2005 leather crack

I noticed that about the front drivers seat and concluded it was a common issue so I bought a FX with mint seats and was/still am very careful when I enter and exit the car. So far no rips or tears, fingers crossed!


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All leather will do this, but Infiniti leather will do it sooner than most other cars. My driver's seat has a couple of tiny cracks in the vinyl side; that's the area that most people complain about. I fixed them with a kit since they were so small and not through the material. We'll see how it holds up. My drivers side cushion also has the typical wrinkles everyone has. I used Leatherique conditioner on it and that's made it better, but they're still there. I bought mine with only 12K miles and the seat cushion was already showing the wrinkles; to me, that's not quality.

As comparison, previous car was an IS350. Bought new, owned it for 3.5 years and the leather looked brand new, no wrinkles, no cracks, nothing. And on top of that, it was softer than the FX's. Friend's 04 BMW, leather looks brand new to this day. His wife's Benz, it's an '06 and again, leather looks great. Even on my wife's old Integra; it came with cloth seats so we installed Katzkin replacement leather covers. Used those for 5 years and 40K, when we sold the car, they looked as new as the day we installed. I also had a Protege5 that I bought w/ Katzkin leather, I abused that interior for 70K, and it held up better than the FX. And I think those are like $700 kits. Overall, I think Infiniti cuts more corners than the other luxury brands. You can definitely see it in the leather as well as in the fit/finish of the rest of the interior with rattles and such. It's probably a leftover from when Renault took control of Nissan in the late 90's and slashed costs. I owned a 4th gen Maxima when they replaced the independent rear suspension with a beam to save money.

Overall, I love the FX, but the little things are irritating.
 
I agree 100%^ my friends 2003 Toyota sequioas leather looks better and has then my fx's..like seriously come on infiniti! Plus they abuse the crap out of that car inside and out and I try and take care of my leather with all these products and conditioners and the Toyota leather still looks and feels softer than mine..
 
Yeah that's true. Our 2007 escalade with almost 130k miles has very minimal wrinkles. However despite the crappy quality of the leather I find it to be very comfortable seats in the FX!
 
The corn-holing the side seat bolsters administer does not help wear in that area, nor does it help my 50 year old arse........
 
Seems like Infiniti's cheap-ass owner Nissan has let the bean counters pick the seat material. These little problems will keep Infiniti two steps behind other luxury brands in terms of quality materials used in their cars. Infiniti is like the Hyundai of luxury cars, fast and nice looking, but most big time players will buy the other big three brands-BMW,Mercedes,Lexus before looking at Infiniti due to them having better quality materials. However, my cheapass wanted the best performance/luxury for the buck and have to live with the shortcomings like crappyass seat leather. However, it feels good to dust a AMG ML55 on the open road, even though the owner may have seats that are 10 times better than mine.:disapointed:
 
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I know that your upset with the leather quality in your FX, but your car is 9 years old and Infiniti has since improved their whole lineup with better built quality cars compared to their models from 8-10 years ago.

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong but doesnt Mercedes and BMW use fake leather called "MBTEX". It holds up a lot better than leather because its vinyl. If you want real leather you pay thousands more??

Also BMW's, audi or whatever have their quality issues too. Do searches on BMW forums and you will see people complaining of cheap factory paint, peeling steering wheel trim, cracking leather, etc.

When I went to go buy a second car I was going to buy an Audi A4 Cabrio and the dash was peeling and the radio buttons were all chipping and peeling. I did some research before buying and found out this is common in those Audi's. I'm not hating on German cars either because if my mind serves me right I was just about ready to buy an Audi a few months ago ;).
 
Every car brand will have issues. And like fire said, they've stepped up their game tremendously. I sat in an IPL the other day and DAMN. But honestly, I think my 2005 FX45 has an amazing interior with great quality and everyone compliments it.
 
OMG, Audi's interior knobs peel like crazy!!!!!! I've seen it in so many audis that are not even 2 or 3 years old. Horrible!
 
Leather can be fixed diy if you know which products to get.
One of the best repair I've seen, on an old Porsche in Europe:
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After removing a previous badly made fix:
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Adding a black structure under, and a leather patch:
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Filler, recoloring, etc:
787075DSCF1266.jpg911704DSCF1283.jpg

End result, almost like new! The guy is a magician:
624944DSCF1349.jpg

So with proper instruction and tools, I guess anything is possible.


From this website: http://www.forum-auto.com/automobile-pratique/Lavage-auto/sujet291.htm
The pages are in French, but there are more pictures. The guys is using swiss products from ColourLock.



I rememver a Jaguar with quite damage leather too, but I don't have the link :(


Every car brand will have issues. And like fire said, they've stepped up their game tremendously. I sat in an IPL the other day and DAMN. But honestly, I think my 2005 FX45 has an amazing interior with great quality and everyone compliments it.
Hmm I had a 2003 Audi up to last november: leather was fine, much better than my 2005 Infiniti: stronger, still tight and tense. But indeed some buttons required modeling black paint.
 

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No offense, just venting. However, like others have mentioned the FX leather do degrade fast compared to the competiton's. I used to own a 2002 Mercedes E55 AMG, it did have it problems but the leather was perfect. I had a 1999 Toyota Camry XLE V6 that had better quality leather that last longer before cracking. P.S. My FX's leather is fine, but looks bad compared to others cars it's age.
 
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Hi found another example on a 1969 Mercedes W111. The technic is the same: sticking a reinforcement under the crack, adding filler, adding a recolorer, then a leather cream : http://www.forum-auto.com/automobile-pratique/Lavage-auto/sujet643.htm
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Oh, found the Jaguar Type E I was looking for: http://www.forum-auto.com/automobile-pratique/Lavage-auto/sujet291-35.htm#t30141
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It's again the same technique (but a different guy). So I guess it's a standard for strong reparation:
- sticking a reinforcement under the crack
- adding leather crack filler
- on the Jag' E, sanding was required to get a smooth leather where the crack was.
- recoloring the leather

And don't forget from time to time to use a leather cleaner + a leather conditioner. My favorites are Gliptone Leather GT12 Cleaner and GT11 Conditioner (from UK) as they're easy to find on Ebay.

Btw for very small cracks, there's some cheap "liquid leather" kits on Ebay. I tried them, they seem to close correctly the crack, but it's quite hard to get the proper color :(
 

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Any leather will crack and fade over time, especially if it is not well kept. However,older Mercedes E55 leather is topnotch and well as older Toyota Camry's. I never owned an Audi so I can not comment on their quaility, but Mercedes use top notch leather so do Toyota. The complaint is not if other make's leather will crack, but how much longer it takes them to crack if properly kept compaired to the older Infiniti FX's. The new Infiniti FX's do seem to have better looking seats, so maybe Infiniti have decided to step-up their game to keep up with the heavy hitters. P.S. I baby my leather seats in my FX, but the driver seat still shows it age due to the cheap vinyl edges. But, I still love the performance and tech that is still ahead of some of the newer cars. The crap seats is just a tradeoff to owning a fine performance SUV.:good:
 
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My opinion:
if Infiniti sells cars from 2003 on till 2008 and tells you on the internet and brochures that the seats have leather upholstery they should not put vinyl at the sides of the seats.
Is there no lawyer in the usa who ownes an Infiniti with the same problem he/she could denounce them, because it is in fact misleading the customer.
They should have done it smarter and do not let it become so bad so fast. It misfits the car totally.
The problem is not the leather on the seats but the use of vinyl that cracks or tear.

Case
 
I recall seeing the phrase used as "leather seating surfaces" or "Leather appointed seat trim" which is a disclaimer meaning "only the surfaces your body touches" like seat bottom, seat back and not the sides of the bottom cushion or the back part of the seat back.
 
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