Like the title says.. I've seen this happen to a lot of our cars.... in as little as 50,000 mi. Anything we can apply or is there anything we can do to prevent this from happening?

 

Steering Wheel cover.

 

well.. I should have said BESIDES that....

 

There is probably a combination of things that causes this ....... probably the most common things would be moisture from our hands with action from the sun. I use a leather conditioner/cleaner on the wheel everytime I clean the car. Might be the best chance for retarding this. Just my $.02

 

I tried leather cleaner and the color from the steering wheel came off on the rag.

I had a spot where the color was worn. I bought a leather dye that was supposed to be a match to the car. It was off slightly. I ended up buying a new steering wheel off ebay and it is in a box. One day when my steering wheel gets really bad I will just do a swap.

 

Does your car sit outside in the sun most of the time? When we had a used car lot, many of the vehicles that we purchased from the south had sun damaged steering wheels.
I'd try to find one from LKQ salvage, and keep it covered, when parked.
Somebody posted here along time ago, the best thing you can do for your leather was to just wipe it down with a damp cloth to clean the salt off.