Hi everybody. I have 2014 IS250 AWD; not sure of the trim but it is not F-Sport. I recently visited VW dealerships as my wife wants get an Atlas. With this being said they offer the fake leather seats in almost all cars except the highest SEL premium. The dealer said i probably run fake leather too since i dont have F-Sport version. How do I tell if my car has real leather seats?

 

To the best of my knowledge in the IS platform, the ultra luxury package only offered leather trim, and the rest are all NuLuxe interiors. Meaning, the best you could really have is the leather on the outer portions of the seating area with the rest being NuLuxe and leather on the the other soft touch areas. The brochures really don’t state leather seat option, only leather trim upgrade with the Ultra Luxury package. Most every mainstream manufacturer is going to the cruelty free leatherette option, leaving real leather as an premium upgrade. ES and up still offer the leather seating though.

 

One of the reasons I had my 2016 IS350 custom built I wanted real leather, I had to select the luxury package (which wasn't available on F-Sport).
There was not a single IS on my dealer's lot that had real leather and when he started the internet search - very few across the country.

 

Yeah, unfortunately, like KYLexusMkr pointed out the ultra luxury package is the only one, pretty much all else including F-Sport are Nulux. Heck, to be honest, i don't even know what to uv treat it with i have been using Lexol because it's not greasy but then again its really intended for leather.

 

Just to be clear - the name was simply "luxury package", I still have the window sticker.

 

You are correct, I work with the ES’s all day and that’s the trim level for the leather option on them. It’s only available on the Ultra level, luxury still has the NuLuxe. The IS is just Luxury package.

 

Not sure why someone would want real leather over NuLuxe, you can hardly tell the difference at all, it wears better, looks nicer for longer, requires NO maintenance (unlike real leather), and doesn't kill cows. No brainer, right?

 

I beg to disagree. I selected the real leather precisely because I didn't like the look/feel of NuLuxe which felt very 'thin' and 'plasticky' to me. My seats smell a lot better, feel supple and 'expensive', wear nicely (no maintenance) and don't develop cracks and tears like you can read about NuLuxe from past threads.

 

I hope you don't have a very important job at the plant, if you think only the UL ES comes with real leather.

Are you confusing this with the "semi-aniline" leather?

 

😂 it’s what they call “leather” in house. The other is just regular, we don’t even call it NuLuxe.

 

There are 2 "actual" leathers in addition to the fake NuLuxe. The Luxury edition gets the upgrade to real leather, then the UL gets the semi-aniline leather. What do you actually do at the factory?

 

First, you'd have to be a nut to really let the feel difference bother you (drive naked much?) . But all of us are nuts in some way, so I'm good with that.

Where you're wrong, and I hate to use that word but it's correct here, is with the maintenance. Simply put, if you know anything about leather you know that the better grade it is, the more maintenance you will have on it. Aniline, for example, requires much more maintenance than standard leather...and BOTH require more maintenance than NuLuxe.

 

I've had my UL ES since new, so a little over 6 years. I have used nothing but a damp microfiber cloth to clean the seats. They still look as good as they did when new. I'll agree that the fake seats will take more abuse, but you don't have to go crazy to maintain leather seats in modern Lexus vehicles.

 

Owned multiple cars with real leather, one for over 20 years, let me be the judge of maintenance "hardships", and stop this condescending tone of you "know better". We clearly buy different cars and this is just fine.

 

It depends on how you treat it, and how nice it is. Some of it falls apart just looking at it.


I don't care what you've had, nor am I being condescending, just stating the facts.