I have had the drivers seat leather cover on the back rest replaced after only 8 months and now the replacement is showing the same signs of wear on the side bolster back.

I do not have the seat set close to the steering wheel and so I am not squeezing in every time, but the top surface has worn through and is now down to the rough under surface.

Has anyone else experienced the same problem?

My car is Superb Elegance 170 DSG registered in July 09 and has done 32K miles.

Just for info my car averages 43.01 mpg over the last 29,498 miles and costs 12.25 p per mile in fuel over the same period

http://www.superb-forum.de/forum/viewtopic.php?f=98&t=763&hilit=Keder

[The wear on my seat is exactly the same as your photographs.

Is that actually real leather in the picture as it almost looks like a "paint" or coating is coming off revealing material under it.

All the real leather I've seen (not in a car I admit) wears through, with colour getting lighter and grain being smoothed, not the surface peeling off.

I have a little wear on mine in the same place, but it stopped getting worse afer I treated the seat with Autoglyms leather care cream. In fact the leather care actually reduced the appearence of the wear and its almost impossible to see now. My car has now covered in excess of 30,000 miles, I'll try and get a picture at some point.

I have a little wear on mine in the same place, but it stopped getting worse afer I treated the seat with Autoglyms leather care cream. In fact the leather care actually reduced the appearence of the wear and its almost impossible to see now. My car has now covered in excess of 30,000 miles, I'll try and get a picture at some point.

I have exactly the same wear on my Bmer, that has very similar mileage, IMO there isn't too much you can do about is as you are always going to slightly scrape the seats when you get in, as already mentioned leather cleaner then conditioner is the best thing, it hides the wear and gives it a nice soft texture.

Edited 30 December, 201015 yr by Sw1

Looks like synthetic leather to me, real cow hide doesn't wear like that. It's very common for leather seats to use a combination of real and faux leather, usually the central sections of a seat are the only real bits.

Seats in the Superb Elegance are not full leather as stated in the brochures. I contacted Skoda about the seats and they confirmed that only the the actual seat facing which you sit on is leather, the remainder is synthetic.

My Mk I was treated regularly with Gliptone Leather products from new and kept their appearance for 6 years, My first Mk II was also treated with Gliptone Leather products and showed no sign of such wear after 2 years, My latest Superb Elegance Combi will be treated the same, so I expect the seats to wear the same. I have no connection with Gliptone, but after over 40 years in the motor trade I have had many vehicles with and without leather seats, and tried many different cleaners and protectors, and have found Gliptone is as good as any.

I always apply treatment as soon as I get the vehicle, always within a day or two this gives them a good start in life, which in my case has paid off.

Seats in the Superb Elegance are not full leather as stated in the brochures. I contacted Skoda about the seats and they confirmed that only the the actual seat facing which you sit on is leather, the remainder is synthetic.

My Mk I was treated regularly with Gliptone Leather products from new and kept their appearance for 6 years, My first Mk II was also treated with Gliptone Leather products and showed no sign of such wear after 2 years, My latest Superb Elegance Combi will be treated the same, so I expect the seats to wear the same. I have no connection with Gliptone, but after over 40 years in the motor trade I have had many vehicles with and without leather seats, and tried many different cleaners and protectors, and have found Gliptone is as good as any.

I always apply treatment as soon as I get the vehicle, always within a day or two this gives them a good start in life, which in my case has paid off.

Hmm... I´m paying about 1500 GBP extra for leather seats in my Elegance. I hope it´s not a rip off...

Hmm... I´m paying about 1500 GBP extra for leather seats in my Elegance. I hope it´s not a rip off...

Part synthetic leather interiors are par for the course these days, nearly all manufacturers use it with the exception of super luxury brands.

Synthetic leather is a very well engineered product and under some circumstances will outlast real cow hide.

It does however suffer quite badly if used in the wrong application, if sharp corners and edges are exposed too much they will wear very quickly. The long strips of synth leather that run down the sides of the squab and back bolsters (the ones highlighted in the linked photo) look prone to premature wear to me as they have exposed edges.

My previous Octavia had the full leather/synth leather trim and nothing wore out over 145,000 miles and I can report the seats are still in excellent condition.

Edited 31 December, 201015 yr by dstev2000

I've just taken a quick picture of mine, these are the original seat coverings which have done 31K miles. My car is ex. Skoda UK so during its first 10K miles led a hard life.

I know that almost all manufacturers have combination of synthetic and real leather. I am surprised that side of seat is from synthetic as I know that on BMW and Audi, synthetic leather is used only on back of the seat, lower side, bottom and other places where your body don't have contact with seat. If this leather wear shows on all beige leather, than I might think about canceling my order. I didn't wanted leather in the first place, but here Elegance package comes with it and you can't do much about it. It was more expensive to get SE trim, and add everything except leather. I didn't liked black leather or black interior at all...

Is there any other beige leather owners with this problem?

I am reasonably convinced that all the forward facing parts are leather. Certainly there is a difference in feel between the side and back of the seats compared to the bolsters and other seat parts. When I treated the seats with the leather treatment, all the facings including the bolsters absorbed the cream. As expected the rear of the front seat and sides did not, so I needed to remove the treatment using a damp cloth from these areas, you can see the difference in texture if you look closely at the picture I posted.

My picture above shows that once treated the wear is not a problem, just do it as soon as you get the car.