How to Clean Your Leather Seats

Leather car seats have always been a sign of supreme quality and style. They’re comfortable, they smell amazing and if you lease your car from us, you can have them no questions asked.

You’ll need to look after them to get the best out of them. Follow these steps for leather car seat care so they will stay in great condition and your journeys will feel luxurious, even if you’re just nipping to the shops.

Follow the instructions

The safest way to do anything at all with your lease car is to read the manual first. There are more exciting ways to spend your time, we know, but the care section is there for a reason, so please do read it.

This applies to cleaning your leather car seats just as much as any other part of maintaining your car. The manual should have specific guidelines on how to look after your leather seats, what kind of products they recommend and what you should avoid.

What if I have heated seats with perforated leather?

If you have heated seats, there can be perforations that are built into the design to allow the air to flow. You need to clean these seats with care because if liquid gets into these holes, it can damage the inner foam.

You can still clean your seats if you have perforated leather upholstery, but it’s best to avoid using too much liquid. Instead of putting the liquid directly onto the seat, apply it to the cloth or sponge sparingly and if you end up with too much on the seat, you can try vacuuming it off or drying it with a hair dryer.

How to clean

Before any liquid is used, you need to suck up any large particles of dust with a vacuum and be sure to get the hose attachment in between the cracks in the seats.

Next, take a microfibre cloth (this sounds fancy but you can get them from the cleaning aisles at supermarkets) and wipe gently over the seats with leather cleaner.

Spray the cleaner onto a soft-bristled brush and gently scrub the leather and get rid of any dirt. Work slowly and in small sections, building up to a more aggressive clean if you need to.

Finally, wipe down the seats with a clean and dry microfibre cloth to get rid of the cleaner.

Apply a leather conditioner for a professional finish.

Once you’ve finished, ideally you need to leave your seats to dry for at least 12 hours before sitting in them again. At this point, you might want to give the seats a buff with a clean microfibre cloth to get them looking really nice.

So, how often do you need to do this? The answer is regularly.

Cleaning leather car seats once a month or every three months is the bare minimum (set a reminder in your calendar) following these instructions for leather car seat care and you’ll have leather seats that look as good as they feel - and smell - and they’ll be in great condition throughout your lease and beyond.