How are your front seats?

[Esquire]

My take, sad to say, having experienced other vehicle makes and trims, is that Toyota "leather" nowadays is marginal at best.

This is true. Leather has been this way for many years. It's the nature of the natural material.

Actually, the best longevity interior material is synthetic or marine grade vinyl.

 

[Scrappopatamus]

I had a pair of Sheep Skin Covers made for mine for this exact reason. I had several laughing but everyone seems to be impressed once I had them installed. Seating feels great and better than the bare seat. Wasn't inexpensive but good solution. I didn't go for the headrest covers or center console cover.

 

[JTP]

22.5k miles in and I don’t have a single crease the the leather (premium ‘24)

 

[4WheelDrive2024]

My 2024 Land Cruiser Premium with Leather seats are holding up well.

We clean them with leather cleaner on a soft microfiber towel, then use a smaller hand held steamer with a thicker microfiber cloth to cover the metal surface and lightly go over the seats to remove extra dirt. Suggest testing any product you apply and any process in a small area first.

Heat tends to be the best solution to tighten back up the leather to remove creases and or waves. You will need to be very careful with a smaller handheld steam iron, or a regular clothing steam iron, and or a heat gun, covering the leather area with a medium thick microfiber towel that has some moisture on it.

I would suggest search the internet for videos on best practices for cleaning and tightening up leather seats, there are several videos that can help you with this process.

Once you complete this process, wipe the seats down again, let them dry completely. Next step is to apply small amounts of leather conditioner to the seats on a microfiber towel in thin coats until the leather is restored. This process is very important due to the perforated leather seats, small amount of leather conditioner evenly distributed on a small area of the towel will help minimize excess conditioner in the perforated holes.

With hot summer and the cold winters, the leather can get dry, stretch and brittle overtime, cleaning and conditioning the leather seats will make a big difference.

I like to think about this process like a good pair of leather shoes, conditioning them, polishing them revitalizes the leather and makes them like new again.

I do this process twice a year on my fully restored 1991 Volkswagen Vanagon Westfalia pop top camper Van with Leather Recaro driving seats.

The Recaro Seats are 12+ years old now and still look like new, I follow this maintenance rule for all my vehicles with leather seats.

New Land Cruiser "leather" seats are rarely 100% genuine hide; they are typically "leather-trimmed" featuring real leather on seating surfaces (butt/back) and synthetic material on sides and backs. Toyota calls this durable, synthetic alternative SofTex®, which is a polyurethane material designed to look and feel like leather.

Take your time and be very careful. The heat and steam is very effective on the leather although you’ll want to be very careful on the SofTex material.

Good luck on your project, I hope this helps.

 

[supernova]

Reminder......$65,000.00+ vehicle. When the "time is right" should be more like 100,000 miles from now, NOT after less than 5000 miles!

I had creasing issues at 2,800 miles and opened a case with TMNA. They directed a dealer to replace the seat leather cover. The dealer replaced it, but the vehicle came back in worse condition than when it went in. Based on my experience, expecting the dealer to “make it right” may not always lead to a better outcome.

 

[BYoshi]

Do you guys in the US get leather we get this crap stuff called leatherette or fake leather. - not good in a car that costs soo much.

Looks like no one answered your question lol. We got both actually. The 1958 trim gets cloth, the Land Cruiser trim get SofTex (pleather) and the optional "Premium Package" add on to the Land Cruiser trim swaps the SofTex for real leather

 

[ultane]

I spilled bleach (toilet blowing cleaner) all over my passenger seat and center console yesterday...

2 new videos · Thursday, Feb 26 🎬

Tap to view!

photos.app.goo.gl

Steam cleaned and shampooed it out about an hour later, no bleaching whatsoever

What kind of device was that??

 

[ultane]

Hello. I have a new '25 LC250 1958 Edition. Picked up in January and currently @ 9,500 miles. I really wanted leather seats but didn't want to spend the add'l $10k-$15k to get into the Land Cruiser (premium) package. The additional features weren't important enough to me and I thought I could "live" with the cloth seats. I was happy with my decision for the first 2 months or so. Soon, I realized I was just fooling myself. I could feel the seats getting "softer" and less supportive. I felt it most with the bolster opposite what's shown in your photo above. After a 3,500 mile drive out to Colorado and back, I decided I would get the Katzkin aftermarket leather. It's the best $2400 decision I ever made and I'm not looking back. The tautness of the leather provides a really great firmness and support the fabric surface just couldn't. The color selection is so much better than what the factory offered too. Lastly, I'm convinced I'll get more life out of these seats than I would have if I kept the fabric.

Anyway, just wanted to throw that in there in case anyone was wondering what an alternative would look and cost like. I'm surprised the dealer is willing to work with the other forum member on the wear of their factory leather seats. Good luck with this, guys. Otherwise, I'm still OVERWHELMINGLY happy with my LC250.

How are you still liking your Katzin seat covers?