| victorp |
| The taupe interior frustrates my wife due to discoloration and worn up looks that we decided to trade it to another tech & ent. package with an ebony interior. Steel blue wasn't available on the lot instead we picked up a Formal black. |
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| is300sam |
| What kind of deal did they give you? |
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| pbm317 |
| wow, that's cheaper than getting the interior re-upholstered?? |
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| victorp |
| The original dealer from last year model gave me so much run around therefore I went to another dealer instead. It was a fair deal I reckon for 07X to 08X. Currently awaiting for their phone call to set up an appointment for installation of the promised accessories since it wasn't all available yesterday when I pick up the '08X. |
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| midnightMDX |
| What was the price difference for trade in? Redoing the whole interior wouldnt be cheap, and would take alot of time. |
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| victorp |
| It is by far cheaper to redo the interior but I chose to do other way instead while the trade in value is a bit more for a year old X. It was strongly suggested by the dealer to lease instead of the traditional but I managed to put 24k miles on my '07 so I opted for traditional purchase. That shows how much I enjoy driving the X and I'll try to keep this X hopefully for a very long time now. |
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| Wah |
| The taupe interior of the showroom X I saw the other day when I was picking up my 08 looked horrible. It was just soooo dirty... I'm glad I picked ebony, b/c I tend to ignore the interior when I wash my car. |
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| dory |
I bought the Crystal Glo leather/vinyl treatment and it takes literally 5 minutes to spray the cloth and wipe the seats, centre console and arm rests of the doors clean. I do it every couple of weeks because we've got some jeans that want to make the leather blue.
Just because you can't see it on ebony, doesn't mean it isn't there. ;) Although, when I had black interior, I didn't clean as often because black does hide the dirt.
I'm not much of a caramel, orangey/brown or cream interior person so I've always previously stuck with black in other vehicles until I saw the taupe MDX! I love the 2 toned light and dark taupe, then the dark silver and the textured silver pieces. It really is the most amazing coloured interior I've seen. So, I just make the effort to get out there and do my 5 min. wipe. My co-owner wouldn't bother to put in the effort though, so it's good it doesn't bother me to do it!
That being said though, I wouldn't turn down a black MDX. :) And if we wouldn't have been able to get our Steel Blue taupe combo, I would have accepted black.
So, glad you and your wife are happier with the black and that black kept you in an MDX! |
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| Activator |
You must be hard on interiors... I have an '07 Nimbus grey/taupe Sport with nearly 20k miles, and the leather looks like new. Never cleaned, and NO discoloration or dirt. There are a few "whisker" marks/creases on the driver seat, but otherwise the seats are perfect. And this is with two teenage boys who ride in (and the older one also drives) the MDX all the time with friends, food, soccer cleats, etc.
I agree with dory. I've always had black or charcoal interiors, but the taupe MDX looks like a $80k Jaguar interior. Very classy. I'll need to replace the plush mats in another 6 months or so, but that's no big deal.
My biggest issue is how soft the plastic trim on the foot/kick panels is. THAT is something I will want to replace in a few years due to scratches and scrapes. |
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| gsMDoX |
| Hi. New owner here with first post. Just took delivery on Steel Blue/Taupe today and couldn't be happier. Traded in a Crystal Green/Ivory 2005 Volvo XC90 and had NO, ZERO, NADDA problems keeping that interior clean and it is lighter than the taupe. A little work with leather cleaner every 4-6 months and there should be no problem, IMHO. |
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| hammermdx |
quote:
Originally posted by gsMDoX
Hi. New owner here with first post. Just took delivery on Steel Blue/Taupe today and couldn't be happier. Traded in a Crystal Green/Ivory 2005 Volvo XC90 and had NO, ZERO, NADDA problems keeping that interior clean and it is lighter than the taupe. A little work with leather cleaner every 4-6 months and there should be no problem, IMHO.
Congrats and welcome to the family!!!!:7: |
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| midnightMDX |
| gsMDoX - Welcome to the forum. |
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| kingmdx |
quote:
Originally posted by gsMDoX
Hi. New owner here with first post. Just took delivery on Steel Blue/Taupe today and couldn't be happier. Traded in a Crystal Green/Ivory 2005 Volvo XC90 and had NO, ZERO, NADDA problems keeping that interior clean and it is lighter than the taupe. A little work with leather cleaner every 4-6 months and there should be no problem, IMHO.
Welcome :) |
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| statler |
| I will be picking up my MDX with taupe interior in a few weeks and am a bit apprehensive about maintaining the light color leather. Luckily, no kids to contend with, but I enjoy fishing and gardening on weekends and also cannot control occasional valet-parking attendants that will have a go on the interior! My gameplan will be use leather wipes regularly and, to lay a towel on the seat when fishing/gardening is on the agenda. Do you recommend putting a towel on the seat when wearing blue jeans? Are all weather floor mats the way to go? Would like to hear from taupe interior owners!!! |
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| Activator |
quote:
Originally posted by statler
I will be picking up my MDX with taupe interior in a few weeks and am a bit apprehensive about maintaining the light color leather.Do you recommend putting a towel on the seat when wearing blue jeans? Are all weather floor mats the way to go? Would like to hear from taupe interior owners!!!
See my earlier post! 20k miles with teenage kids, trip to Florida, skiing, soccer games with cleats/muddy uniforms, dog, food spills, etc. and the Taupe leather looks brand new. NO discoloration whatsoever.
Keep in mind that it's an ACURA. You paid 45k for a car that will hold up under normal use! Relax and enjoy it!
The only discoloration I've seen was after the last SERVICE! The tech didn't wash his hands or use clean gloves when he adjusted the pop-out cup holder in the back seat... dirty hand-prints all over the arm rest.
But...
Tip: Any dirt/mess comes off INSTANTLY with a "baby wipe". Works great on the leather, plastic AND carpets! Use wipes withOUT "Aloe" or lotion. |
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| dory |
quote:
Originally posted by statler
I will be picking up my MDX with taupe interior in a few weeks and am a bit apprehensive about maintaining the light color leather. Luckily, no kids to contend with, but I enjoy fishing and gardening on weekends and also cannot control occasional valet-parking attendants that will have a go on the interior! My gameplan will be use leather wipes regularly and, to lay a towel on the seat when fishing/gardening is on the agenda. Do you recommend putting a towel on the seat when wearing blue jeans? Are all weather floor mats the way to go? Would like to hear from taupe interior owners!!!
We've got some jeans that tend to make the outer seat panel of the driver's seat get a bluish hue (just on the seat base). It's where the jeans rub when getting in and out of the X. Every month or so I take a cloth with some leather cleaner and wipe it and it comes right off. At the same time I wipe the centre console and door arm rests because I notice they have a bit of surface dirt. It takes less than a minute and it's all clean.
To be honest, I've spent more time dusting my black interiors than I have cleaning surface dirt off my taupe interior. I love that the top of my dash doesn't always appear dusty! |
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| LionSpeed |
quote:
Originally posted by dory
To be honest, I've spent more time dusting my black interiors than I have cleaning surface dirt off my taupe interior. I love that the top of my dash doesn't always appear dusty!
Not entirely true. I have light gray/taupe interior on other cars before, and it is just as much if not more work to clean the surface, carpet, etc. than the black interior. Your top of dash doesn't always appear dusty, but it is dirty regardless. Having said that, black interior is by all mean not for LAZY people (at least I hope not), but it just looks much nicer. $0.02 |
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| dory |
quote:
Originally posted by LionSpeed
Not entirely true. I have light gray/taupe interior on other cars before, and it is just as much if not more work to clean the surface, carpet, etc. than the black interior. Your top of dash doesn't always appear dusty, but it is dirty regardless. Having said that, black interior is by all mean not for LAZY people (at least I hope not), but it just looks much nicer. $0.02
On the flip side, black leather seats don't appear dirty but the dirt is still there as well. :)
I've never done anything to carpet other than vacuum because most of my carpet is covered by mats with a lip, so I've never actually had dirty carpet before.
As for black looking nicer, that's personal preference (as your 2 cents said). :) I find it depends on the vehicle and the colour of the vehicle. It also depends on the colour of the trim inside the vehicle. I'm not a big fan of black mixed with the orangeish/redish plood trim like they have in the '08 Highlander. I was really glad the MDX used a really nice shade of brown plood trim which looked great with black or taupe. |
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| LionSpeed |
| Yes, they did a good job blending the dark plood to black interior I must say as well. I also hear it is now hard to find steel blue w/ ebony color. Wonder why? :rolleyes: |
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| dory |
quote:
Originally posted by LionSpeed
Yes, they did a good job blending the dark plood to black interior I must say as well. I also hear it is now hard to find steel blue w/ ebony color. Wonder why? :rolleyes:
Interesting. I know when I bought my steel blue/taupe it was one of two available in Canada. There were plenty with ebony interior at the time (not sure how many "plenty" is, but the dealer I purchased my taupe at had 2 steel blue/ebony on his lot and then 2 at another dealer I checked).
I wonder if Acura goes through phases where they produce a bunch of one colour combo, then stock gets low and it is hard to find until they produce more? |
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| statler |
| It is somewhat reassuring to hear that the taupe interior can be maintained with regular "leather wipes", especially on the armrests, center console and side bolster of the driver's seat (closest to the window). However, I could sure use alittle more reassurance, especially since my fishing and gardening hobbies are somewhat "rough and tumble" and may involve jeans and occasionally some dirt. What about the steering wheel...I'm surprised no one has mentioned that...doesn't that get dirty real fast? Also, aren't you concerned when the car is left for valet-parking? Or, am I being way too hyper!! |
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| dory |
The steering wheel is a dark taupe, much darker than the seats and I haven't noticed any dirt on ours so far. I've cleaned it once in 3 months just because I figured I should. :)
If you're going to be dirty from fishing and gardening, I'd throw a towel over the seat, but I'd do that with any colour leather. I wouldn't want to get dirt in the seams or have it smelling like fish. :D |
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| gsMDoX |
As I've just taken delivery on my Steel Blue/taupe MDX, I have no experience with that leather yet. However, my previous Volvo XC90 with ivory interior was not hard to keep clean. As mentioned previously, be sure to wipe things up with water only (damp cloth) when spills occur. I use Lexol leather cleaner and treatment (two products) every 3-6 months as needed to keep things soft. For REALLY difficult staining, try Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. The guys on the Acura Legend forum turned me on to them a couple of years ago and they completely transformed the leather in my sedan for not a lot of work. Follow that with Lexol and you're good to go.
As far as covers are concerned, I am thinking of getting a terry cloth slip on cover for my drivers seat. Since I don't drive the Legend that much and my wife works out of town during the week, there is a severe "imbalance" in the wear of the seats in our cars. I'd like to keep that to a minimum with this one. Too bad I can't simply reach the pedals from the passenger side on the reverse commute each day ;) |
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| dory |
| Personally, I wouldn't let a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser near my leather. I won't even use them in the house anymore. They are abrasive and remove paint from walls. I assume the abrasiveness is how they remove stains from items, as they actually remove the top layer of whatever you are working on. |
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| vduc |
The driver and passenger seat sides on our taupe interior suffer from blue jean stains after ~14K miles in 8 months. I clean the seats regularly with Lexol cleaner and conditioner and weekly with Mequiars Gold Class leather wipes without luck.
The dealer removed the stains once but they came back in a few weeks of use. My other cars with similar color interiors never had the problem. If I was to do it again Ebony all the way. |
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| gsMDoX |
quote:
Originally posted by dory
Personally, I wouldn't let a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser near my leather. I won't even use them in the house anymore. They are abrasive and remove paint from walls. I assume the abrasiveness is how they remove stains from items, as they actually remove the top layer of whatever you are working on.
FWIW, I got great results with Magic Eraser. Yes, indeed ... it is abrasive, but on auto leather ... it works well. Just don't scrub with a lot of force ... unnecessary. "Healing" with Lexol makes it all right. Used it on my Legend and Integra interiors with no obvious ill effects.
That being said, I agree that it is a "solution of last resort" only in cases of seriously damaged leather. I don't plan on using it for many years, if at all, on my new MDX seats. |
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| dory |
quote:
Originally posted by vduc
The driver and passenger seat sides on our taupe interior suffer from blue jean stains after ~14K miles in 8 months. I clean the seats regularly with Lexol cleaner and conditioner and weekly with Mequiars Gold Class leather wipes without luck.
The dealer removed the stains once but they came back in a few weeks of use. My other cars with similar color interiors never had the problem. If I was to do it again Ebony all the way.
If the products you're using aren't removing the blue haze after it's only been there for 2 weeks, I'd change products. I've done ours approx. once per month (so 3 times total), and removed the blue haze every time. I use either Crystal-Glo leather/vinyl treatment or Diamond-Kote spot/stain remover. The latter is something I bought for the leather furniture in the house (which is also a light colour). I'm not sure which has worked better for me, although I am leaning towards the Diamond-Kote. They both work easily and quickly, it's not any effort to get the blue off.
One other thing you can do is put vinegar in the rinse when you wash your jeans. Vinegar helps to set the dye and may help in keeping them from shedding their blue colour. Co-owner got 3 new pairs of darker jeans the same weekend we bought the MDX and I forgot to do this until the last time I washed them. I suspect it might be these specific jeans that are the culprits. |
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| vduc |
I'm going to try and find Crystal-Glo or Diamond-Kote this weekend. Lexol products have worked great in the past for me, just this time it's not cutting it.
Thanks for the vinegar tip.
Vito |
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| dory |
quote:
Originally posted by vduc
I'm going to try and find Crystal-Glo or Diamond-Kote this weekend. Lexol products have worked great in the past for me, just this time it's not cutting it.
Thanks for the vinegar tip.
Vito
Ugh, and after I tell you about those, I notice that they are both Canadian products. So, I'm not sure if they'll be hard to find in the U.S.! I ordered my Crystal-Glo directly from their web site http://crystal-glo.com/ You could call them and find out if they have dealers in the U.S. (they do seem to have a U.S. web site).
The Diamond-Kote web site just seems to have their protection packages that dealers sell for vehicles, RV's and furniture. But I did find this page http://www.goldcoate.com/Products.asp which I think is the same stuff (and it says Diamond-Kote at the bottom of the page). So, maybe look for Goldcoat as well.
I'm not positive yet, but I think the Diamond-Kote worked a bit better, maybe because the product I used was actually a stain remover for leather. So, you use their leather conditioner after (although I just used Crystal-Glo after). The Crystal-Glo is a treatment that also cleans, so just one product. |
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| vduc |
| They list motorcycle accessory shops in Texas and one is local so I'll give them a try first. |
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| machz990 |
quote:
Originally posted by Activator
You must be hard on interiors... I have an '07 Nimbus grey/taupe Sport with nearly 20k miles, and the leather looks like new. Never cleaned, and NO discoloration or dirt. There are a few "whisker" marks/creases on the driver seat, but otherwise the seats are perfect. And this is with two teenage boys who ride in (and the older one also drives) the MDX all the time with friends, food, soccer cleats, etc.
I agree with dory. I've always had black or charcoal interiors, but the taupe MDX looks like a $80k Jaguar interior. Very classy. I'll need to replace the plush mats in another 6 months or so, but that's no big deal.
My biggest issue is how soft the plastic trim on the foot/kick panels is. THAT is something I will want to replace in a few years due to scratches and scrapes.
Ditto. I have a black with taupe interior and it looks brand new. I haven't done anything special to keep it clean, just an occasional wipe-down with a damp cloth. I did use a leather cleaner/lotion once during the winter. I have two young daughters and regularly have hauled around several of their friends or teamates from sports.
I have also noticed how quickly the kick panels have scratched, especially on the passenger side. Not very durable. |
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| victorp |
| My old '07X is no longer listed on their pre-owned cars for sale after 2nd week of closing our deal. Despite of high premium gas nowadays. the new X is still very attractive to current SUV buyers. The new accessories were already installed in my '08 X and very pleased the sales director honored his exact words to me. A pleasant experience indeed with my new car dealership. |
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| JPSilver |
I am very disappointed with the quality of the leather after one year. I have the Sport. Lots of wrinkles on left seat panel and left back panel has a few. Blue jean color come off and must be taken off with Zaino cleaner once a month.
So after they really look bad, I will find a good leather shop and have some new covers made hopefully matching the color.
To contrast this, our Odyssey has a much tougher leather that is slightly gathered from day one. They have more of the texture of a leather football. They don't feel as soft to touch, but are going to hold up much better 5 years from now.
What a shame on a 40K++ car. |
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