Cloth actually tends to age better in my experience. Automotive leathers are often bonded and sealed leathers these days, so they have a finite amount of moisture and colorant that wear out over time. Cloth is quite durable as long as you don’t have anything that’ll catch on it or rub it too bad, which is also a weakness of leather and vinyl as well.
In my experience cloth eventually gets stained and stinks after even relatively minor spills. The foam underneath soaks everything up.
The same spills are minor and easy to clean from leather.
> How many of these will be in decent condition after 14 years of use?
With cars, more expensive doesn't necessarily mean that it will last longer. In fact, the opposite is often true. I would be willing to bet that a typical Corolla is capable of getting more miles than a $100k Mercedes.
I prefer leather seats, but my wife prefers cloth. Her 225K mile, 18 year old CR-V’s cloth seats are pretty much mint, even after us raising two kids while owning that car (and the obviously significant overall usage).
My 2015, 24K mile LEAF has noticeably more wear on the leather seat’s bolster.
Funny - my 2002 Nissan Xterra still runs, drives and looks like the day I bought it. My 1997 Miata is likewise just as fit. I'll take ANY Japanese car over an American, or god help you, European car - keep them clean and do oil changes religiously and most modern cars will treat you well.
The biggest thing that boggles my mind is the amount of people who have garbage they don't use in their garages instead of their cars. And then let their kids destroy the interiors with food and drink.
These are also the prices for the shittiest base model version, once you add decent options the price will increase considerably.
Call me crazy but I don't believe cloth seats age well.
I've had acceptable outcomes purchasing older higher-end fully loaded Japanese vehicles like Toyota and Honda.