Pookyal

Interested to try Dr. Leather and Dodo juice, can you expand on the advantages of these, haven't heard of them before. I've never considered the specific cleaner that important, assuming it doesn't actually damage the leather. The dirt always seems come off fairly easily anyway. To be honest because of the coatings put on car leather I always think of it as cleaning plastic rather than leather. Is that sacrilege?

Black and cream leather wear the same but the wear shows in different, and in my opinion, equally unattractive ways. The cream leather will be as shiny as the black but the lighter colour means it is not obvious. Similarly, the black leather will have dirt ingrained cracks but the dark colour disguises this.

Black leather shows its age and dirt differently by becoming shiny, which I don't like either. This is generally thought to be caused by clothes rubbing on the leather and polishing it to a shine, but is in fact caused by an accumulation of grease and dirt. The grease largely coming from oils on human skin. The only way to return it to the more attractive matt finish the leather had when new is by giving it a good clean. It is dirt that does most damage to car leather by abrading the surface every time someone sits in the seat. Without being cleaned the dirt will eventually cause cracks to form in the leather which if left long enough will split. The best way the look after car leather is simply to clean it when it becomes dirty. Because car leather is coated in plastic, and therefore unable to absorb any products used on it, conditioners and the like serve little or no purpose. The best car leather conditioners are able to soften the polyurethane top coat and temporarily make the leather feel slightly better but serve no purpose beyond that. The big disadvantage of using conditioners is that they leave a greasy film on the leather which allows dirt to adhere more easily. I use Autoglym leather and vinyl clearer on my seats with a softish nail brush to agitate the dirt. I then wipe off with a cloth. It's a fairly easy process, particularly if done regularly. That's all you need to do to keep your seats looking good indefinitely.

Thanks very much for the help guys, should make things a bit easier. I'll see if they've got an 'Ivory' in stock. I assume 'Ivory' is something different from 'Rutland Ivory' which is another Lexus colour I've seen listed on a leather dye site? I'm intending to use 'Gliptone Liquid Leather' which I've used before and really like. You just dab it on the worn area with a wet sponge. Takes a little patience and it doesn't seem like it's going to work but the results are usually great. Of course, this method is only any good on fairly small areas of wear. Previously did some cream leather in a Jag which worked brilliantly. Did a dark grey Porsche interior more recently which I never quite got a perfect match with. It's the only dark leather I've attempted and I suspect any slight difference in shade is more noticeable than with a lighter colour. I really like the Lexus leather in my car because it is so soft. So many modern car leathers feel thick and hard. The leather in the 90s Jag I had was like that and not very pleasant to the touch. Having said that, my IS 250 seats probably have more wear than you would expect given the age and mileage of the car. Everything else is in pretty much as new condition, but the seats definitely need some work.

I've just bought a 2009 IS 250 with what I believe are called 'Oakham' beige leather seats with the trim code 'LA00'. Unfortunately, the driver's seat has some wear to the bolster, which I would like to repair with leather dye as I have done successfully on other cars. However, none of the companies that supply such products seem to recognize this colour and therefore need a sample piece of leather from my car to mix the correct match. I'd rather not have to do this, not least because there don't seem to be any excess bits of leather to cut from beneath the seats or elsewhere. Does anyone know whether 'Oakham' also goes by different names in different models or years or countries? It would seem that all the leather colours go by different names in America, for example. The company I am dealing with have a match for 'Cotswold' beige and I know there are other seemingly similar colours that go by names such as 'Ecru', 'Alabaster', 'Rutland' and 'Ivory'. If there is any overlap with these it would be useful to know. Thanks.