don't exactly live in the sun belt (Boston area) but our summers are pretty warm and bright. I've never tinted a car, and never suffered from driving related sun exposure, or any interior fading/damage/cracking from the sun.

My only "driving while tinted" experience was with my future mother-in-law's car recently in São Paulo, Brazil. She has a tiny 1.0 liter VW Fox (everyone drives tiny cars there, it's amusing as once you get used to it and you run into a Corolla on the road, it looks HUGE. You couldn't drive a U.S. mid size easily there, as it would be difficult to fit it in parking garages, etc.)

She had it tinted, and even without sunglasses I felt the need to roll down the windows after entering a parking garage. I'm not sure what the rules (if any) are there regarding tint, and I have no idea how dark they were, but they didn't look anything like what we could call "limo tint".

Maybe it's just that I'm not used to it, and the garages tended to be dimly lit.
 
Tesla has had a non-leather option since the introduction of the Model S. This is a complete BS publicity stunt by PETA. If Tesla hasn't already released a correction to this, they will. Tesla was the first manufacture to introduce a synthetic option for the steering wheel with the Model S for those didn't want any leather and that was available day 1. From a conversation with Elon's brother, I know Elon was a vegetarian (not sure if he was vegan), but I don't know if that has anything to do with the interior option.
 
mrwizardno2 said:
I'm a leather fan. Honestly, to those who say it doesn't hold up - I'd question whether it's being properly cared for! The leather in my car (2010) looks and feels like new. It gets cleaned and conditioned a couple times per year. I'm happy people have a choice, though. If you don't like leather seats, don't get them :)
Click to expand...

I would rather have a seat material that proper care is 'maybe vacuum it off once in a while, and if it looks really gross, wipe it down with a soapy cloth', I don't want to clean and condition it twice a year, I just want to get in and drive. The vinyl seats and plastic floor on my Ranger are great. :)
 
Dekoth-E- said:
Properly tinted windows for the summer, heated seats and remote start for the winter all options that should be in a car this expensive. This and proper care of said leather and wood makes your argument moot and simply (I don't like leather/wood..which is fine).

Fuck Vegans..that is all.
Click to expand...

Nah. They're lousy lays who refuse to give blowjobs because they don't eat meat.
 
mrwizardno2 said:
I'm a leather fan. Honestly, to those who say it doesn't hold up - I'd question whether it's being properly cared for! The leather in my car (2010) looks and feels like new. It gets cleaned and conditioned a couple times per year. I'm happy people have a choice, though. If you don't like leather seats, don't get them :)
Click to expand...

Don't know how long you keep your cars, but mine are usually 10+ years old when I sell them.
After 10 years, the cloth seats still look like new after a minor cleaning.
Even the wife's mini-van that takes a lot of abuse, the seats are still good after more than 9 years.
 
toast0 said:
I would rather have a seat material that proper care is 'maybe vacuum it off once in a while, and if it looks really gross, wipe it down with a soapy cloth', I don't want to clean and condition it twice a year, I just want to get in and drive. The vinyl seats and plastic floor on my Ranger are great. :)
Click to expand...

I've never conditioned or maintained my leather seats in any of the cars that have had them (1997 Mercury Sable LS, 2001 Saab 9-5 Aero, 2004 Saab 9-5 Aero, 2011 Saab 9-5 Turbo4 Premium and now 2009 Volvo S80 T6)

I've never damaged the seats, never had them noticibly fade or wear, never had them crack or dry out, and when a clean them I just vacuun or wipe them down with a damp cloth.

Never had any problem what so ever.

I don't know where the idea that leather seats are high maintenance comes from.

I certainly get that they can be scorching in the summer (especially like in my 2001 9-5 whih was a black car with black seats.) but that applies to vinyl and "leatherette" as well.

Cloth is certainly better from the temperature perspective, but that is - IMHO - its only virtue. I find its more difficult to clean and less durable, wearing and ripping more easily.
 
nutzo said:
Don't know how long you keep your cars, but mine are usually 10+ years old when I sell them.
After 10 years, the cloth seats still look like new after a minor cleaning.
Even the wife's mini-van that takes a lot of abuse, the seats are still good after more than 9 years.
Click to expand...


Fair enough.

I usually buy my cars off lease about 2-3 years old with about 30-35k miles on them, drive them for about 4 years, adding about 100k miles to them in that time, and then sell or trade them in at ~130k miles, and get something else.

I'm very picky about rattles vibrations and creaks, so I hate having high milage cars. Ideally I'd never drive anything above 80k miles, but thats just too expensive with the amount of driving I have to do.

The only exceptios were my 1997 Mercury which was my college beater and was bought a little older and with higher milage, and my 2011 9-5 which I bought new. My favorite brand Saab was in dire financial straits, and I decided it was time to put my money where my mouth was and support them. Unfortunately despite selling every car they could make, they ran out of money before they could be come profitable and shut down. I sold it 2 years later when parts availability started to become a problem for that model.

That was my first, and probably my last new car. (It was also the best car I have ever driven, let alone owned)

Anyway, I went down a rabbit hole there. My point was, maybe I haven't had issues because I tend to not keep them as long as you do.

My current car, the Volvo, is actually tied as the oldest car I've owned, with MOST of the cars ive owned. 7 appears to be the magic number for me. I sold my Mercury when it was 7 years old. My 2001 saab was totalled when it was 7 years old. I traded in my 2004 Saab for the 2011 Saab when it was 7 years old.

This one I'll likely have a little longer making it the oldest I've ever had.

In the rattles, squeaks and shakes department it is doing better than any of my previous cars at this age, though I'm starting to hear a metallic clunk over bumps from the rear (maybe a swaybar mount?) and the cabin fan bearing appears to be wearing out and making an annoying noise.
 
Just popping in to mention that most cars from factory have a small amount of window tint applied. At least in my experience I've never owned one without tint and I've never tinted my windows. I can tell just be the slight difference between side windows and windshield.
 
synthetic leather, plastics, etc.

made from fossil fuels/oil, which in turn is dead plant/animal matter.

lol
 
Kenjiwing said:
There are a few brands like this.. I dont understand why they dont just make every option ala carte instead of this stupid ass package options where you have to buy things or get things you dont want.
Click to expand...

I hate it too, but I suspect it reduces MFG costs.
 
nutzo said:
Don't know how long you keep your cars, but mine are usually 10+ years old when I sell them.
After 10 years, the cloth seats still look like new after a minor cleaning.
Even the wife's mini-van that takes a lot of abuse, the seats are still good after more than 9 years.
Click to expand...

I agree. Cloth is generally fine. It's possible you could spill something that will stain, but I assume that'd be possible with leather too. IME, leather tends to be too hot in the summer, but I guess the luxury cars come with ass coolers.
 
I have had cloth in all my cars most recent cars, no issues and you can bust out a carpet cleaner to clean up the seats once a year.

Zarathustra[H];1042085866 said:
My favorite brand Saab was in dire financial straits, and I decided it was time to put my money where my mouth was and support them. Unfortunately despite selling every car they could make, they ran out of money before they could be come profitable and shut down.
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Saab went out of business because they refused to follow GM designs and wasted all there money on R+D for stuff that GM had already provided them. If they had in fact made good business decisions they would never have gone out of business. RIP SAAB 900 Turbo you were a good car.
 
thedocta45 said:
Saab went out of business because they refused to follow GM designs and wasted all there money on R+D for stuff that GM had already provided them. If they had in fact made good business decisions they would never have gone out of business. RIP SAAB 900 Turbo you were a good car.
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That's completely backwards.

After GM bought out the last half of the company they milked the company for its technology and starved it of investment.

The 9-5, an amazing car when first introduced in 1998, got nothing but headlight face lifts for 12 years, a freaking eternity in the high end car market.

GM's refusal to invest in the company made it irrelevant. Then when outside investors (first Koenigsegg, and later Spyker) tried to come in and save them, with the first new models in a decade, they were so obtuse, and fought them every inch over what they could do, whose patents were what, and who could invest in the business that it drove them out of business.

If it weren't for how awful GM was, they'd still be here today. GM is the goddamned devil.

What you are referring to is what happened during the 9-3 sedan development in the late 90's, early 200's which was launched in 2004. Saab engineers tried to distinguish their product, to make it competitive with true high end European cars, but GM kept wanting to cut corners, completely tone deaf to what the Saab customers were interested in. They bought a high end car company, and treated it like it was some shitty budget brand, like Chevy.

And then came the badge engineering jobs. The Trailblazer / Saab 90-7x which was an embarrassment to Saab worldwide, as american trucks are considered a joke most other places, but GM shoved it down Saabs throat, and it hurt the brand. The 9-2x Saabaru wasn't quite as bad, but it was such an obvious badge job, that lacked the brand heritage, and further sabotaged the Saab brand.

That conflict DID make the 9-3 project go over budget, while they were fighting eachother, but that was almost a decade before the brand was sold off, and got independence (but independence under a GM chokehold which eventually killed it). GM eventually got their way, and the 9-3 was forced to use the low end, cheap GM parts bin, tacky black hard plastic interiors, etc. etc.

When GM took full ownership of Saab in 2000, Saab was in great shape. They had just launched the 9-5 in 1998, and it was getting favorable reviews when compared to the 5 series BMW, and the Audi A6. Foolhardy corner cutting, using cheap Chevy parts, badge engineering, and no investment in their premium 9-5 for 12 years

Make no mistake, the mismanagement that killed Saab was entirely on the side of their pigheaded corporate overlords who didn't have a clue what it takes to be a premium European brand.

The irony is that they (GM) finally got it. The new 2010 9-5 which was under development during the financial crisis was an amazing vehicle, but then GM decided to divest of the brand as part of the bailout. First they negotiated with Koenigsegg for a full year, and couldn't come to a deal because GM's requirements of who could financially back the deal, and how IP could be used was completely unreasonable. They wanted the deal to fail. Then Spyker tried and came to a deal, but it was a terrible deal.

The new 9-5 and the 9-4x (the new Saab crossover) were all but done at this point, and there were rumors of a new 9-3 being in process. The 9-5 and 9-4x still needed safety & regulatory testing. In bringing them over the finish line, they ran out of cash. There were waiting lists to buy 9-5 (until the company imploded and people got scared). I was lucky enough to get one, with a 6 speed manual. They had a successful car on their hands, and it was profitable too, they just couldn't sell enough of them before they ran out of cash.

Most other companies with a successful product on their hands, but low on cash, would have been able to raise more cash through new equity, but not Saab. GM had a mile long list of people they didn't want the newly independent Saab to do business with, as part of the agreement to sell. So in the end, GM's refusal to let Saab take investments from companies and people they didn't like, killed the company.

4165233962_94e44efdea_z.jpg
 
Zarathustra[H];1042085866 said:
I usually buy my cars off lease about 2-3 years old with about 30-35k miles on them, drive them for about 4 years, adding about 100k miles to them in that time, and then sell or trade them in at ~130k miles, and get something else.
Click to expand...

You put way more miles on your cars than I do, so I can see why you only keep them 4 years.
I like having a new car, but justify it by driving them for a long time. It also means that I'm not buying someone's problems, since I'm the original owner and I make sure it's taken care of.

The last car I replaced was 11 years old, but had less than 75K miles on it.
Got pretty good money for it :)
 
nutzo said:
You put way more miles on your cars than I do, so I can see why you only keep them 4 years.
I like having a new car, but justify it by driving them for a long time. It also means that I'm not buying someone's problems, since I'm the original owner and I make sure it's taken care of.

The last car I replaced was 11 years old, but had less than 75K miles on it.
Got pretty good money for it :)
Click to expand...

Mostly agree, but he's buying off lease, and those cares are typically in above average condition with limited miles. But yeah, I keep my cars a long time too.
 
I got a better warranty bumper to bumper buying certified renowned than buying new on my current vehicle. It was off lease 17k miles.
 
Kenjiwing said:
There are a few brands like this.. I dont understand why they dont just make every option ala carte instead of this stupid ass package options where you have to buy things or get things you dont want.
Click to expand...
Because they want to make three cars on an assembly line instead of dozens.

Car without anything, car with some things, and car with everything.
 
mope54 said:
Because they want to make three cars on an assembly line instead of dozens.

Car without anything, car with some things, and car with everything.
Click to expand...

It really has less to do with production these days. In the past, yes, assembly lines would favor this type of production, but with modern "mass customization" automated techniques, this is no longer a big issue.

The real reason is because of the dealership distribution model. People expect to walk into a dealership, see the car they want, buy it and drive off in it.

This is not the way they do it in Europe. Dealers have no inventory, just a handful of demo cars. People walk in, customize the car they want, and place an order. The car is then scheduled to be built at the factory, and a few weeks later they come back and pick it up.

This is MUCH more efficient, because everyone gets exactly the car they want, and the distribution is cheaper, as there isn't a ton of inventory which is very expensive, just sitting on lots. You also don't have to discount out cars at the end of the year because you guessed the demand wrong.

You also don't get instant gratification, which we have been spoiled with. That being said, I'd rather get the exact car I want, with the exact options in the exact colors, with the exact transmission, the exact trim, the exact stereo, etc., and wait a few weeks, than drive off the lot the same day with a different car than I would have ideally bought.

The dealership model is horribly inefficient, and I hope we can get rid of it. We should be taking advantage of modern just in time manufacturing throughout the supply chain, and not have gluts of inventory sitting on lots.
 
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