The leather has dye so thick it feels painted and not pliable like you'd expect. There's also a UV protectant coating that makes them feel synthetic.

If you pull the trim panels off you can probable peel the edge up and see if it's leather or not but I wouldn't. What's the real concern?

 

Not difficult to remove the audio/nav dash surround. It clips in; and is easily removed by levering up from the bottom.

 

 

All XKR's had leather dash and door panels, etc....not synthetic.
For XK's:
If your seats have perforated leather, your dash is leather. The upgraded seats and real leather trim came as a package. If your seats have solid leather panels without perforations, your dash, door panels, etc. is all synthetic.

Note: a few early XKR's had leather sports seats without perforations, with aggressive side bolstering. Like other XKR's the rest of the interior was leather.

Unperforated leather seats=synthetic leather for door panels, dash, etc.

Perforated leather seats (luxury trim)= all leather dash, door panels, etc.

Rare XKR sports seats with aggressive side bolstering. Not perforated leather, but all XKR's had the leather dash and door panels.

 

The consensus is put nothing on the dash except very mild water based cleaners. Anything else and you run the risk of it lifting or damaging the dyes / coating.

 

 

See your Owner's Handbook for factory recommended interior care. Also, always use a reflective sun shade to keep the interior cool and minimize heat damage.

 

Absolutely. The oem Jag part is thickly insulated and fits perfectly. Here's a link to the type I'm referencing:


Keep the windscreen up anytime it is warm or bright outside.

 

I think that is true for the 5 litre cars but my '07 XKR didn't have a leather dash. In fact I think that on the 4.2's only cars with the Luxury Sport interior theme or Portfolio models had leather dashes. All the other XKR's with the R interior theme did not.

 

Respectfully, I've looked at thousands of XK/XKR's for sale during the last five years. I've never seen an XKR without a leather dash. I'll pull up the sales brochure later today that shows that all XKR's came with the leather dash/door panel interior package.

 

U102768,

Did your 2007 XKR have the seats with the ribbed side bolsters and 10-way (instead of 16-way) adjustable seats ? If so, you may be right that there were some XKR's available without the Luxury Package. Very, very, very few were ordered with this setup. I would guess 5% or less of the XKR's in the US at most. I had seen a few of these cars with the "R Sport" leather seat, but never connected this as a lower trim level, but now that makes sense. Can you confirm your seats had ribbed side bolsters (and not perforated leather) and had and control switch packs looked like the 10-way ones below? If so, your right... your XKR did not have the leather dash/door panels. Thanks for your comments.



10-Way Seat Adjustment Controls (Standard interior package) If you have this, your dash, door panels, etc. are not leather.

16-Way Seat Adjustment Controls (Luxury Package) If you have this, your dash, door, panels, etc. are leather.

 

So I found an XKR that does have the standard package and you can see that the dash is not leather. Here's a photo:

XKR with standard interior. R Sport leather seating surfaces, all other leather-like surfaces are synthetic.

 

Yup, that is the same interior as mine had.

 

I have seen several 2007 and 2008 X150 examples in both variations with Ambla vinyl synthetic dashes and none had the shrinking problem leather ones do. You can tell the difference by the texture, leather is smooth and Ambla is pebbled.