I'm not seeing a contradiction in my messages.
The reason that I still purchase cars despite the issues that I have is that I need transportation to get around.
The reason that I buy cars with leather is because:
1. I have the same issues with cloth seats, just for a shorter time period,
2. Vehicles with leather interiors tend to be larger and safer, have more safety features, and more luxury appointments that I'd like to have,
3. I haven't given up on trying to find either a medical solution or a way to eliminate the odor (hence my post here), and
4. Once leather vehicles lose their odor, they are much better choices than cloth for a variety of reasons. Among other things,
a. they can be cleaned without introducing fragrances. If you truly want to clean a cloth seat, you pretty much have to use a shampoo type product which leaves a residue inside the cloth and foam and which smells for years. A leather or vinyl seat can be easily cleaned with a general purpose cleaner.
b. They are also resistant to other things: One time, I had a mechanic who worked under my dashboard with his armpit on the cloth seat, and the cloth seat absorbed massive amounts of his sweat. The car smelled like BO for weeks. After trying to clean it 4x, the dealer ultimately swapped out the entire seat. Leather is also easier to clean up spills. Imagine if someone spilled perfume on a cloth seat. You'd never get the smell out.
There are a number of reasons that I don't buy used cars. I actually tried purchasing several used vehicles with mixed results.
The first one turned out to be a women and smoker's car and had been "bombed" by the dealership. The result of the "bomb" was to cover up the smoke smell for the first few days, but after about a week, the car reeked of perfume and cigarette smoke. The effect was as bad as a new car with leather, except that in addition to having headaches, I found the odor objectionable as well. I actually like the smell of leather, in that it smells good.
In another case, I purchased a used vehicle from a dealer that detailed it by shampooing the carpet using a rub in, leave in shampoo that itself had a strong fragrance. It took me about two weeks to figure out where the smell was coming from. It took four rinses with a steam extractor to get the carpet truly clean, and another year before the odor went away completely.
There are all sorts of other issues with used cars, including the risk that the prior owner used an air freshener, spilled a bottle of perfume somewhere, or sprayed febreze all over the interior (very common nowadays - as most people thing Febreze kills odors (it doesn't)).
And that doesn't even get into the risk that the prior owner might not have changed the oil as often as he should have, or redlined the car a lot, or gotten into an accident. The accident issue can be identified by a good mechanic, but its almost impossible to determine if the prior owner has an oil sludge issue without pulling the oil pan, and finding evidence of abusive driving is almost impossible.
All in all, new cars are the better choice.
Which gets back to my original question: Can anyone recommend a good mechanical device that I can use to clean the leather so that my hands don't get tired?
To me:
Your latest posts seem contradictory from what you originally posted.
Could I be mistaken?
Just curious...
If you already
knew of your "leather-sensitivities"...Why would you have another vehicle with leather appointments?
Bob
