How hard wearing are leather car seats?

That very much depends on what the driver is wearing. It's unusual for passenger seats to look worn.

Yup, that was what I was thinking when I saw the photos. Wondering on the other hand if the mileage is genuine. eBay purchase. One previous owner, a doctor.

But in my case, I've had "normal" cloth seats in a roughly used Octavia that hadn't been torn as such, but then again I don't wear a hacking jacket.

In comparison, are leather seats a worry that need undue attention?

Friend is elderly, wears a hacking jacket, wants this car to outlast him.

(In other news, I'm considering a car with leather seats myself)

Check MOT history as mileage should be noted. It's now far more difficult to fudge odometer readings./

I would say leather seats are hard wearing. Someone else may be along to dispel my belief.

Except in times of lockdown :)

I normally do 8K+ miles a year but I've just had a MOT on the car and note just over 2K miles in the past year, and 1.2K of that was visiting friends in a 3 weeks period between lockdown.

No-one would necessarily question low mileage as a result the clocking of the mileage covered in the past 12 months or the future 3 to 6 months.

Possibly they just need some regular attention as you would do with a saddle or even leather shoes. Leather probably just needs "feeding" especially after a period of hot oven conditions which can occur in a car parked in the sun.

If it's under 3 years old there won't be any MOT history. If just over there will be only a single reading. That's not much to go on. If there are more frequent MOTs it suggests the vehicle has been a taxi and to steer clear (not sure if any local authorities ask for taxi testing under 3 years old).

Service history may help though - I don't know if Ford have an online portal where you can pull up dealer service records if you know the VIN.

Theo

Good point, I've tended to buy cars at their 3rd birthday and forgot.

Yup, no history there, however the paperwork and service records do show a gradually increasing mileage. But they are more than 6 months ago, and we could perhaps make the assumption that the car has seen a lot more recent use.

I'll see if I can post up a photo of the seats. They showed me it over a remote desktop session.

Many variables. Quality of the leather. How it is looked after. Wear clothes with sharp edges (something in a back pocket, etc?) and it can be damaged same as anything else. I recently had the leather squabs on the front seats of my SD1 recovered. Had been looking scruffy for a few years, Seat back and rear seats still fine. It's 1985.

+1. Although whether modern cars will have the thickness and quality of the hide in Rovers, Jags, and Rollers in the old days I am not sure.

I had full leather seats in a Fourtrak that were still fine when I sold it at about 10 years. My 61 plate Jazz has so-called leather seats (actually it is only the seat panel and back panel, the surrounds etc are synthetic) and that still looks fine at 60k miles.

Leather of course ages much more gracefully than the fabric seats of a few decades ago, which went "stringy" in 10 years or so.

Depends - my Audi's 14 year old leather seats look fine I suppose, scuffs on the driver's bolster. But then they're the thick 'orrible elephant hide type, rather than supple leather. I have treated them a couple of times but I think they were like this from new.

You need to look at the exact same make and model. If they have wear points and poor leather then they all have the same wear points and poor leather. If they last and develop patina then they all last well.

Leather can be restored by re-colouring. Some splits can be patched.

They can, but when the leather has got to that age, more are likely to develop quite soon after. Got fed up fixing mine after about half a dozen.

The scuffs turned out to be glare in a badly composed camera shot. They are happy with the seats.

The camera never lies. Apart from in car ads. ;-)