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The key is using a good leather care product. If you purchase a car with the Designo leather interior, you are getting glove soft leather. In order for the leather to be glove soft, it isn't coated. Standard Mercedes leather seats are coated and will hold up better without maintenance but don't feel as soft to the touch.
I use Leatherique. My GL has designo black leather and after using Leatherique's 3 step process, oil, clean, wipe off with wet towel, my leather literally looks new at 35,000 miles. It was cracking and looked like the seats in the earlier posts. After following the instructions, not only does the leather look like new, it looks better than a GL's seats would look if it had standard leather because the lack of a coating keeps if from forming that shiny "patina" as the coating gets polished from the friction of getting in and out of the car.
Basically, the designo leather loses moisture and oils because it lacks a protective barrier. You need to put the oils back in the leather and it will look like new again. Leatherique is an all day or afternoon process and you have to apply the oil and let the car sit in the sun. It was surprisingly easy to do. The reality is if you are purchasing a car with Designo, you really should be conditioning the leather 1-2 times a year. It really isn't an option. I waited until 35,000 miles at year two but it would probably be better long term had I done it last year as well.
I have my car at the dealer, and they are checking the seat now. It's funny, when I was showing it to him, the SA kept repeating "so are you talking about those worn parts there?" I guess he was trying to get me to allude to "wear and tear" so they wouldn't have to replace it. lol
He told me he will look into; he's pretty good, so hopefully he goes to bat for me. We'll see what they say.
Hey 43221B I'm glad to hear it. I think Ill try that product. I asked the dealer parts department and they gave me what appears to be a Mercedes generic leather car cleaner. Got any photos to show off the results maybe?
The photo doesn't do the leather justice because the leather (on the entire interior) looks brand new after applying Leatherique. The leather soaks up the oils and the cracks all swell closed. I think the key is to not go too long without treating the leather. I also noticed that the car smells a lot better because the leather actually gets cleaned. The designo leather is pourous so it is going to absorb all kinds of crud which makes it stink a little. I put latex gloves on and rubbed the oil all over the seats. I applied to the drivers seat several times because I could tell it was absorbing the oil faster than the other surfaces. I let the car sit in the sun with the windows up for about 6 hours on a 89 degree F day. Btw, I'm about 6' 195 and this is a daily driver with 36,000 miles on it. I was worried about discoloring the stitching but it didn't seem to cause a problem.
Here's another one. It's been a couple weeks since I treated the leather so it's starting to get dirty again. After you clean the leather though, every bit of dust and every spot of dirt gets removed. As I mentioned in the my first post, one of the cool things is it gets rid of most of the shiny "patina" that is common on leather seats and returns the leather to its factory soft look. Again, the pictures don't do the product justice and this is after a couple weeks of daily use.
Hey 43221B your seats look great! just wanted to make an update as I recently took the car into MB of Oakville for a glorified oil change. I mentioned the leather problem and they agreed to replace both the top and bottom of the driver seat, the driver door arm rest and one of the rear armrests. So good news! Now just have to wait 5 weeks for the parts to arrive
My before/after pics of leatherique. This stuff works before things get out of hand! In my case, previous owner did not care much for the seat. But you can see the front end of the seat repaired a lot better than the side bolster. I plan to keep using the product over the course of the next year to see if it makes any further difference. I wouldn't hold my breath though, its the most used seat in the car almost everyday except the weekends.
BEFORE
AFTER
Last edited by 4everalone; Sep 26, 2017 at 12:22 AM.
Hey 4everalone, how many miles on your ride? Just looked up this Leatherique product, seems legit. MB parts department has this foam spray-can but it seems to be their go to product for all leather inquirers. Designo has a different treatment over the standard Nappa - said someone on this forum - I think.
I'm using the version meant for the designo nappa leather. Ride currently as about 66k miles, has mercedes extended warranty to 90k mi. Got the vehicle with 48k miles.
Sorry you are experiencing this issue on such expensive seats. My experience is that MB USA is not standing behind their (or Diamler Germany) product. We had awful looking MB Tex seats on our '17 GLE & I am simply filing a claim in small claims court as MB USA has been completely unresponsive. I have seen 2 YO leather seating on GL's & ML's that looked over ten years old. Simply put, Mercedes Benz is cutting corners & until we, as consumers, hold them accountable and impact them in the pocketbook, they will continue to push the envelope and put profits above all else! File a suit in small claims for the maximum, you'll likely win given premature failure of product.
Originally Posted by danielkon
This 2015 diesel is equipped with the beautiful designo leather option. It looks great but there is soo much cracking happening on the seats and there is this tunneling happening on the arm rest. This ride has 41k kms (25k miles) on it. Question: is this normal or excessive? Possible that dealer will replace?
i bought '14 gl550 with brown desigo and it came with exactly identical cracks on both front seats where butts glide in. rest of leather is in perfect condition, but it really annoying to see those cracks. i do have extended warranty, but i doubt dealer is going to fix it. did someone actually got it fixed with warranty? i'm also going to try the leather conditioning methods mentioned above.
-update-
i bought leatherique as suggested above and applied them twice so far. it definitely helped cracks to seal a bit. also white cracks are less visible. it does make the designo appear little glossy even after it's dried up. designo by default is little bit on the matte side. applying this makes it appear little darker and shiner. it doesn't bother me too much but i liked it matte better. i left it outside at 60-70F and it was not completely dry after a day. anyway, overall i'm liking it.
Last edited by divinefavor; May 13, 2018 at 02:18 AM.
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