stevobentz

Hey guys,

just like the title states, would love to see how the leather is holding up in peoples cars especially as we just approached 10 years of the Gen 3 LS being out. I for one am extremely disappointed in how mine is holding up from the previous owner.

Has anyone figured out a cure or some kind of method short of lexol to restore their seats? Took it to Fibrenew and they said once the leather starts losing paint in the perforated areas and once it dries it there is nothing you can do but reupholster. Anyways, would love to see how your leather is doing!

Here are my front seats in a 2008 black ls460

my perforated areas are completely cracked and the seats look 10x worse in person. That is the only part of my car that makes it look old/dated.

Ls600hl60

Check leather world tech.com web site

roadfrog

The leather in my 08 with 130k miles still looks like new.

LS430FL

While my leather isnt that bad in my 2011 LS460L, I was happier with the quality and hold up of my 06 LS430 leather.

1WILLY1

iTrader: (9)

I would have your seats re-dyed, you could bring them back to life and get a few more years out of them at least

Only area I don't think they can fix is the drivers side bolster, the way its worn out, unless someone was able to take the seat cover off and put some new foam back in there

I restore leather as a side hobby, Ive gotten some great results

This is an sc430 I did a while back

Doublebase

Wow^^^ Amazing work, how did you do that?

Doublebase

My seats aren't holding up all that great, then again I have the tan color so things are going to show up. The front seats are wrinkled and of course those are filling up with dirt. I don't have any sections where the leather is worn away or anything, just getting lots of wrinkles on the side supports. The back seats look great, and my kids sit back there a few times a week. I do clean my seats once a month or so. I'll post pictures later on. To tell you the truth I don't think I've even seen leather seats in a ten year old commuter car look good. Ever. In fact I've seen a lot worse, with cracks, tears, worn away sections, etc. So I guess I'm lucky?

Stereorob

I see these cars everyday where I work and ive been following the LS in general since 2000. its been interesting watching these cars age. the 460 leather seems to be holding up pretty damn good compared to the 400 and 430. but then again they are only 10 years old, not 20+ like the 400s. I see plenty of wrinkles in the leather on these cars but its still soft supple and no cracks or wear through. all and all the early 460s have held up pretty damn good cosmetically. -aside from the sticky dash/door panel thing that infests some of them

Dave144239

Is there a way to tell whether the car comes with the semi-aniline leather? I can't figure out if it's standard on the LS 460L or not.

Wandl

What year is your LS460L? It usually comes bundled in a package (i.e. Luxury package...though LS460's have a LOT of luxury packages)

RR601

Not happy at all with the leather in my 2011 with 35K miles.

If I could would have paid extra for the longer lasting Pleather.

Gbp

One easy way to tell: For 2007-2012,, look at the interior door armrests. If there's stitching around the outer edge, then it's semi-aniline leather. And, no, it's not standard on the LWB. You would need either the Luxury Package, the Rear Seat Upgrade Package, or the Executive-Class Seating Package. For 2013+, I believe you would need the Semi-aniline Leather and Alcantra Headliner Upgrade Package.

In the attached photo, you can also see stitching on that area of the door panel.

Junglequac

Leatherique can work wonders. That said, mine so far looks great at 88,000 miles. Semi aniline leather is more delicate if not properly taken care of owing to it having less processing done.

After having an UL LS430, I will say the leather in it was slightly softer, but this was almost only noticed on the armrest up front. Though I am sure the back seat was super plush as well.

Mob4life

Before I bought my 2011 Ls sport package I had the 04 LS. I sold it when it hit 303,000 miles. Considering the mileage, the leather held up remarkably well. When I bought the 460, the driver side seat was severely cracked. It only had 39k miles. But because i was still under factory warranty I took it to Lexus of Rockville and they replaced my seat cover. So far so good at 72,000 miles.

1WILLY1

iTrader: (9)

Thanks man , that was one of my earlier restorations I did about 2-3 years ago

I use a leather dye system, I prep the seats, make any repairs and then respray them with an airbrush or hvlp spray system

I was trying to find this out as well, and it appears that mine has it

The packages on these 460's is weird as hell

My 460L has the rear seat package , the semi aniline leather package, air suspension , heated steering wheel and a lot of other options, but yet it comes with the base audio system...... big let down, I'm really bothered by not having the premium sound system

Leatherique is great , but they are designed for more of an end user, retail type application , and they don't have a very good color matching system, and what they do have on file is very out of date

I was in talks with leatherique off and on for like a year, he was never able to find my lexus interior code , even after getting it from dealer he had no records of it and was never able to get a dye for me unless I cut a sample from my interior and mailed it to him.

Also leatheriques colors are known to be much less vibrant then some of the others, but they are still very well respected and used by many people