Leather Car Upholstery

The area of leather car upholstery is a topic of auto detailing and car ownership in general, that is loaded with much bad information. As consumers, we have been filled with plenty of misrepresentation in the name of selling more and more product.

• What are the rules of proper car leather care?
• Am I supposed to condition or not?
• How often am I supposed to clean my leather?
• What products are worth a darn?
• How do I even tell if my car has leather or not?

Car Leather Basics

Let's start with the basics when it comes to the interior of your car. What might seem obvious to you, is not so obvious to others. And the reality is that none of us are actually educated in proper cosmetic care and maintenance of ours cars when we purchase them.

• When it is advertised as leather seating surfaces, only the surfaces of the seat that contact your body will be actual leather; the rest is vinyl.
• Advertising can be very misleading; often what you might casually have thought was leather, is nothing more than glorified vinyl. Most of the high-end car lines have synthetic versions of leather that is used within the lower, or base models of cars. As an example, Mercedes Benz used to call their synthetic version of leather "MB Tex", or "leather-Tex". Just because the name has leather in it, does not make it leather.

The picture at the left is from a C-class Mercedes. Many people think that just because it is a Mercedes, it must be leather; not so. This is their version of synthetic leather; which is just a euphemism for vinyl.

We Get What We Pay For

This adage is a theme in life regardless of the topic; automobiles are no exception. The more expensive the car, the better it is...right? Well, "better" is certainly a subjective call to be made, but it is accepted in life that when you pay more, you are going to get more. The same holds true with leather car upholstery; the more you pay, the better the quality is, and the more of it you get.

• Leather is not all created equal. Like anything else, price is often an indicator of quality.
• The higher the price tag of a car, the more leather will be used within; from not only the entire seat itself, but to entire headliners, or dash boards, etc. Leather can be used to cover virtually anything within cars these days.


• Expensive Suede's are also commonly used within the most expensive cars.
• Of course, if you have the money then anything goes; your only limitations are the constraints of your bank account. You can custom order most high-end cars through one of the many tuners to customize the cars interior, based on your eccentric choices.

As you can see when it comes to leather car upholstery, there are many areas to cover. I hope I have added to your awareness and knowledge on a topic that many find confusing.

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