My '91 has upholstery that looks like that in the photos except for color (gray instead of tan).  I would call mine velour, too.  Mine also looks like new, despite 150K miles, and my van lived in Arizona for most of its life.  I have thought it was pretty durable stuff.  Not generally true?  DMc

---- Jeff Palmer <jpalmer@MTS.NET> wrote:
> I have an 85 Westfalia GL, and up until now I thought i had different upholstery than everyone else.  Why
> is this called corduroy?  It looks more like velour to me!  Anyway.  My van has 300k kilometres (about
> 180k miles) and the upholstery is almost like new.  And believe me I've got a big enough butt to do
> some serious damage to the seats if I tried.  I do live north of the 49th if that makes a difference UV
> wise as I've never had a garage (sorry except until recently - it now spends winters in a garage).
> Pictures available upon request.
>
> Jeff
> >
> > From: JordanVw@AOL.COM
> > Date: 2010/03/01 Mon PM 12:38:44 CST
> > To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> > Subject: OMG...non shredded shreddy tan corduroy!!
> >
> > this is gotta be a entry for the vanagon book of world records - '85 westy
> > weekender with 160k and the shreddy tan corduroy is not shredded!!!???
> >
> > _http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=887785_
> > (http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=887785)
> >
> > PO must have sat on a cushion of air  LOL
> >