Leather seat maintenance

I have a two year old car with leather seats. Everything is in good shape but I want to keep it that way. My previous car had leather seats but after 15 years the leather split in places, wore through in others.

What is a good leather maintenance I can use to keep the seats in good shape? I remember a few years ago, someone posted about a good product that you slather all over the seats in hot weather and let bake in the sun over a weekend. Since we are now in August, that might be timely. However, something else may be better.

I’m all ears!

Just saddle soap and conditioner or brands like Lexol, Mothers, Meguires. They all seem to be pretty much the same except some really stink. The idea is to just clean them and don’t let them dry out. The thing is though, just like shoes, leather does wear out, and thread does deteriorate. 15 years though is a little early.

This is not hard to do. You can just go to Wally World and look at the car care section and almost any of the leather care products will work just fine. You can also use your search engine and see videos ( more than you can watch in a lifetime ) .

It depends on the leather color, as caring for the black one can be more brutal than light-colored ones

the black one allows reviving quite a worn pieces with partial re-coloring, using something like

you do not get many options for the tan or beige colors, you really have to care for them the proper way

I’m not talking about re-dyeing / re-painting, which is always the option for the heavily-worn pieces, I did it before, but it’s better to keep what you have, as with re-paining your results will vary

Lexol, Mothers, Meguires all work great, my personal preference goes to Lexol

for really good results, it’s better to avoid products having cleaner and conditioner in one, separate cleaner/conditioner simply work better and are must for the light-colored leather types, not as important for the blacks

I have had good luck with Griot’s products (shown here in this article from our partner publication). Start with interior cleaner, then wipe with a water- moist cloth. Give it a few minutes to dry then

use the leather care as per instructions. Kept my white convertible leather looking good for many years.

What classes of products should be avoided for perforated leather?

Good point. I’d guess the gunky type, but Griot’s is pretty viscous and it worked well on the perforated leather in my car.