Leather products on Leatherette?

[OhioCarBuff]

I bought a used BMW this summer and don't know for sure if the interior is real leather (it's my understanding that a lot of cars now have leatherette instead of real leather and you can't tell the difference). First, if it does happen to be leatherette, is it ok to use the gold class Aloe leather cleaner and gold class conditioner on it? (or any of the other leather care products in the Meguiars line for that matter). Second, does anybody know how to tell for certain if it is real or fake leather?

Matt

[TrufflePig]

sometimes you can tell by the stiching.

leather tends to have a lot of stiching while leatherette will just big one big piece. the BMW Mini's are awesome for that.

post some pics. let us see.

[buckshot333]

if it does happen to be leatherette, is it ok to use the gold class Aloe leather cleaner and gold class conditioner on it? (or any of the other leather care products in the Meguiars line for that matter).

I am curious about this as well. If anyone can share their knowledge on this, that'd be great!

[OhioCarBuff]

Buckshot-

I confirmed 100% that the leather in my BMW 740i is indeed real honest to God leather. One of my cars that I have owned in the past was a Mustang Cobra with a "leather" interior- now that I look back I strongly suspect that the Cobra had leatherette (the look and feel was VERY convincing though, it had me fooled!). Anyways, when I used the gold class conditioner on the Cobras seats the product did NOT soak in or get absorbed. On the other hand, when I use the GC leather conditioner on the seats of the BMW that I know for sure are real leather it absorbs and soaks the product in. Well I can't answer your question 100%- but I will say that after using the GC leather cleaner and conditoner on the Cobra's suspected leatherette seats for 2 years absolutely no harm was done.