Hi,
I had a real problem with the seats on my Alfa, and I have less of a similar problem with the seats on the SVX. The Alfa seats were cracked. I didn't see it when I bought the car, because someone (the dealer I bought it from, or the wholesaler who sold it to him,) used a spray-on colorant on them The color is light yellow/tan, and when it came time to clean the leather and apply a coat of Lexol to it, the colorant came off, leaving me with big, wide, dark cracks, particularly on the driver's seat.
PO had taken the car on skiing trips, left it out over night in sub-freezing weather, then climbed in and drove off. He never treated the leather either, feeling that he had bought the Alfa as a cheap luxury car and would (and did) toss it when it started to look shabby. In addition to the quick fix on the leather, the dealer had the hood repainted to remove multiple stone chips caused by the same problem, driving in slush on sanded/salted roads.
But, I was turned on to a product called "Glyptone." It is made in England, and used to treat furniture as well as car interiors. They make a cleaner, treatment, and a dye. The dye fills in cracks and is permanent. To insure that the color is right, they requested that I send them a snip of the actual leather (from underneath the rear seat). I did so, and about a week later, I received a package with the materials. I followed their instructions, and it really works. It is more than a year now, and is holding up perfectly. I have already cut a little piece of grey leather from the bottom of the SVX rear seat, and am going to send it to them for a similar, but smaller, kit for it. The company has a website,
www.liquidleather.com, where they have all the info. It really worked for me.
Paul