Pros & Cons of Tan and Black Seat Color

[mcano]

I'm in the market for a 95/96 vintage NSX. I prefer the tan seat color over the black. However, it appears based on at least the five tan interiors (94 -96) that I have seen in person and several in photographs (which may not be representative) that tan seats tend to show greater age defects than black seats. I'm not necessarily talking about rips, tears and separated seams, but rather discoloration. Specifically, small cracks that accumulate dirt giving the seat a gray color appearance.

I’m not sure if I can come to a conclusion, based on my limited experience, that black seats hold their appearance better than tan. Therefore, I’m asking forum participants to express their opinion on this issue. However, the one thing I do not want is tan seat owners and black seat owners to get into a pissing match just to defend the seats they have in their car. Now, I know that wear is based on several variables, i.e., miles on the car, local weather, maintenance frequency, even the weight of the driver. So, I do not expect the results of this thread to be absolute. I plan to keep my NSX for a long time, so I would like to see if there is general consensus one way or another on which seat color keeps it looks better. Although I prefer tan, I do like the black seats as well, and I will give black seats more consideration if the consensus shares my observations.

What do you say!

Mario

 

[nsxsocal]

I don't think there is a wear advantage to either.

Either color can still be in good condition if the car was a third car and / or has low mileage and spent most of the days in the garage. So IMO you will need to look at the car and see how the interior has held up and if you like tan, find one that has held up or budget to recover the seats.

thanks

 

[NickS]

Hi,
I purchased a 1996 Black NSX w/ tan interior this year. It has 112000 miles on it. It is used but not abused. The drivers seat in particular was very worn on the entry side, no tears but well worn. The seats were very dirty in the creases and the worn areas and I initially thought that I may need to replace them at some point down the road. I researched some cleaning methods for leather and I found an excellent way to restore the leather. Of course the wear you can never restore but the seats now look like quite nice. I started with a mixture of Murphy's Oil Soap and warm water. Use about a 1/2 cup per gallon. Give them a good scrubbing with a sponge and towel them off. After they dry use a Mr. Clean magic eraser. If you are not familiar with this product they are available at any supermarket cleaning section. They are amazing at removing marks and spots on just about anything. The only thing is they are kind of harsh so you dont want to keep it on the leather very long. Once you finish using the magic eraser on a seat go over it again with the Murphy's mixture and towel it. This will remove any residue from the magic eraser. You will be amazed at how clean they will look. Once the seats are completely dry I use Blue Magic Leather Creme Conditioner. I put on a couple of applications. The seats look 100% better. They actually have a nice supple look. I now use this method on my entire interior. It give the vinyl and leather a nice low luster as opposed to the wet look you get with some products. The other nice thing about this cleaning method is the smell. The car retains the odor of Murphy's Oil Soap which I really like. If you do not like the smell of Murphy's you definately don't want to use it but everyone comment how great my car smells.

 

[Ski_Banker]

I'm in the market for a 95/96 vintage NSX. I prefer the tan seat color over the black. However, it appears based on at least the five tan interiors (94 -96) that I have seen in person and several in photographs (which may not be representative) that tan seats tend to show greater age defects than black seats. I'm not necessarily talking about rips, tears and separated seams, but rather discoloration. Specifically, small cracks that accumulate dirt giving the seat a gray color appearance.

I’m not sure if I can come to a conclusion, based on my limited experience, that black seats hold their appearance better than tan. Therefore, I’m asking forum participants to express their opinion on this issue. However, the one thing I do not want is tan seat owners and black seat owners to get into a pissing match just to defend the seats they have in their car. Now, I know that wear is based on several variables, i.e., miles on the car, local weather, maintenance frequency, even the weight of the driver. So, I do not expect the results of this thread to be absolute. I plan to keep my NSX for a long time, so I would like to see if there is general consensus one way or another on which seat color keeps it looks better. Although I prefer tan, I do like the black seats as well, and I will give black seats more consideration if the consensus shares my observations.

What do you say!

Mario

Mario - This is a very pleasant, well written account of the obstacles we, as NSX owners, face in battling the harsh elements of time and neglect. Woe is the quandary.

But, since I'm not an accountant,

Buy the NSX with the interior you want and spend another $1k if you need to replace the leather. Not so hard, huh?

 

[Gramps]

I also looked at a Brooklands Green with tan interior. Loved the color combination, but found some of the same concerns. Seats can be recovered. But, what I noticed is that anywhere where the tan was chipped or missing on plastic trim, there was black showing through. I could not fathom a "good" way to restore those areas. Hence, decided to limit search to onyx interiors.