If you take care of the leather and condition it then it wont get all cracked and look like ****. My grandmas 94 mercury grand marquis was well taken care of and I used leather conditioner on the leather every time I washed it and when she sold it a year ago the leather still looked damn near brand new. People just don’t take care of their leather seats so they are going to look like ****. Get the 6L btw if you don’t you will wish you had plus you get a better ear end and a better transmission. Gas mileage difference is really going to be negligible between the two not enough to make me want to get a 5.3 I had one and I would get the 6L any day. Also you don’t have to run premium in it you can run regular in it but of course you aren’t going to get the better performance and its been proven that higher octane gas can give you better mileage.

 

As a matter of FACT, in my case, it did not matter that I took excellent care of my GM leather.... the leather still disintegrated and had to be replaced while in warranty. Your grandmothers seats don't have a dammed thing to do with the quality of seats in my truck or in his.

 

JimS
I don't want to hijack this thread with an interior conversation but could you elaborate a little on the disintegration thing. My mother has an 99 Olds Intrigue (She's 73) with leather and it still looks great but my buddy has an 01 1500 Silverado and the seats look baggy and cracked. I just thought I could get some opinions on it.
Thanks
Jim

 

The leather disintegrated. The top layer came off despite the fact that I cleaned and treated it every month. It's cheap leather. Poor quality. The leather on my GM seats was crap!

 

back on topic:
the trans can be installed after the engine or pulled before the engine, but it's not preferred, the transfer case hangs on a cross member in the back and hits the oilpan in the front, this can be solved by sliding the trans back a hair and jacking up the front end of the truck.