I love the look of the cloth seats in my new 2008 FEH, but I find that they can stain easily. Does anyone have a good recommendation for cleaning the seats?

Thanks in advance.

-FOPEC

 

While I cannot confirm if applying scotchguard (before stains) to the seats is the best approach, I did this and there doesn't seem to be a problem with color change or other issues.

 

I agree that Scotchgard is probably a good idea.

Escape cloth seats in recent years have been very poor quality to put it mildly (there have been many posts about this). Before I bought my current 06 that has leather, I had an 05 with gray cloth. At one year old & 12,000 miles that cloth was frayed & shabby looking & I have seen 10 year old seats that looked better (& it was NOT abused)

I work at a car dealer & we get used Escape's in every week. Every single used Escape I have seen come in lately with cloth interior has looked rather shabby. I know the 08 cloth is different than previous years & that may be the reason for the change......

~John

 

The idea of putting leather in a hybrid is incongruous to me so getting the cloth was mandatory, especially considering the fact that they are 100% recycled material (post-industrial.) I had to forgo the lighted vanity mirrors and compass, but that is another story. Hopefully the new premium material will fare better than the past seats, but so far they do seem to be pretty good, do like the 2-tone, and better than my previous car (thicker material.) The main issue would seem to be the light color, which will probably require more diligence in cleaning, maintaining, if one cares about longevity (time will tell.) You may want to test the scotchguard cleaner/protector for treating stains.

 

I have found that mine stain quickly, and even water leaves marks (let's just say there have been a lot of sudden rainstorms on very hot days when one might leave windows open so that car isn't an oven). I've had them extractor cleaned and that worked for the most part, but my floor mats are also stained and I've no idea why because nothing has spilled on them (they look like cigarettes landed on them). Yucky. Maybe I'll just get some all weather mats (does carpet really make sense in a high salt state?) and then drive around with plastic sheeting like it's an older lady's prize sofa.
If one doesn't agree with leather in a hybrid, one really should use Scotchguard. Leather is a natural product, and Scotchguard is a chemical full of really bad chemicals that haven't been well-studied (I'm not an alarmist, just work in a field where I get a lot of details on these products).

 

I am sure it has to due a lot with the type of fabric, but a friend of mine used Scotchguard, and it "lubricated" the fibers causing the fabric to unravel at the cut ends. These are the ends are where the seams are sewn. So, when there wasn't enough intact fabric left at the seams, they came apart too.

 

Yep, you have to pick your battles, I am sure staying away from Scotchguard would not be a bad thing. I just prefer to see the natural leather material on the Cows, before it was chemically treated/coated. I'll try to stay away from the old prized sofa plastic sheeting...

The cloth sure does darken when wet, but so far has always gone back to its original shade when dry.

 

Well, leather isn't perfect either; especially Ford leather.

The leather in my Explorer cracked within the first couple of years. I took very good care of it, cleaning and conditioning. That only slowed it down, but not stopped it. When I looked into similar Explorers in parking lots, ones I assume the owner did nothing to maintain the leather, the driver's seat would look like a mountain lion used it as a scratching post.

In contrast, the leather in my Jeep still looked brand new, and I sold it after 8 years.

The leather in my MMH is already creasing.

 

Why not get some seat covers?

 

Windex works surprisngly well at removing spot stains so fourth from alot of materials. I have also been successfull at using a wet and dry vac with no chemicals, and just bottled water.