[blue2000s]

Originally Posted by Samson

Instead of alcantara, I'd go for escaine or a similar synthetic material. I've seen and heard of the lack of longevity of alcantara... it tends to wear pretty quickly and looks pretty bad in the process. But like all things, it depends on the quality of the manufacturer. I'm basing my opinion on BMWs.

Something like escaine doesn't really wear, doesn't stain, and doesn't fade. The seats and door panel inserts in my IS are mostly made of the stuff, and they still look new after 7 years and 105k miles.

Bad picture, but you can see what the stuff looks like (the lighter area on the pass. seat is just the nap brushed in a different direction, not wear):

it looks a little like velvet in that picture. Groovy.