Well I was *hoping* that I'd read it wrong.
Wet slick shiny, even oily (
I read in another post) INTERIOR?!?! And in a Luxury car actually.
This is one paragraph (of hundreds) about what you SHOULD be doing to your vehicles leather interior. It contains a number of valid points.
- Caring for virtually any type of seat involves the same basic steps which are cleaning, conditioning and protection. Inevitably over time dirt, dust, human oils, etc. work themselves deep in to the seats and can be quite challenging to remove.
- A good leather cleaner should be able to safely separate those contaminants and help bring them to the surface for removal.
- A quality leather conditioner can help keep the leather soft and flexible yet strong and durable.
- Cleaners and conditioners should not leave a glossy or oily finish behind.
- Lastly some protection can help prevent UV fading while preserving the color and finish for decades to come.
- With proper care the seats will look and feel outstanding year round while increasing the resale value.
The thing is, most leather interiors today are a form of vinyl coated leather, yet it is porous (the coating) to some degree. Without it, leather can (and will) wear and lose it's dye coating where you get in and out often. The coating provides longevity and we want to make sure to keep it up as good as possible.
For the most part, just a weekly (or monthly) wipe down with a damp rag will be worth more than it's weight in gold. Actually weekly helps more to keep up the moisture content in the leather. Too much moisture however and the damage is done and the fibers within start to degrade and can actually become rancid! Putting an oily material on the leather just exacerbates the problem. It WILL lead to early cracking and glazing of the leather. One should not use oils either as the natural oils do not really dry out, just the moisture in the form of water.
Bottom line is do NOT use silicone based products, or silicone oil based products. They are the ones that 'do not dry' and of course leave that slippery and wet surface. If you do, your leather WILL DRY OUT AND CRACK over time.
Meguiar's has a new 2013 product,
Gold Class Leather Sealer Treatment. It looks to be very promising. Cleans correctly and provides a boost to the factory sealant/coating. FWIW it DOES give a little added 'sheen'. But what it also does (
according to Meguiar's) is protect against things like ketchup, crayons, mascara, grease, etc.
I picked up a kit yesterday and will be trying it on some older smooth Cadillac leather (
in amazingly great shape), older slicker looking Toyota leather (
that's cracked in places but not torn or separated), 2005 Envoy Denali with dirty (drivers seat mostly) but decent overall shape leather (especially the rear), and a 2006 GM G6 GTP with two-tone perforated leather. (Probably not on the G, it still looks like new for the most part.) The kit says it'll do 4~5 cars (
or maybe that was Michael Stoops that said that)

and if you look around you can find it for under $13 (
discount codes applied). Seems like a no brainer for the money. Oh, found a BARBERS CHAIR that's been done with it on MOL. (He detailed the entire freaking thing! Now THAT is detailing OCD.) :laughing: