Leather

[vickk]

Hi, I am new to these forums and to Rav driving in general having purchaced my new xtr on the 10th March. One of the things that came up while I was haggling a deal with the dealer, was to have leather or not. From my point of view I liked the Black interior of the xtr and was not fussed with the charcoal leather.

The dealer offered to get the same fitters that Toyota use to come in and retro fit leather in any colour for the same £1250 that it would cost to pre-order. After some consideration and inspecting a 12 month old demonstrator, the wife decided she prefered not to have leather and as she had not had a say in what car I was buying I let her have her way and had bars and other bits and bobs instead.

Since picking up the Rav I am over the moon, I have had 10 years of Renaults and while I would not knock them the Toyota seems in a different league. My one regret is that I don't like the small patch of material used on the door panel and center arm rest, it seems to get white marks on very easily. I was wondering if it would be possible to have these done in Black leather without doing the seats and what sort of cost it might be. Has anyone else had this done or did you go for full leather.

Also one other little thing is that the matt black plastic trim by the base of the gear stick has a little scratch like mark from my finger nail, it's only a mark not an actual scratch but I can't seem to get if off. Has anyone got any tips?

[Hoovie]

Interested to hear about the Leather. Why does your wife not fancy the leather? - Was it the appearance of the leather seats or just the idea of leather?

I must admit I don't like the standard style of leather seats in the RAV4 (4.2 version at least), so to have a free-hand in an after-market leather retrim is nice.

I bought a Honda HR-V with an aftermarket leather retrim in Bright Blue with Grey seat insets - subtle it was not but it sure got attention, so you could create you own look if you wanted.

Re doing the door panels and centre arm rest - I would have thought a leather retrimmer would be happy to do these without having to do the whole car. And it could be to your - and their - benefit as they will be able to use off-cuts from some other guys full retrim as the amount of leather is so small in comparision, so material costs could be minimal.

Plastic scratch - you could try polishing it out with some very fine glasspaper and then a bit of T-Cut or interior polish to shine up again?

[vickk]

Cheers Hoovie, The wife did not like the leather from the way it had aged in the 12 month old example she was shown and also she did not like the areated holes on the seat panels. From my point it was the Grey, I would have loved it in black with silver stitching but could not convince the wife

[Hoovie]

Black with silver piping sounds really nice actually - Getting very tempted at that myself :D What colour is your XT-R?

Part of the nice thing about leather is how it wears in (IMO), but I would agree with your wife on the arreated type.

I had a Rover 623GSi with Grey Leather seats with 'holey' seats and those were a bugger to keep clean - holes fill up with dust and fluff; putting on the leather cleaner to keep it nourished would fill the holes with cleaner - can't win

My RAV4 is the first car for 10 years that I have not had leather in and while the RAV seats are smart, I do miss the leather (but not the standard Toyota version!)

[vickk]

The Rav is in carbon quatrz and the problem with the way the leather had aged was that it had stretched in the areated seat part a was loose and ruckled. I would agree that a normal aged leather look adds character

[bothwell_buyer]

Regarding yer nails scratching the plastic, try using the acrylic plastic stick on nails and keep yer own short.

[vickk]

PMSL

[mike xt-r]

Yes, I also had the white marks, dust or whatever it was on the armrest or doorcloth, I think it may have been from the Suregaurd spray, but whatever it was it has now stopped 1 year on.

[bothwell_buyer]

Yes, I also had the white marks, dust or whatever it was on the armrest or doorcloth, I think it may have been from the Suregaurd spray, but whatever it was it has now stopped 1 year on.

may have been dandruff - started using head and shoulders??

Or maybe it was in-car use of lifeguard under arm body antiperspirant?

Either way, leather takes more kindly to baby oil and a reduction in self-flatulence.