Leather vs Fake leather.

E

EMAES

New member
How can you tell if it is real leather? Today my friend that works at a Ford dealership showed me the leather used in the 2008 F250s King Ranch edition trucks vs the regular "leather" used in Expeditions and Explorers. To be honest it looked like real leather until he flipped it. It was vinyl.(sp?) with a nice "real" texture.



How can you tell without flipping it?

I think it would be worthless to apply expensive leather conditioners to leather imitations.
 
Usually I ask the owner if I am not sure. On some cars it's easy to tell, on others not so much especially if you're unfamiliar with them. FWIW, I use leather cleaner/condition on leatherette/pleather, it doesn't hurt it, helps clean it, and smells good.
 
I believe the King Ranch has un-coated leather which is fairly uncommon in automobiles. Nearly 100% of the leather you will see is coated. Even with coated leather, much of the trim is vinyl. You can usually tell by the grain texture. Leather usually has an uneven grain, while vinyl's grain is predictable.
 
I know what is real and not in my car and I can't really tell. It feels and looks pretty similar to me.
 
The differences will be so slight you probably won't be able to tell, but like brwill said it can be something like a very slight difference in the grain pattern. The seats will always be leather. It's what they feel is the incidental trim sections or sometimes a little larger area like the back part of the front seats that will be vinyl. It might seem like a waste of conditioner, but it's usually not that much vinyl compared to leather, and it doesn't hurt the vinyl.



And unless they changed it the King Ranch is uncoated nubuck leather. After a couple years that stuff sure starts looking nasty!
 
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