Premature Ageing!

[Boothy]

Been to look at 06 plate GTI today with leather and travelled 98 miles each way to view it!

There were two problems really:

- the leather on the drivers seat was knackered, worn, cracked and had got to the stage where little flakes rub off and the cloth underneath can be seen. Now I considered leather because its supposed to be hard wearing but the car had only covered 29,000 miles? Is this normal or has the guy been rubbing it so hard he's worn it out!

- Noticed some uneven tire wear on the fronts and the rears. The fronts look like they've been driven under inflated for most of there life but the rears had worn on the inner edge. My Type-R used to munch tires like crazy because of the negative camber set up. Is the Golf set up similar to this and can I expect the rears to to need replacing just because they ride on the inner edge?

Shame really cause the car was tidy on the outside.

Cheers.

[Boothy]

Tumble weeds..................

[SteveP]

On my first GTI with leather I found it wore really easily unless it was well looked after and cleaner/conditioned at least every other week 

[RedRobin]

....

I can't comment about leather because I have cloth, but it doesn't sound like normal wear.

It's certainly not normal to see uneven tyre wear unless the owner is doing something wrong or has the suspension set up that way.

[Harm]

I have to agree the leather isn't fantastic in the golfs....as my friend just bought a 56 plate with 39k on the clock and his badly worn, but then again mine has done 79k on a 54 plate and looks no where near as bad as his! Depends on care of the leather and how people get in and out of the car too IMO.

Hope that helps.

[stealthwolf]

I reckon my leather will look like that at that milage. Have an edition 30 so its only the side boosters but they're getting knackered pretty fast. May have to find a mashed up ED30 and get the front seats out of it.

[Boothy]

Cloth it is then!

[Norbreck21a]

Have leather in my 43k GT TDi (4 years old), looks almost good as new ?

[icenutter]

The side bolster is worn on my 05, with 34k miles.

[Rich]

Hi,

My dad owns a company called G Wilson (Fibres) LTD and we supply textiles into Germany that go into the Automotive trade. Nylon, polyprop., polyester, acylic etc... ( atm automotive trade is bust so we aint selling a lot  )

They get needled ( non woven ) to make headliners, mats bla bla

I had a visit to their plant - they supply all the car factorys with the interior including leather ( we dont supply that )

The bloke showing us around said that the leather they supply to car factorys are different and he said the leather in the VW's is cheapest - its a soft leather which wears very easily

There are 3 types of leather

Aniline leather is the most natural looking, with natural surface visible, but is less resistant to soiling

Semi-aniline leather is somewhere in-between on both counts, having a light surface coating

Pigmented (protected) leather is the most durable but is less natural in appearance, having a polymer coating


Leathers are made from the skins of many animals but mainly cattle, goat, sheep and pigskins.

So Volkswagen leather might look just the same, but being soft it wears very easily.



Hope this is of help ?

[cmdrfire]

I dunno what those guys are doing with their cars but in my 54-plate GTI with 84k miles the leather still looks new, and I don't treat it every other week either - once every other month if that. There's a little bit of cracking starting to appear but nothing serious and next time I treat it (weather's nice, I might do it today in fact) it should take care of it nicely.

[182_blue]

Hi,

My dad owns a company called G Wilson (Fibres) LTD and we supply textiles into Germany that go into the Automotive trade. Nylon, polyprop., polyester, acylic etc... ( atm automotive trade is bust so we aint selling a lot  )

They get needled ( non woven ) to make headliners, mats bla bla

I had a visit to their plant - they supply all the car factorys with the interior including leather ( we dont supply that )

The bloke showing us around said that the leather they supply to car factorys are different and he said the leather in the VW's is cheapest - its a soft leather which wears very easily

There are 3 types of leather

Aniline leather is the most natural looking, with natural surface visible, but is less resistant to soiling

Semi-aniline leather is somewhere in-between on both counts, having a light surface coating

Pigmented (protected) leather is the most durable but is less natural in appearance, having a polymer coating


Leathers are made from the skins of many animals but mainly cattle, goat, sheep and pigskins.

So Volkswagen leather might look just the same, but being soft it wears very easily.



Hope this is of help ?

the leather in my edition 30 is far from soft

[ub7rm]

That amount of wear at 29k is a bit much IMO but I'd echo that the VW leather doesn't seem to be very high quality.  At 38k miles my bolsters are looking pretty worn.  I'm being pretty carefull not to slide over them as I get in and out so can hopefully stop them getting any worse but yeah I can see this being an issue on high mileage / not well looked after cars.

With regards to the tyres, what brand were they?  Dunlop sport maxxes were one of the brands fitted from the factory and I can vouch for the fact that they wear a lot quicker on the inside.  Apparantly a common complaint of this tyre...

[Rich]

Blue,

I don't really know the full story of it.

I'm just going by what i was told from Jack Stiennemen ( the man who showed me round )


You wouldnt believe the sheer size of the building, it was like a 2x football pitches. There were hundreds of machines needling headliners and mats and trimming incredibly fast.

He said the basic mats they sell to VW and Porsche are sold at £4.50 a set  ( set of  4 )  

[RedRobin]

....

Borrow (steal) some of wifey's anti-aging beauty products?



Or you could choose the organic option and use snail snot : -





But joking apart, I'm surprised if the 'leather' VW are using doesn't age well. Do Audi use the same leathers?

Obviously I'm glad I chose cloth, but that was because I find leather too slippy and also uncomfortable dependent on weather temperature.