Just a reminder:

When you clean and detail your car, DO NOT forget to apply a good quality conditioner to your leather dashboard (e.g., 2007 later XKs). I bought my used 2008 XK convertible a month or so ago and the first thing I noticed was the leather dashboard was very dry, faded, and even starting to show signs of hairline cracking. I ran right out, and bought a bottle of the best quality leather conditioner I could find, completely saturated a cloth with the stuff, and proceeded to "slather" the dash with as much as I could get on there. The dash was so dry, the cloth dragged along the leather surface, even though soaked with the conditioner. I almost could hear sucking noises as I applied coat, after coat, after coat.

Today my dash is a rich, dark charcoal color, with a beautiful sheen. There are NO signs of cracking anywhere. I now condition the dashboard leather every time I wash the car. It just take a few extra minutes and the conditioner soaked cloth now glides along the surface of the dash...

From what I see, I am sure the original owner NEVER treated the dash (or other leather surfaces) the entire time he owned the car. This is Jag "blasphemy" in my humble opinion, and should not ever be forgiven. (This is the same guy that was driving on three Uniroyals and a Goodyear)

The previous owner clearly did not deserve this car. Maybe he would be happier in a Kia…

Lesson for today? Condition the leather surfaces, especially that dashboard that bakes in the sun...

 

Good point. Actually I bought a new Jag and immediately conditioned the interior leather. Might as well be proactive. Its very soft leather.

 

Funny, I just went to a new car show this weekend and was thinking of all the surfaces that luxury car manufactures now cover in leather, and whether or not people thought to condition them.

 

Most new-car buyers won't condition the leather. They'll just lease the car and not care. But, a lot of secondhand buyers, especially for "enthusiast cars" probably will be inclined to pay close attention to those types of things.

 

You are completely correct about folks who lease these premium cars and just not caring about the beautiful/exotic machine they are so lucky to be driving. My 2008 XK was a leased car. I purchased it exactly three years old with exactly 30,000 miles (10,000 per year?)

Signs it was a lease?

Car needed four new tires (There was a goodyear on the right/front. The rest were the original Uniroyals), brake pads were required on all four wheels, battery shot, carpets FILTHY, seats filthy, sunvisor on driver's side, filthy. Leather on dashboard dried and cracked from neglect. The windshield was scratched from running rotted wipers. There were swirls all over the paint (probably due to multiple runs through a car wash), weather stripping around the door had chunks taken out of it where the original owner apparently kept stepping on it going into and getting out of the car....

Today, after less than two months of truly loving care:

New tires, new brakes, new battery, and new wiper blades. The interior is immaculate (all the leather surfaces repeatedly cleaned and conditioned-beautiful). Carpets professionally steam cleaned (twice). Every swirlmark GONE thanks to three coats of scratch remover, polish, then Mother's wax. Virtually every piece of weather stripping has been replaced. This weekend the windshield is being professionally polished to get out the wiper marks....

The car is now in truly "Showroom" condition, breathtaking....

Lesson learned? A "lease" is just a long term rental. Therefore, when it is getting anywhere close to the end of the lease, many leasees have NO motiviation to put any of his/her money into the car. In these cars, that is a crime against humanity. Luckily, most of the issues with this car were purely cosmetic and easily corrected with a little love and alot of elbow grease...

I say again, the former owner did not deserve this beautiful and classic automobile...

 

Good work "Stillwater" it's good to know people are still into and able to do good upkeep on their cars and it is a shame that people "Lease" don't take care of vehicles and let them go to crap. Their are soo mamy people who just don't give a crap of cars and conditions, my wife is at the point of physical beat downs, she drives a 2010 Camaro and parks at stores and places far, far away from other cars, literally way on other side of lot where no other cars are, and parkes cross car park taking two places, you would think that is enough, but someone else will always come all the way over and park right next to the car, soo close that they could bump the car by just opening their door. Anyone ever see that "Benny Hill" show skit where he runs his car into another car parked on a roof parking lot and his car and the other car are the only Cars parked their?? thats kind of the skit of what my wife goes threw with her parking the new car.

 

I will also park clear on the far side of the lot. As with your wife, I will come out of the store, and it seems that my car is suddenly surrounded by six other cars, all parked close enough to cause real anxiety...

Several years ago, I parked my brand new Dodge Ram over 300' from the closest vehicle in the Walmart parking lot. When I came out, there was a shopping cart RAMMED into my passenger door. Caused a major dent. To this day, I am convinced that person(s) unknown AIMED that cart from some distance away and deliberately LAUNCHED it into my truck. There is no other logical explaination as to how that cart got there.

People can be real a--h-les.

 

It is a shame how bad people can be, But notice that those people are driving pieces of crap vehicles and don't care how their own car looks, so they care even less on how yours looks.

 

There's a small tear just there, less than a 1/4 inch--any idea how to repair it or at least stabilize it so it doesn't get bigger?

 

A lot of the Same Day Paint and Dent repair places can fix that tear no problem. You probably won't be able to tell that there was even a problem.