We have had our Tl for a few months now and the driver's seat has some major creases, cracks, whatever you want to call them already. The dealer has ordered a new seat bottom and it is still on backorder. Does anyone else have these cracks already? Should I have it replaced now or just wait til it gets worse?

 

Yep mime too. That is UNSAT for a car that costs this much. Anyway, I am going to contact my dealer also.

 

JBRedZ28,

Sorry to hear that. Do you mind providing some photo for us? We'd like to make sure we talk about the same thing.

I have the wrinkles since day 1, and always use leather protection stuff to maintain them weekly, which is very helpful.

Tons of ppl say the good leather is never wrinkleless. But those crease could be enlarged and worse by time and frequent in/out.

 

Here is a pic of the seat.

 

in leather ,

 

Thats normal.

 

Looks about the same as mine. Thats bad too. My car is almost 7 years old!

 

But not after just a couple of months, right?!?!?

 

Is the black leather easy to show those crease/ridge?

As I said, lots of wrinkle since the day 1, I put some leather protection weekly to maintain my seats. If better leather would get more wrinkle, I have to take care of it as the way I do to my leather sofa or leather coat.

This would be helpful.

 

I think the dark colors show it worse than the lighter colors. You can only notice it on mine when you look closely.

 

Me too..the quartz is hard to tell....I feel that the creases are just the seat being broken in a bit....nothing I'm too concerned about...now if I was driving a 50K + car, I would question the quality, but this is only a 30-35K car

 

It's normal

 

Looks like my 04 TL seat.

My 8 year old toyota did not look like that (with black leather).

 

Wow, my 2002 TLS looks nothing like that. That's just unacceptable. Anyone know if the seats are made of different material for 2004?

 

yes, much softer!

 

I may be way off base here, but personally I like those creases. Anyhow could the creasing be from the fact that the leather is "thirsty" leather cleaner/conditioner?

 

nope, did mine the second week I got it.

 

My crease is well under control after putting some leather protection on periodically.

 

My 00 S2000 has the problem, but not my 01 BMW. The leather in the Honda/Acuras is much thinner than the BMW...real cheap stuff. Makes you wonder why they bothered.

 

Meguire's has a leather conditioner (Gold Class Rich Leather). The label says it does not make the leather glossy nor sticky. Has anyone tried it?

 

My Honda Pilot looked like that ONE WEEK after I got it....

And it has holes in the leather just like that one... the leather seats without the holes tend to keep better?

 

Yeah, I bought a bottle at Target the other day. Works as advertised, doesn't leave a gloss or make it sticky. AND... this is worth a lot to me -- it seems to "tighten" the leather to get rid of the butt prints! Now my passenger side seat is much healthier looking after two light applications of the conditioner.

 

Can you apply the conditioner to the entire seat? I think someone said that only part of the seat is real leather and I'm just wondering what the leather conditioner will do to the other material???

 

Not necc. true as my 94 Accord and 01 CL-s never did crease like that....I actually had better luck with my Hondas/Acuras than my mom has had with her various Mercedes. I think the leather they use is pretty decent...if its not the best, we must keep in mind we did not buys Beemers/Benzes, so we cannot expect that quality. But for the price, this stuff has always treated me pretty well

 

Leather conditioner will not harm the vinyl. The leather is typically in all places the body touches, with the back and sides in matching vinyl.

 

I don't see the big deal about the creases, sorry. Maybe you should have gotten vinyl or leatherette instead.

 

It's not just normal, it's BEAUTIFUL! Only someone without a clue about how really good leather looks and wears would think that this is a defect!

 

That is normal, you just need to care for the leather. Think about a pair of leather dress shoes. The first time you wear them they get creases lines that look just like your seats look.

 

Mine looks exactly like the picture up top I have a ebony interior. The indentation where our rears go does not look normal at all. I might take my car in to get that checked out

 

If that indentation is typical of what people are referring to as "butt prints" that does not seem right to me. I had thought people were talking about a general pattern of creasing in little hill and valley patterns that ARE normal for high-quality leather. That indentation just looks awful.

As for the cracks, they are definitely normal, but bear in mind they are much more noticeable on dark leather. My 3-year-old CL has tan leather (probably the same color as the 3gTL's parchment) and has LOTS of little cracks, but you don't really notice them in that color. And only minor butt prints, by the way.

I'm not a big fan of the whole perforated leather concept that all the automakers seem to be moving towards. What exactly is the big deal with that? More "breathable" some people say. I have no idea what that means. My CL's non-perforated leather feels great year round.

 

Put on Leather conditioner. It can help.

IMO, if your car is still new, u still can make seats less wrinkle.

 

My 98 Audi did that, my 98 Mercedes did that, my 2000 BMW also. My Johns

 

Try this for your seats. It is one of the best conditioners on the market, and smells like fresh leather.

http://properautocare.com/pin-340.html

 

Most automotive leather is not dyed, it is coated with a matching color to the vinyl in the interior. Then it is sprayed with a clear coating to protect it. They call automotive leather, "Protected Leather." The cracks you're seeing are in the coating, not the leather. It is not normal and doesn't reflect well on the process used by Acura. The high-end leathers used in a lot of European cars is Analine leather which is tanned vs. coated which wears much more naturally and evenly over time. You can tell the difference because tanned leather will absorb moisture while coated leathers won't.

Notice the wear patterns on the uncoated leather below vs. the picture originally posted:

 

the new TL leather is MUCH softer than the last generation, or the ones on european cars... when i bought my couch, the salesman told me that the softer the leather is, the easier it creases or wears.. the rougher leather is more durable. so if u want softer ones then u have to sacrifice with durability

 

The only crack on my seats is the one on top of it every morning and night!

 

What make of car is that pic from? The color of the leather is darker than in my CL, but the wear pattern looks the same. That is how my leather looks after three years. So if you're saying that pic shows how GOOD car leather ages, then Acura put GOOD leather in my CL. Are we saying the 3gTL has cheaper leather, or that Acura used a cheaper coating process in that car than in my 2gCL?

I still wonder if the perforations are partly to blame for some of the "butt print" complaints. Maybe perforation doesn't explain the cracks, which can be seen in the original poster's pic in the non-perforated area, but maybe it does explain the awful-looking indentation in the middle of the seat.

 

Thats not normal among good leather, but normal for Honda leather.

That seat looks to be several years old compared to my mercedes, which is a 1996 model. Seats are mint looking still. Lexus makes great leather in the SC models, my g/f has one (2002) seats still look perfect.

 

I've never cared for the perforated look. It just looks incomplete. As for being more breathable, what they mean is that the seat will cool down faster because of all the openings in the leather. Comes in handy if you leave your car out in the sun.

 

It's the natural (untreated) leather that's optional on the Volvo R's.

I had a TL-S and an MDX, both with Ebony interiors, and they looked exactly like the picture posted earlier in the thread. I've never seen a late model Acura interior that didn't have prominent creases that appear as cracks in the leather. I don't think it's the leather, I think it's what Acura’s supplier uses to color and coat the leather. There is no coating on the Volvo leather and the German brands don't coat their premium leathers either. BMW has eight different grades of leather and the top three aren't coated. It's cheaper to coat and color leather than dye it, as the underlying leather has to be of a higher and consistent quality to accept the dye uniformly and match the rest of the interior trim. The difference between the Volvo's creases and the Acura's are that the creases disappear in the Volvo if you pull the leather taught. The lines in the Acura leather are permanent and show up lighter than the surrounding leather.

My last eight cars had leather interiors and the only one worse than my two Acura’s was a 98 Isuzu Rodeo.

And thinner leather may be great for coats and gloves, but there’s a reason manufacturers don’t use it. It wears too easily. The best high-end car leather is soft to the touch but not thin and pliable. I’ve never seen a Lexus, M-B, BMW, or Audi with “but prints” in the seats.

Also, all the talk of conditioning the leather as a preventative measure is kind of funny as you're actually treating the plasticsized color coating that's on top of the leather. I’m sure some of the conditioner seeps through the coating but not the majority of it.