IIRC I read somewhere at this forum, that only the cars with perforated leather seats have the complete, "all leather" package. Is this true, or are this just the air vented seats?

Mine has no perforated seats, rather the seats have a narrow double stitching in the center, running vertically.

The seats very positively feel like real leather!

The dashboard looks like leather, but feels kinda "dry", not "supple", like the seats. Maybe just more conditioner is needed? I had the leather cleaned and cared for 1 1/2 years ago.

For what should I check, and IF dashboard is synthetic, how to care for it?

Thanks in advance, Hermann

 

 

I suspect that your interior is all vinyl, but North American and European models are not identical. You may want to ask a Jaguar dealer to look up your VIN build specs to determine whether your upholstery is leather or vinyl.

Your seat pattern is for the base interior trim. In the USA, that was vinyl for the seats, door panels, and dashboard. Optional was the Luxury Package, with perforated leather seats, leather door panels, and leather dashboard.

My 2009 XKR Portfolio leather seats are perforated and heated, but not ventilated.

The Owner's Handbook will explain how to care of the interior. It's in the Stickies at the top of this Forum.

Your Caramel interior looks great!

 

Ambla synthetic interiors have a pebbled texture, leather is smooth grain.

 

You do not have the "Luxury" full leather package (which includes leather on the dash). But rest assured that your seating surfaces ARE real leather, not vinyl. Jaguar uses ONLY leather for the seating surfaces, except where there is Alcantara trim. The sides and back and door panels and dash in your car are in premium vinyl. Leather conditioner will do not harm at all to the dashboard covering. hat you want to avoid is any sort of silicone-containing liquid (especially on the leather of the seats). Many "commercial" leather "conditioners" contain silicones....use one which is silicone free, such as Lexol (there are many others). Leather should be treated with condioner (by YOU, preferably) far more regularly than every year and a half. The object is to keep the surface colour-coat soft and supple. So easy to do.

 

You are correct, but actually, the leather seating surfaces in the standard interior (which is rare) are not nearly as smooth as the leather in the Luxury interior - and you are correct about the Ambla on the dash.

 

As mentioned above, anyhow, only the seating surface is ever in real leather on modern Jaguars, never the back nor the rear… that’s playing on the words but it’s a legal marketing trick even if “all leather” is confusing.

I remember a US customer could force in court Jaguar to deliver him full leather seats for his X100 in the 90s but since this incident they review the wording of the brochures more cautiously.

To get full leather seats nowadays you need to move up to the Bentley market segment…

But what is interresting is that whatever the version, the non-expert can’t distinguish the side vinyl from the front leather… so the imitation is perfect and any cheat is possible by the manufacturers.

 

[QUOTE=thierry_1500;2387489]As mentioned above, anyhow, only the seating surface is ever in real leather on modern Jaguars, never the back nor the rear… QUOTE]

Thierry: this is NOT true! The premium leather or "Luxury" trim or as it is called for the F-Type: "Extended leather" is REAL leather and it is everywhere: dash, console trim, the entire surface of the seats, seating surface, sides and back of the seat, door panels, and depending on the model, even the headliner. It is NOT vinyl.
When Jaguar says "leather" it IS leather.
But when Mercedes says" Artico leather", it is vinyl!

 

It is Real leather . Mine came from pedigree bull stock in Manchester lol

 

It's real leather in the luxury package, but not all the surfaces share the same leather. It's not all done from the same hide or hides like on the fancier brands.

In the long run, the vinyl will probably hold up better. For the vinyl surfaces, I would use 303 Protectant that includes UV guard.

 

[QUOTE=sov211;2387495]Well, I discussed this many times with Jaguar dealers and with Jaguar HQ people themselves at the first X351 test event they made in France and they recognized that this was absolutely true for the X100, X150 and X351: vinyl on back, rear and everything that is not seating surface.

This was in 2010, since then there may have been some changes and some full leather option may have exceptionally surfaced after the f-type came out as you say but I definitely doubt it.

When Jaguar says “leather seats”, they really mean “seating surface is in leather and we frankly do hope you will believe the rest is in leather also given the prices we charge”.

Now if you have a written statement of Jaguar saying this has become wrong and that the seats of their cars are nowadays in 100% full leather even for the side and back I’m ready to gladly accept it, it would be a positive evolution.

 

Interesting. Very interesting. I know about that Mercedes pseudo Leather. Real Leather is RARE today, regardless of make of car ( $$$ excepted ). I presume it´s a vegan and "PC" thingy.

:-(

Hermann

 

FWIW, my Vanden Plas had better leather than my XK.

 

Agreed, I had a 2005 Super V8 and after 100k miles the leather was flawless
and looked néw.

 

A Vanden Plas or Daimler SHOULD have better leather, than an "ordinary" Jag ...

 

[QUOTE=thierry_1500;2387655][QUOTE=sov211;2387495

When Jaguar says “leather seats”, they really mean “seating surface is in leather and we frankly do hope you will believe the rest is in leather also given the prices we charge”.

Now if you have a written statement of Jaguar saying this has become wrong and that the seats of their cars are nowadays in 100% full leather even for the side and back I’m ready to gladly accept it, it would be a positive evolution.[/QUOTE]


Thierry:

Today I spent an hour looking through my sales brochures. I wrote a long, detailed and very convincingly erudite answer regarding Jaguar's use of leather and Jaguar's description of the full leather vs. the partial leather interiors. And then the system timed out and told me to start all over again. sigh....so this has to be short: I will try to be concise. Certain Jaguar models, including the early X150, had both "standard" and "Premium" or "Luxury" interiors. The standard interiors had leather seating surfaces only- and that word "surfaces" is the crucial one, as you will see, because it is the word Jaguar uses to distinguish partial leather upholstery from the FULL leather upholstery.

Quoting from the Canadian-market (English) XK brochures: 2007: in the section on interiors, the "standard" interior description says simply: "leather trimmed interior" - the seats had only leather seating surfaces. The "Luxury package" says: "Leather instrument panel" and "Soft-grain leather interior". In this case the seats are completely leather trimmed. Another 2007 brochure is far more descriptive: The interior description is "Leather seating surfaces on standard seats; leather seats on Luxury Package seats". Please note that the differentiating word is "surfaces" - when the seats are full leather, this word is not mentioned. It is to be understood that the standard seats have leather seating surfaces ONLY while the Luxury interiors have seats fully upholstered in leather. The 2008 brochure says the same thing but adds information: here the Luxury Package adds: "Leather instrument panel" and an all encompassing: "Soft-grain leather interior".

But let's look at another model, the XF. The Canadian-market French language 2009 brochure describes the difference between the standard and luxury interiors thus: the standard has : "Sièges en cuir" while the Luxury model description says "Sièges en cuir souple"; presumably for French speakers softness is the main thing (!). The English version is more descriptive: the standard interior: "Leather seating surfaces", while the Premium Luxury version has "Softgrain leather seats" - again, note the use of the word surfaces to denote partial leather.

Earlier today I pulled up more examples. But for now, let's just look at the X-Type, the entry-level Jaguar of the 2000's. There was never a full leather interior offered for this model - the cost would simply be prohibitive. So how did Jaguar describe the seats in the X-Type? If you have followed what is written above you will have seen that the key word for partial leather seat trim is "surfaces". The 2007 X-Type brochure describes the interior as having "Leather seating surfaces" ; there is no option for full leather seats.
In other words, Jaguar only uses the word "leather" when it truly means leather. And when only PART of the seat is trimmed in leather the code description is "seating surfaces".

Finally, the F-Type: the standard interior has seats trimmed in a combination of leather and Suedecloth (Alcantara). BUT there is also the option of a full leather interior, that is one in which the entire seat AND the dashboard top, the grab handle, the console trim, the windscreen pillar trim, the headliner, the sunvisors, the door trim...are all in Premium ("Windsor") leather and are so described in the brochures.
Here is the interior of my car in Brogue. Everything in that colour, plus the black of the dashboard, the A pillars, the headliner, the door trim and armrests and the sunvisors - all of that is in butter-soft Italian leather. Only the floor mats are not leather





I rest my case...but I can provide more examples if necessary. It is quite easy to distinguish leather from Ambla (vinyl) in a Jaguar interior.

 

Thanks for all this semantic research sov211, but to me I stick to what I’ve been told by Jaguar managers and wrote.

As you point out, there may be some exceptions via options, but generally Jaguar seats are not in full leather, except when absolutely clearly written so (and incidentally I saw nothing of the like in the F-type brochure, maybe you can point me to the right paragraph?).

Besides, for a non expert it is absolutely impossible to distinguish between vinyl and leather.

For the records I had an XKR Silverstone at a time, which was the best optioned X100 when it came out, with specific leathers and a car sadler once had a look at it for a good professional leather cleaning/waxing … he told me clearly he would not touch the back nor sides as they were vinyl. And proved it to me by showing me the back of the material at a place where once could see it… the front was impossible to distinguish from the real leather but the back was clearly synthetic.

 

In terms of care, when I leased my XE R-Sport I decided not to treat the leather at all since it's "sealed". Was very hard to break the habit of leather conditioner, but since it's a lease... why should I care? All I did for 3 years is general leather/vinyl cleaner or damp rag to wipe off the seats. After 3 years, the seats still looked like new.

 

Good grief, Thierry, what do you want? I have been to the Jaguar factory to watch the cars being made - including seeing the hides before they are cut; I have owned and restored many Jaguars - and that includes all the leather bits on the seats, door panels, armrests, and I can easily, within seconds, tell the difference between leather and the vinyl that Jaguar uses on its NON-full leather seats. Let me give you a photographic bit of evidence. This is a full leather seat- every bit of it - top, sides, back - from a 1992 car: the colour is Doeskin, the piping is Buckskin colour. See the armrests behind the seat? stitched leather - and this is Connolly Autolux, the top grade of Connolly. Note the smooth surface, not pebbly.




Now look at this: the front seat, as you can see, has the same smooth grain of the Autolux leather on the top surfaces, even on the back, and even on the map pocket - because it is LEATHER - evry bit of it.




Now here is a seat which is NOT full leather - the seating surfaces - YES, the sides and backs, no: Now, if you cannot see the different in grain between the smooth leather on the seating surface (which is leather), and the more pebbly grain on the seat side (which is vinyl), then....



Now, this is the full leather interior of a 2007 XK. The dashboard, the seats - every bit of the seats, the console and the door panel inserts are ALL leather; the photo is a bit fuzzy but you should be able to see that the seating surface (always leather in a Jaguar) and the side of the seat (leather in the premium options) have the same very smooth finish - and that is because both of those surfaces are LEATHER:


Those who told you that the Jaguar seats are only partial leather were not speaking about the premium leather interiors - they were speaking of the "standard" interiors.

And the reference in the F-Type brochure (I have many of them) came from various pages....I can search again for the page numbers, but I doubt that the brochures available to you in France would necessarily have the same descriptions. Ah! hold on....page 39, Canadian brochure, 2014, Jaguar identifier: JLM/52/02/12/0113: I quote verbatim:
The Performance seat is "upholstered in Premium leather. For the ultimate in luxury, all models can also be specified with the optional Extended Leather Pack, which adds leather to the upper fascia, centre console, door casings, windshield pillars, sunvisors and header rail."
Can you still deny that Jaguar does produce all-leather interiors?

 

Well if you read well my earlier post I recognized that some modern Jaguar, a tiny minority, have again full leather seats, via a specific option. That option exists for the F-type as you mention, I do not see it as clearly stated in the last X150 brochure, for instance
http://download937.mediafire.com/ncf...ation_2015.pdf

This was no more the case from ca.1996 to at least 2005 for Jaguar branded vehicles (Daimler/VDP cars excepted thus), esp. X100.

I maintain that modern vinyls are impossible to distinguish by a non-expert from real leather which enables many tricks. I do not speak of vinyls of the 80s and 90s, these are easy to spot, but from years 2000. Like the one I had on my Silverstone.

In all cases, I learned from you that some Jaguars now again have full leather seats, which I did not know and which is good news: thanks for that. 👍