Thread: Is some of your leather not really leather?

Originally Posted by jon3950

Has been that way since at least the eighties and the days of Rover.

Cheers,
Jon

My D2a was the same,what you sat on was the leather,not much else,maybe gear stick knob & steering wheel as well,that was it.

I wouldn't blame MOFOCO as this is probably a marketing thing more than anything else and leather look substitution is as old as the hills.

Most of the mainstream makers do it, some better than others and to date the best I have seen is Mercedes "MB Tex" which outlasts anything even in our hot climate and is so often mistaken for leather its no longer amusing (eBay Benzes all seem to be leather, Most are MB Tex).

The other factor in play is design obsolescence which dictates varying ages for components regardless of their true survival age and this date is usually about 5 years from New.

As for Mini's (Or Bini's)?

They are the exception to most motoring rules and BMW did them proud.

Nothing new under the sun. 1967 Jag Mark II had the same arrangement 35 years ago, leather on the significant bits and plastic look-alike elsewhere.

BUT... tell me about the dash material on the D4. Looks like stitched leather but couldn't possibly survive in that location without splitting to smithereens. No sign of any deterioration on mine after 3 years in the sun, so pretty impressive material whatever it is.

Originally Posted by Beamin

... 35 years ago...

Make that 45 years ago. I'm older than I thought.

Speaking of leather, does anyone know how to make the D2 cream leather look cream again? my seats are starting to look grey I have tried leather cleaner and conditioner but they don't seem to work.) P.S worst colour for car seats!

You definitely get a different grade of seat covering here in Oz to the UK. Mine has the nappa leather and it's very different to the Oz spec seats, much softer & consequently easy to mark. We had the Oz stuff for a short period in the UK on a limited run 'XS' model that sat between the base S & SE model RRS, think it was about 2009. My local dealer described it as 'farm spec bull leather', as Gary mentioned it reminded us all of Ambla!

There is an advantage to the vinyl sides it that they do not crease with age.

Does it really matter or lessen the vehicle if the backs of the seats aren't leather?

cheers,
Terry