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| Message: | After reading a number of positive reviews at this and other sites I took the plunge and ordered Leatherique Rejuvenating Oil and Pristine Clean from their web site. I was not really apprehensive about the product but somewhat apprehensive about how long this product was going to take to apply and do its job. But considering it is an M3 I decided that she was worth the trouble. Some background, my car is an 01 with less than 16K miles on the clock. The interior is gray Nappa leather. She's pretty much a garage queen which sees very little driving in adverse weather and winter. Since the car spends 90% of its life in the garage it sees very little sun damage to the interior. I work from home 95% of the time so the car rests in the garage and not some sunbaked outdoor parking space. The interior of the car is (was) pristine and there are no real scuff or wear marks anywhere on the leather. Now, those of you who have seen me post about the car and mods for well over a year now at this and other forums should probably know by now that I do not pull any punches and if something is good I will rant and rave about how well it works and even go so far as provide DIY's and detailed reviews at my site (bmwm3.org aka m3.madrussian.net). I'm hardly an alarmist and it takes a significant amount of effort to really _piss me off about a given product. So on to Leatherique: I received the products ($45 for the oil and cleaner delivered) a few weeks ago and finally got around to applying it middle of last week. I sprayed on the recommended amounts of Rejuvenating Oil as per Leatherique's instruction and let the car sit for a bit over a full day as the weather was not cooperating. It was sunny when I first applied the oil but became overcast after a few hours and then took another 12 hours to clear back up. The rejuvenating oil was applied to all the leather sections of the car with a (new) spray bottle and rubbed in with a (new) soft sponge and by hand as per instructions and after sitting as directed formed somewhat of a film of the products it allegedly expels from the leather. After I was happy with the "cooking" process duration, I started to apply Pristine Clean at the center console arm rest. As soon as I started to do so I noticed light darkening of the leather at the end of the arm rest. I assumed that this was just saturation and the dirt being removed and continued to apply the cleaner with a (new) micro fiber towel. It started to become apparent very quickly that this was NOT saturation and/or dirt - THE FINISH FROM THE LEATHER WAS BEING REMOVED! Now call me an idiot but cause and effect is often easily observed as in armrest leather fine, substance applied to armrest and finish goes to _shit. I realized very quickly that doing anything else to the armrest was going to do more damage and stopped using the product. I called Leatherique and spoke with a lady who told me that I was insane and that their product could not possibly cause this. She suggested that email her boss, George. I emailed George with detailed pictures of before and after and was told that their product could not have done this damage and that it must have been there before. I reiterated to George via email (politely) that the armrest was fine before I applied Pristine Clean and was told the same exact thing. My last communication was a bit less polite and I was basically told to get lost. Below is a picture of the armrest a few weeks ago and the armrest after Leatherique. While someone can make the argument that some alien life form beamed into my car while the oil was "cooking" and took finish off my armrest and then conveniently covered up the damage until I applied the cleaner is a remote possibility, the more likely scenario is that there is something between the finish on the armrest and Pristine Clean that do not get along. Maybe I got the one bad armrest from the factory (though its hard to believe since other cleaners never caused any damage to it) or more likely something about Pristine Clean and the armrest just did not get along. To make a long story short, this _crap likely ruined a part of the interior of my car, pretty much that simple. Maybe I got a hold of a bad bottle of the cleaner, maybe my armrest was designed expressly to go to hell if Leatherique was applied to it, maybe the Pope is really not Polish, but......... In light of the positive reviews I know this tale of woe maybe hard to swallow - and it was for me as well. I only wanted to do something good for the car's interior in order to protect it and prolong its show room like condition. In the end I'm now holding a tab for $150 to replace my armrest. The funny thing is that I used Meguire's Leather Cleaner to remove the rest of the rejuvenating oil and the interior looks great. Take this for whatever it may be worth... I will post additional details at my site when I have a chance to write a full review and post it there along with additional pics.   | ||||
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