[Mordachai]

I'm an upholstery guy, and yes the body cloth will hold up much better. It will be more comfortable to sit on as well, only thing it's much harder to clean, or rather it will soak up anything that it can.
Vinyl is easy to clean, and you can get it in a wide range or colors and textures. If you want the look of leather, but don't want to spend the $ or know you won't maintain it like leather needs, then there are some great faux-leather vinyls. There's a very cool vinyl called symphony vintage that distresses just like real leather, meaning you can put creases, wrinkles, etc in it just like leather, but it's much easier to care for- cool stuff.
Some vinyls hold up much much better than others.
Allente, Whisper, Rave are pretty common and good quality.
As for the houndstooth body cloth, you can also get it in a pretty decent variety of colors, combination of colors, and a few different patterns.

if you want the houndstooth, go for it. While I do deter customers from certian materials, body cloths are not one of them (stay away from thin, soft backed vinyls that are very very stretchy for seats- only good for wrapping panels, etc.).
I always tell customers, well you're paying for it, and you're driving it, you should not hesitate to pick what you want.