hey guys, i was wondetring if you can tell me how to identify which parts of the car(2008 honda accord ex L -v6) are actulay leather..i've tried seaarching it up, but the descriptions given are realli vague, so it hasnt really helped me...thanks for your help.

 

Just the centers of the seats themselves. Everything else is simulated leather. You can tell the difference if you look at the surfaces.

 

That's pretty much it. You may $2K+ for leather seats and it's really only leather seating surface.

I'm going to read more into your question. You are asking about cleaning, and where you should use the leather cleaner vs. the vinyl cleaner?

IMO, first, the leather surface is top coated. Nothing really penetrate the surface. It's not like your fine leather jacket where the real skin is exposed. Maybe high end Jags and Ferrari have you sitting on real skin directly.

I would save your money and clean it with a damp wet rag to pick up dirt that can act as a sand paper. Once that top coat is gone, the leather is pretty much SOL. Many automotive leather cleaner leave a waxy feel to it. So, ok, maybe use it once or twice a year.

From my experience, leather seats tend to crack from the side. That part is vinyl. So use a good vinyl protectant.

 

+1 as above

 

thanks for your input : )

 

You can also look at at he back of the fabric... usually if it is backed by a cotton mesh, it is pleather.

 

From my experience, it is fine to use a leather cleaner or leather treatment product on vinyl, but not to use a vinyl product on leather.

 

I think there's a lot more leather in the interiors of our Accords than this thread would have us believe.

 

Leather smells like cows

 

I agree. I am standing in the middle of a Honda showroom as I type, peering into an Accord EXL and I cannot tell a difference between what is supposedly real leather and fake. Looks, feels and smells real to me.

 

hello... pleather

 

At first, I could not tell. The leather surface have more of a waxed feel. And it's a lot firmer (thicker feel) to the touch.

 

Most of it is faux leather/vynl. I say this because Mercedes-Benz charges 2k extra for real leather, their cars in MOST cases have faux leather/vynl, which suprised me because after all... it was a Mercedes. The salesman told me it was rare for people to buy real leather versus faux because you could hardly tell the difference. So real leather is something that i HIGHLY doubt honda would put in their cars. Like stated above there is most likley a minimal amount of real leather in your accord!

 

There are different grades of leather. Honda may not use the best grade leather, however they DO use leather in their cars if they say they do. I don't think that a car marketed as having "Leather Interior" would simply put pleather in their cars. I just got done applying some Lexol to my interior. There's alot more leather in that car then what this thread suggests. That said there are some areas that use pleather/vinyl such as the back of the driver's and passenger's seats.

Having been a car detailer for a year and a half and working around alot of BMW's with both the fake crap and the real leather I CAN tell the difference.

 

An interior pro/ detailer/ accessory retailer next door to our shop showed me a trick recently and it's very good. He simply poked the surface..(like the Pillsbury Doughboy) ..and the real leather makes fine little lightning-bolt-like wrinkles radiating out from your finger. It's almost foolproof. Try it on some known surfaces, leather versus pleather... and you'll get good at it. The rat bastards even go so far as trying to micro-mold the tiny wrinkles in the vinyl to simulate it, but they're ALWAYS there, the ones on the real hide appear only when pressed. Doesn't really matter tho, except for your own satisfaction of knowing which pieces are real...typically only seating surfaces.

Also for a good lesson on leather grades go to Natuzzi's site. They explain how, as stated above, there are different standards for different panels on the furniture/seating. You can spot it when inspecting items. They use the thin, scarred ish that look,feels like cardboard on some of the sides and stuff. Saw it in a TL last week.
And some is sprayed with a film for high-traffic furniture. But it's very thin and supple. Natuzzi/Italy