Citroen XM Forum

Mmm. Looks like it is made from white chocolate! Very tasty!!

Really like the beige interior in that.

It does look quite nice but would not be practical with our three kids!! The more usual black leather is very forgiving and certainly better than velour in terms of wear and tear! Regards, Matthew T.

MTXM wrote:

Really like the beige interior in that.

It does look quite nice but would not be practical with our three kids!! The more usual black leather is very forgiving and certainly better than velour in terms of wear and tear! Regards, Matthew T.

You forsook cream leather for three children...something not right there Matthew...

Just have baby wipes inside for ANY leather + kid combo and you'll be fine

kingp wrote:Just have baby wipes inside for ANY leather + kid combo and you'll be fine

Indeed, leather is very practical for young children. Much more so that any fabric. Sick is so much easier to clean up

Such lovely conversation...sick on leather! ...too much white chocolate maybe...
I think you can get leather wipes even....so easy to keep clean leather....only other thing our family found with cream leather was black jeans. The dye seemed to rub off on the seat bulsters. But with a wipe it was gone.

I think cream leather also shows wear and tear a lot more than black and not just the stains! Perhaps you are right about having the wrong priorities with cream leathered XM and children Will!! Regards, Matthew T.

MTXM wrote:I think cream leather also shows wear and tear a lot more than black and not just the stains!

Having cars with both I can confirm that! I'm very fussy and careful what I wear in my cream car. Never oily overalls!

Citroen used at least 4 grades of leather on the XM's.
Its type and selection depended on car spec, position used and colour.
The lowest grade was not even leather but leather cloth.
This was used in out of sight places in all but the highest spec cars.
It was also used more extensively in estates and with trim colours other than black.
As an example in a 1997 VSX Beige Estate the interior is almost all leather cloth.
You only really notice when the seat bolsters wear through.
Compare this with a 1995 Exclusive Beige Car interior which is a mixture of grade 2 and grade 3 leather.
That has not shown wear but the stiching is breaking on the drivers seat base.

Leather grades are:
Grade 1 - Hand picked and hand trimmed quality thin leather, colour and finish matched with no imperfections.
Grade 2 - Quality thin leather, colour and finish matched with no imperfections.
Grade 3 - Mixed thickness matched leather.
Grade 4 - Mixed leather and leathercloth.

Grade 1 was mainly restricted to show and some demonstration cars.
Generally the differences in leather quality only shows up when matching or making up trim sets.

John

That's interesting, as there is a marked difference in the softness of the leather seats of earlier cars to the later 1.5 models.
But what is more hard wearing, the stuff the estates got or the pure grade 1.

Modern leather..like the c5..... is cheap and plasticky compared to my XM. Neither are grade 1 that's for sure.