cb1111

Right. The bits that touch your butt and back are leather, the rest is vinyl, leatherette, naugahyde, plastic, nuluxe or whatever you want to call it - it is fake leather.

Acrad

No idea on the GX if if seats are full leather or not. Seat material has changed quite a bit over the years in the GX. 10-13 base were leather but today Nuluxe extends up to the Premium trim. That being said the semi-aniline leather in my '12 is far better leather than any other Japanese auto I had in past or currently own.

https://www.cartelligent.com/blog/wh...ather-interior

The rear sides do seem more like leather. I don't think the door, center console or that piece above glove box are leather though.

I think 2020 extends this from 2019
===============

‘10-’13 Premium Semi-Aniline Leather / ‘10-’13 Base with “Comfort Plus Package” - Semi-Aniline Leather / ‘10-’13 Base - Leather / ‘14+ Luxury Semi-Aniline Leather / ‘14-’18 Premium- Leather / ‘14+ Base - Nuluxe / ‘19 Premium Leather or Nuluxe depending on interior color choice

cb1111

F ake leather has gotten so good that it it is nearly indistinguishable from the real thing and may actually wear better. They haven't gotten the smell down yet, but I'm sure that'll come too.

Useless fact - only 10% of Mercedes sold in the US have leather. The rest is MB-Tex (called ARTICO in the rest of the world). MB-Tex is referred to MB-Taxi elsewhere. Prior to the current E series, you could tell the difference by the direction of the stitching - front to back was leather, side to side was MB-Tex. Now they all go front to back.

Mojlnir

There were three linear marks on the lower cushion side bolster - one on the top surface, one on the side just below the seam, and one more on the lower vinyl(?) section.

The Armor-all wipes worked best on the two upper marks, the lowest one is still faintly visible.

But again, neither Windex or Lexol made an appreciable dent in any of the three.

hadokenuh

I think my 19 Premium with black interior has Nuluxe. I actually like it better than real leather after looking at some 2016/2017 sample, especially in Ecru.

But another 2015 Luxury I looked at had the semi-aniline leather, it showed very minimal wear, looked great and felt great. Much better than the leather in the Premium package.

hoverta

Had MBtex in my previous vehicle prior to the GX. It was fine except the seat heaters in the front got a bit too hot. So the MBtex got dried out and would crack. It was the seat heaters because my friend had the same MB and he didn't have seat heaters and no cracking in his.

Nuluxe is probably good stuff but I prefer leather still. Too bad they did away with leather entirely in the 2020 GX unless you move all the way up to Luxury.

Acrad

I asked Lexus support about overall interior seat materials. Response: "Thank you for contacting Lexus, we appreciate your interest in the interior of your 2012 GX 460. However, we are unable to provide the information you have requested because it is proprietary. Lexus does not share information on interior material composition."

I thought a few here have taken seats apart. Anyone with known leather seat type notice the material when cover was off on the back side of seat?

tecman

Yeah, I recall some here taking the seats apart. Not sure why Lexus will not confirm what is leather and what is not leather...

cb1111

That's a BS answer. I'd forward that email as a hard copy letter to Lexus Corporate and say "WTF?"

The only leather is the part that your body touches. Everything else is fake. Headrests may be real or fake.

There is a good reason for that though. Fake leather now is actually more durable than leather and the external parts of the bolsters take a lot of abuse where they contact the frame trim.