Scotchguard Auto on brand new car fabric

I thought I might greet our new Subaru with a can of Scotchguard and spray the rugs and seats. But I can’t help but feel that it’s a huge amount of trust to put into a product, no matter how good. With me, often if something can go wrong, it does.

What I am considering is spraying the standard equipment front mats. Eventually I’ll get all-weather ones, but I figure the included mats have a limited life with all the mud and snow here. So would that make sense, or would you really spray the upholstery, too?

BTW, we don’t have kids, and our dog sits on a seat cover. The only real stains we’ve had in 7 years of owning our previous car are water spots.

Also, are the seats as they come from the factory considered totally unprotected, or is the overpriced dealer fabric protection just an additional layer of it?

Because of the dog, I’d get seat covers.
As far as Scotchguard goes, I’ve never used it. Sorry.

I have used it on upholstery and it seems to help getting off spots. I think it would need to be reapplied annually.

You won’t need it. Spot removers that you spray on and do nothing else will get rid of most spots.

It’s cheap easy protection. 3M designs it for use on all cloth surfaces, so why not?

Praises for doing it yourself and not paying the dealer for an obvious “pack”.

I’ve used heavy doses of Scotchguard on new car seats. And later on when cleaning coffee spills, dirt, or spots, they seemed to come off easily. I don’t know if they came off more easily because of the Scotchguard.

I only spray it when there is plenty of ventilation (and often hold my breadth till I’m away from the car). As I get older I’m less inclined to breath in fumes with a strong chemical smell.