Why You Should Not Neglect Your Car Leather This Winter

The recent cold snap delivered by Storm Arwen brought snow to many parts of the UK and has left some unfortunate souls without power, reminding us that winter is well and truly here.

While astronomical winter doesn’t start until December 21st, the Met Office regards December, January and February as the winter months and there is no doubt motorists who have just had to de-ice the windows or brush snow off the driveway for the first time this season will have many more occasions to do so in the next three months.

All that may make many motorists focus their attention on the outsides of their car, and with issues like cracked windscreens, frozen windscreen wipers, and the need to take expert advice to make sure you have at least 3mm of wheel tread, it is certainly wise to take care over these things.

However, that doesn’t mean you should forget about the interiors - and not just because you should have a torch, food and blanket ready just in case.

If you need some leather seat repair work, now is a very good time to do it. The reason is simple: your car is more likely to be full of people or things during the winter.  

Whether that is the kids not being so willing to walk to school on a freezing morning, the full family car heading to see relatives at Christmas or even the fact it could be loaded up with festive shopping, any damage will see much more wear and tear in the months ahead.

Apart from that, if you are heading out in your car to a social event, you won’t want people to be seeing your leather car seats in a poor state, especially if you are giving them a lift.

Besides all that, fixed leather seats will be more comfortable and suffer less damage if you do end up in the unfortunate situation where you get stuck in a snowdrift for hours, or are on a motorway where traffic has slowed to a crawl due to an accident taking place in front of you. After all, in such a situation you won’t be leaving blankets draped across the seats.

The good news is that authentic leather won’t get damaged because of the cold itself. Because it is from the hide of a cow, it will act the same way any skin would, which means it may get cold to the touch as one’s own skin does, but it will not crack.

Genuine leather will keep its shape because the material naturally allows air to circulate through. That means the air flow may lower the temperature, but it will not compromise the structural integrity of the material.

All this means that while your leather seat covers might feel the cold in the same way everything and everyone else will on chilly days, nothing will add to any existing damage. Therefore, you can have repair work done without any fear of the material being harmed by the weather between now and March.