Steering Wheel & Gear Shift - Keeping the Leather like New
 

One of the things I love about a new Audi is the feel of the leather steering wheel. Of course, over time it will wear, but I wanted to see if anyone had any tricks or methods of cleaning that helps preserve the new feeling?

Keep your hands clean/free of oils to preserve the matte finish/avoiding the dreaded shine. Normally a damp cloth is all that's needed to keep the leather clean retaining that matte finish.
Normally baby wipes should never be used but we have found that Huggies Natural Care Wipes (they do not contain oils) gently clean without leaving any shine behind retaining that matte finish.
Also to keep seats from getting shinny avoid fabric softener/sheets on pants.
Hope this helps.

Should the leather be conditioned?

I am curious what products others use to keep the leather in like new condition and free of cracks or shininess as well.

Our seat leather (recently) is all coated, so leather conditioners do nothing.

Something that preserves rubber/plastic would work better.

But I have never seen definitive information about whether the steering wheel leather is coated or not... I would guess it is, which would make it more resistant to dirt, grease, sweat.

Greg

They are sanded leather, AKA as Nubuck type leather. This raises a slight nap which is good for grip and provides the matte look. The nap flattens over time and becomes shiny and slippery. Best way to keep it feeling new is to use a Nubuck block that should be sold wherever you can buy shoe cleaning stuff. Companies such as Collonil make these blocks, but this is German company and I don't know if their leather care products are sold in NA.

For general cleaning, I do what RJC1 does, damp (microfibre) cloth followed by a dry microfibre cloth. No chemicals, no detergents. You don't want to use any traditional leather conditioning products - it usually gets more than enough natural leather conditioning from our hands. And most leather conditioning products result in slip, not grip.

My car is NOT nubuck, and I know what it is, since I have 2 large sofas with nubuck. My 2002 had the optional leather setup and that was not coated leather.

Nubuck is never coated, which you sort of allude to in your first paragraph.

Nubuck cannot be conditioned, only cleaned carefully, again as you stated.

But, I'm pretty darn sure we do NOT have nubuck, my car does not have the slight nap you speak of, and I have never seen perforated nubuck leather seats, maybe because nubuck is normally thinner and most likely would not withstand the perforations.

Now I could be totally wrong, so can you point me to somewhere this is stated?

Greg

(I think our leather is analine or semi analine)

try the following procedure to determine your leather type: Leather Types - LTT