Gotta say, Chris, my Tahoe Z-71 had those soft leather seats, I think I had that when you came to my house before we went to Savannah, and they cracked, one main area was on the side next to the door where I got in and out. My Silverado Z-71 has the hard leather seat and the damn things are durable as hell. I'll take that hard leather over the soft that'll wind up cracking and splitting at any given time. BMW's were/are notorious for their hard leather, but ever BMW Kim had, cracking leather was never the problem.
...but as far as Kia and Hyundai, both the same company, they've made LEAPS and bounds. That, IIRC, Hyundai Elantra in the early 90's was a POS, not Yugo POS, but POS nonetheless. The first Kia's were as well, until Hyundai took over.