I have a 95 Maxima Se with tan leather seats. They began to go bad at 40K miles. First the vinyl started to wear. Then the color began to wear off the leather. I now have 85K on the car. Anyone else experience this?

 

I posted a picture up a while ago about that. I have a really bad dry spot on the back seat, and the drivers seat is cracking on the side, despite me conditioning constantly. Oh well. Thetan supposedly is the worst of all the colors when it comes to fading.

 

You have to actually care for leather (and vinyl too). You have to use leather cleaner and conditioner 3-4 times a year for your leather parts and do vinyl care (armorall or the like) for your vinyl. There are lots of leather cleaners and conditioners available at your local auto parts store. The sooner you start the better.

 

for some reason it seems the darker leather holds up better than the tan leather--any reason for this?
Of all the Dark leather Maximas that I have encountered, their leather seems to be in very good condition. My 97's leather isn't cracking, but I can observe stress marks on the driver side seats...hmmm
and I condition it once every few weeks...with Meguiars leather protector...

 

This is my second Maxima SE. The first was a white 90 with grey leather. at 97K and 5 years later, the seats were like new. I take care of both the leather and vinyl. The newer seats are of a lower-grade leather.

 

My seats are perfect with 90K on them but im gonna do it anyway to keep them looking perfect..I was wondering whats vinyl and whats leather so i know what im treating

 

My 96' is 5+ years old, 120,000 miles and my BLACK leather is mint, not one flaw.

However, I have dark tint, always aim for a shade tree when possible, always put up a sun visor, always crack the windows, Lexol leather treatment about every other month and garage it when at home.

 

is nearly perfect all the way around the car, but the vinyl is crapping out on my on a small spot on the driver's side. (Just wear you enter the car...)

'97 SE, with 70k

 

my seats have held up pretty well for 65k miles, of course i think maybe getting something aftermarket would be a nice change.

 

call me crazy but I think the black leather is harder to get dirty and it seems to hold up better than the lighter color ones...
my leather is in excellent condition, but you definetely can see marks on the leather--you know the stress marks...but these are on the vinyl on the side...
hmmm...
I wonder why they don't use LEATHER on the entire seat.
are the seating surfaces in the back of the dark leather Maxima's leather or the faux leather type?

 

I have black leather in my 97 SE and it's perfect. Even after 117k miles. But I take good care of it. Try Turtlewax Leather Cleaner, it works pretty good.

 

wow, that is amazing--117K? I have the same year Maxima but I don't get a chance to drive it too often. Mine only has 33K so far...
and the turtlewax leather? can you or have you tried another brand that you can make a comparison to?

 

my 95 has 153,000... its tan leather, in overall great shape, small amount of wear on side of drivers seat probably from the seatbelt and getting in.. thats with conditioning maybe once or twice a year.

 

They don't use all leather because it's expensive, especially if you make a mistake. The vast majority of cars only have "leather seating surfaces", aka: the part you sit on is leather, the rest is vinyl.

 

funny, my 95 max GLE has 40k on it, and is out in the sun usually 8 hours a day, and its still lookin mighty fresh..

 

don't know if there is any correlation to the factory leather, but when i got samples of leather from leatherseats.com, the dark colored leather pieces were thicker than the lighter colored pieces.

i pinched the leather seat in my friend's 99 se-l, he has the tan interior, and it was noticeably thinner than the aftermarket ones i put on (i got dark charcoal).

dfwmax

 

Both front seat front seat surfaces are leather. The sides and back (excluding headrests which are all leather) of the seats are vinyl. On the back seat the whole surface is leather except for the part at the top of the middle seat just above where the seat folds down. The tops and sides (sides can be seen when you open the door) and bottom of the seat are all vinyl. The max does have a bit more leather than most manufacturers bother to put on their cars. I.E: i rode in a lexus es300 and gs300 and both had only leather in the middle of the seating surface, and the rest was vinyl (including the door inserts).

 

117k, yes that's a lot. All interstate miles though, not many "stop and go" miles. It was my mom's car before I turned 16 and got a new one.

Yes I have used other leather cleaners. Like 2 or 3. But I really don't remember the brand but the turtlewax is overall the best I have used.

 

I have a '97 SE with black leather. My seats feel dry and hard, especially on the back seat head rests. I have min tinting, and I expect it was parked in sun alot before I got it. Thinking of trying Lexol, which seems the best for softening? BTW, the vinyl center in the back seems to be softer.

 

Use leather seat oil

 

1997 Maxima came with cloth seats, but I had an aftermarket leather package installed when I purchased the car. The leather kit was called "Classic Soft Trim" and it fits the Maxima seats very well. It actually has leather all over the entire seat. There is no vinyl on the back side of the seats. From what I can tell, this leather is higher quality than the factory leather that comes on the GLE's. The leather is thicker and has additional padding underneath.

If your leather is very worn out, you can get a new custom leather kit from this company for around $500 (appx) or so. I paid for it in an indirect way because I made the dealer eat the cost and install it before I drove the car off the lot.

 

Well...

My maxima is a White 95 SE, 85K and tan leather. However, it was a very early 95 built in October '94.

Like with most cars, they just probably didn't have it all together yet.

My driver's seat began wearing very early, but just out of the warranty period. The driver seat is very bad, especially on the vinyl. The passenger seat color is wearing off.

The rest of the car is mint, including the paint and rear leather seats. I am probably going to get them replaced after market, and drive it until the wheels fall off. I figure that's about another 85K or so.

It's my daily driver anyway.

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