Coming from cars that I spent much of my time trying to soften back up with rejuvinator and cleaner from Leatherique aside from the seats in our X Type and 3.0 XF which seem like they are pretty happy with mequires gold class from the chain stores I'm curious what others use and are happy with esp on the older ones that live outside. I'm hoping to keep the leather nice without getting it soft which lots of condioners do.

 

I am in general a big fan of Leatherique, so I put it on the dash of one of my XF and let it soak in good in the sun like they tell you to do. The hope was that it would keep the leather from shrinking and then bubbling. Well, it didn't stop the bubbling, so I had to have the dash replaced anyway about a year later, but it did immediately damage the leather on the dash!

I was really surprised, but around the stitching over the instruments, it caused the leather to prune up like your hand would from being in a swimming pool too long. Clearly the Leatherique had penetrated through the stitches and damaged the bond between the leather and it's padding.

I let Leatherique know and sent pictures. I wasn't expecting them to do anything to fix it, but I also didn't expect them to tell me there is no way their product did that, because it definitely did. They tried to blame it on the A/C vents causing moisture, but that's pretty ridiculous because the air vents aren't anywhere near the stitching over the instruments.

Now, I am not such a fan.

Plus, I don't think Leatherique works well on modern leather that is overly sealed. Not much does from what I can tell.

If you really want to keep modern leather conditioned, I think you would have to remove the seat covers and treat the leather from behind. Not practical.

 

Try out the Jaguar leather conditioner. It has worked great for me.

 

I have used Autoglym Leather Care Balm for years now, on my XFS, XFR and F-Type.
It keeps the leather nice and supple, it's easy to use, it works well as a combined cleaner, conditioner and protectant, is relatively cheap, freely available, and as an added bonus it smells good!
See here for example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Autoglym-Au...gAAOSwzaJYAmwI

 

I've been using Meguiars leather cleaner and conditioner products for many years with excellent results. I can highly recommend this range of products.

 

I'm not surprised, I agree that their stuff works well on vintage leather I haven't been impresed with it on newer leather. Only thing it did to my x type was make it sticky for months. I'm gonna try some Groits Garage cleaner/conditioner and see what it does. Just looking to keep it from drying out like you.

 

I've heard that other on the forum use 303 Aerospace protectant. That is all you need, especially since the new leather has a synthetic top layer which the old types of leather didn't have. I just spray it on and wipe and let dry. Protects from UV rays as well, especially recommended for the dash leather.

 

With that what do you use to clean it though?

 

I use Aerospace 303 Protectant on the dash and door tops as well, and as long as they aren't really filthy it works as a cleaner and no need to use anything else beforehand.
If they are filthy then it's an easy two step process to clean them:
1. Gently wipe over with a damp microfibre cloth to remove surface dust and dirt
2. Then using a different MF cloth clean them with a good leather cleaning product, I use Meguiar's Gold Class Leather and Vinyl Cleaner, works great for getting ingrained grime and dirt out.

 

A little more on the expensive side but I've used Swissvax Leather Cleaner (with a leather brush) as well as Swissvax Leather Milk for conditioning.. Nothing comes close to it. Used Chemical guys, meguiars, etc. and theres just a evident difference in quality. My seats look as good as new, for all the cars I've used it on.

You can buy a whole Swisswax leather kit that includes all the items above.

 

I use Wolfgang cleaner and conditioner. I have also used Griots 2-n-1 leather care and they both work well.