After dealer delay of 4 weeks, I only have 4 days to wait for my new FL2 Just one question left, how good is the Napoli leather? With 2 young kids, is it worth applying leather protection through someone like tint a car ($395) or buy a leather conditioning treatment from supercheap and do it myself? Is the leather good quality and the recommnendation to protect yet another gimmick How is everyone's leather faring? Love the forum, my wife doesn't understand. Probably just as well  SD4 SE Orkney Grey

personally I would treat/condition it yourself, then you know it is done right, rather and pay for a monkey to make a mess of it.

you can then repeat the process as often as necessary.

my leather looks great ( nearly three years old, but only 16000mls )

Iain

problem is Iain, I'm a bit of a monkey myself at car maintenance. What product do you recommend? SD4 SE Orkney Grey

markus510 wrote:

problem is Iain, I'm a bit of a monkey myself at car maintenance. What product do you recommend?

Totally agree with Iain, don't let someone else do something that you can do in an hour or so.

Can you get Autoglym products? I use the Leather care balm, it's a white creamy liquid that is a protectant and feeder should only be used on new or precleaned leather so great for you. Goes on easy and non greasy, buffs off to give a nice matt/slightly shiney finish i.e. the same as the leather looks now We pay around £10 Gbp for 500ml
Not sure on your car but only my seat facings are leather, the rest is pleather (grained plastic) but I use it all over including the doorcards - Don't use it on the dashboard top as it will just make it shiney and cause reflections, I just use a damp cloth on there.

If you can't get AG, look for a good quality feeder (Not cleaner).

I use LandRover's own 2-part leather care kit which has so far done a great job of protecting the leather. (it is produced in Italy where they do know a lot about leather and its care)

Her Ladyship's FL2 has done 41k+ kms in 26mths and there is no sign of wear or discolouring on the leather seats. The seats are treated once in the winter months (before the LR water n oil proof seat covers are draped over them - its for after skiing re melting snow off ski gear) and applied twice during the rest of the year.

Application takes approximately 90mins for all 5 seats.

The leather panels are hard wearing and mine don't show (hardly) any wear after 4+ years. I don't fuss much with the leather, but occasionally use Autoglym leather stuff.

However the plastic side panel on the drivers seat is cracking - real crap pleather (imitation leather) stuff. I expect they all go like that in the end - terrible quality for a "quality" car manufacturer. 2007 Freelander 2 HSE TD4 Manual with Premium Pack & Moonroof.
Stornoway Grey with Ebony Black Pleather, Clear Indicators, Body Side Mouldings etc.

Hi Markus, I've found the leather on my Freelander - 3years,76k - to be pretty good. Slight crease marks on the door side back rest bolster, but otherwise unmarked. Mine is Almond, so it does need a bit more attention than Ebony - doesn't get dirtier, just shows it more! I've used Autoglym leather cleaner and their leather cream, but am now using Gliptone cleaner and cream (following a recommendation on this forum) and consider it to be the better of the two, but I think any reputable brand would clean and protect well. I certainly agree with other comments about doing it your self rather than having expensive 'protection' sold to you.
Cheers, Graham.

You've made the right choice with leather. I have the black leather in mine and I treat it with Meguires leather treatment and have some kitten leather wipes (a bi like baby wipes) for the inbetween times.

One area which gets a pounding is the back of the seat in front with kids sitting in their chairs kicking the seat. I just give it a wipe with a baby wipe as often as I can.

Liberty555 wrote:

One area which gets a pounding is the back of the seat in front with kids sitting in their chairs kicking the seat. I just give it a wipe with a baby as often as I can.

Firstly I would have thought that it is illegal to clean a car seat with a baby

But seriously, I told our daughter from the outset that every time she kicks the back of a front seat it is one less ice cream that day. Nuisance resolved

Liberty555 wrote:

You've made the right choice with leather. I have the black leather in mine and I treat it with Meguires leather treatment and have some kitten leather wipes (a bi like baby wipes) for the inbetween times.

One area which gets a pounding is the back of the seat in front with kids sitting in their chairs kicking the seat. I just give it a wipe with a baby wipe as often as I can.

The back panels of the front seats are not leather they are Pleather (plastic imitation leather), so they are more likely to withstand that type of treatment, unlike the side panels of the front seats that get creased when sat on and eventually crack  2007 Freelander 2 HSE TD4 Manual with Premium Pack & Moonroof.
Stornoway Grey with Ebony Black Pleather, Clear Indicators, Body Side Mouldings etc.

bought the autoglym and will try the baby method everytime the back of the seat gets kicked  SD4 SE Orkney Grey