Car is 3 weeks old now and I am starting to realize the leather is unprotected.  I didn't go for the £300 body/interior care package offered by the dealer as it was such a hard sell, and thought it wouldn't be good vfm.

 

Can anyone recommend a good leather protection kit or product?.  I have the black leather elegance.  

 

Also, should I get the outside bodywork treated with something beyond wax whilst it is still new?  

 

Don't mind paying a professional for either (but baulk at three hundred quid!)

Edited 30 June, 201313 yr by AlbieWhite

Use..     I find the more you sit in the car the more the leather looks good, I haven't used anything other than baby wipes to clean my seats and they look good.

Dr. Leather wipes, brings the leather looking like new again (nice satin finish)

I use Autoglym leather care and its awesome it even makes the seats smell of real leather.

Good decision re the dealer! I use autoglym leather cleaner and leather balm applied with a mf cloth, but if your leather has perforations you'll need to apply the balm sparingly, otherwise it collects in the holes. The gtechnique stuff is supposed to be good but I've not tried it myself. If you don't mind waxing your car twice a year I'd say diy. use the 2 bucket method to wash your car and invest in a jet wash using either citrus pre cleaner or snow foam. With the tbm use a god ph neutral car wash-I use ag's and either micro fibre or lambs wool mits and microfibre towels to dry it off. Don't use sponges for anything other than applying tyre black as these are the biggest cause of swirl marks so avoid them at all cost. If you want to use more than wax seal the paintwork first-something like ag extra gloss finish follow the intructions then wait for 24 hrs then wax on top with something like ag super resin polish, though there's loads of choice depending on what manufacturer you prefer. HTH

Use Dr Leather wipes on mine. Lovely new leather smell, and wipes muck off a treat.

Alb have a read here

 

http://www.autogeek.net/leather-car-care.html

 

I thought I was getting a car with leather recently so I did some swatting up, this one is pretty informative.

Edited 30 June, 201313 yr by Supurbia

Thanks everyone, Littleade, do you know if the treatments you recommend sort of replicate what they would do as part of the dealer's £300 treatment?

 

I've costed what you say at about £50, which seems reasonable if it gives me as good as the dealer (if you see what I mean).

The info I gleaned was to keep it breathing and supple as it's under attack from sunlight and aircon and oils in your skin, iirc one site said simply wiping it down with a soapy cloth was the best way to keep it nice, you'd have to check what they mean by soapy though, don't use washing up liquid on it, it's salty and will damage it.

The dealer will use ag lifeshine or something similar. Youcan buy it on ebay theres three parts to it by the looks of things 1 each for the interior, glass and paintwork

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AUTOGLYM-LIFESHINE-Life-Shine-Auto-glym-Car-Cleaning-/140991106222?pt=UK_Car_Accessories_Car_Care_Cleaning&hash=item20d3b98cae

I had our Seat supaguarded years ago and to me it was a waste of money which is why I do my own waxing now butTBH Im a novice compared to many on the site but have had some great advice to set me on my way

Preperation is the key and make sure the paint is really clean I use farecla g3 detox shampoo. If you search the site for lifeshine you should find so interesting info.

Drop me a pm ifI can help you further, or you could try someone like chrisRS whos a real star when it comes to detailing

Alternatively you could see if theres a briskoda detailer near you who would do it for you. ChrisRS is very knowledgable but a bit far away from you but he will probably give you some pointerss if you pm him

@ littleade

 

You are so right there, I used to do these protection packs many years ago and even if they do work you are in the hands of a valeter who just wants to get the job done quickly and won't do it properly, you tend to think some trained pro is doing the job but the reality is it's done by a minimum wage guy who quite frankly has no real reason to give a toss if it's done right or not.

+1^^^^^ on this Superbia. The Seat dealer made a right pigs ear of our Altea including leaving faint swirl marks on a brand new car they then had to polish out!

 

I wanted to reject the car at the time, but we bought right at the end of a promo where they were offering the altea with a PD engine for silly money and there were no more left in the colour so we were stuffed. Don't get me wrong I'm sure SOME dealers make a good job of it, problem is you don't know if they're going to give the job to someone who knows what they are doing and has the time or some spotty youf on minimum wage. I don't know what a professional detailer would charge but you can bet it'd be cheaper than the dealer and you'd know what you were getting.

 

My dealer seems top notch TBF and he has a number of detailers working for him who really know their stuff and have helped me loads and if I did want it doing I'd have no problem chosing them, but previous personal experience suggests it's a waste of money. The last time I looked the which reports said much the same and only thought it may be worth while if you did a load of motorway miles, which I don't.

 

Each to their own though as some wouldn't want to spend time doing the weekly clean using theTBM and all that prep and waxing a couple of times a year so that may be a better option for them.