blepski

I am considering adding the leather package (partial leather seats) in black for my 21 MY Macan S build but the one thing holding me back is a concern for potential longevity related issues on the leather dashboard.

This vehicle will be my wife's daily driver for likely the next 5-10 years and will be garaged but also parked outdoors often. I'm not really interested in using sun shades or the added maintenance of cleaning and treating the dashboard frequently; especially seeing that all of my past and current vehicles including my 991 have the standard rubber textured type dashboards that hold up extremely well without any added fuss.

It has been my past observation that leather dashboards are prone to shrinking around edges, warping or cracking on various vehicles so I'm concerned this will be a potential issue on the Macan especially with a black interior.

My primary motivation for the leather package is having leather on the center and door arm rests. If it were an option I would have chosen to spec the dashboard to be the standard rubber textured style.

Has anyone experienced these issues with the leather dashboard or had the same concerns regarding longevity? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

wwahl

Yes, they have. Go over to the macanforum.com site and got tot the box on top that says 'search community' and stick your dash issue with leather and all sorts of bad things come up.

tk-porsche

I think you pretty much answered your own question! Some older vehicles had wooden dashboards, probably because of the issue with leather. I owned a couple old Jaguars at one point and the dash on the E-type definitely looked like it had seen better days.

blepski

Thank you both for the input. I ended up sticking with the standard interior which I’m sure I’ll be happy with long term without any worry.

I also like that the texture on the standard dashboard matches the tops of the doors. You would need to go with the full leather option in order to achieve that same look otherwise.

The leather dashboard is a very nice option but searching around on that Macan forum did confirm my initial suspicions.

I would have no hesitation adding the leather option ( especially with deviated stitching) to a low use weekend toy but for a low fuss daily driver I felt it wasn’t for me.

Thanks again!

shaf

I live in Florida and have not observed any issues but it is a legitimate concern. My wife has an Audi that is outside all the time. I had a tinting film put on the inside of the windshield that doesn’t darken the glass but does cut the uv rays and reduces the heat. It really makes a big difference. But be careful because some places don’t allow any film on the windshield.

tk-porsche

Real leather requires care and feeding, such as with Lexol or other leather conditioner. Especially in dry climates, auto leather requires oiling to keep from drying out. Sure, dashboards also take a beating in the sun, but newer ones seem to hold out a lot better than the ones from a decade or more ago. I saw no deterioration on the dashboard of either of our 2014 BMWs, for example (one of which is now replaced by the Macan).
That said, I still use a sun shade when parked outside in an uncovered area mostly during the warmer months just because it does help keep the inside temperature a bit cooler and the steering wheel from being almost too hot to touch. Window tinting helps. as well.

LILBENZ230

I have always read that windshields block UV rays by design - double layer, plastic between, no tint needed. Side windows on the other hand do not (perhaps if you have the package for this).

We've had full windshield tints done on our cars in the past but just can't stand it. It's been grainy at night every time, no matter how much we spent or what tint shop we used. We just have strips on our current rides. I really like the look of the leather dash in the Macan but am glad our 2015 does not have it as the dash is flawless still.