ChrisBrown

In this day of plastic wood dashes, I suspected that even on the C class, not all of my trim pieces would be real wood. Specifically, I suspected the center console as a likely location of plastic. I figured that the doors were wood, since they were "big enough," and I can see vertical seams under the clear coat and a break in the grain where two smaller pieces of wood have been glued together.

Today I got a number of service items done on my car at the dealership. I decided to have two interior repairs done as well: my shift gate trim had a broken clip, and would pop up at times, and the wood around the shift gate was cracked in four places. It was cracked in one place when I bought the car, and now it had increased to four.

When I picked up the car, my service adviser left the boxes of the two parts in the car for me, and put the old, broken ones in them. I decided to inspect the wood console piece. The underside is completely black plastic. However, the opening where the shift gate goes is not polished or finished in any manner. I took a closer look. To my surprise, what I found was the black plastic backing, a layer of wood laminate, a metal layer (I would presume for stability or stucture), and then 3 more layers of wood, the stain, and the clear-coat. I'm pleased that Mercedes didn't skimp, even on this thin piece of trim that could be created very cheaply by being a fake.

Granted, it's wood laminate, but I'm glad it is a wood based product, that is stained and properly clear-coated.

Gotta love Mercedes. I do.

splinter

…and, it’s a renewable resource. Part of M-B’s commitment to green technology.

<<<< works with wood.

dblock2151

Nice, that's good to know! My father's W140 S-class has some cheap looking wood trim that I suspect is probably fake. I'll be wrapping my trim in white suede in a few weeks, I have the black wood (forgot the name) and while it looks cool, the interior feels too dark for my tastes.

ChrisBrown

I'm pretty impressed with the manufacturing on this. The layers are so thin, yet it looks very well made for such a small piece.

Glyn M Ruck

Yeah - They really do a good job. As stated by a business colleague - "They do such a good job of their leather & wood it almost looks synthetic". No natural wood grain could look synthetic but I know what he means.

ChrisBrown

What I like is that when the sun hits it...there's this natural sparkle from the stain and the clear-coat. I'd love to see how this is manufactured.

shivi1345

ooo nice to know

I have the same problem. How much did they charge?

ChrisBrown

The part was $120-ish at Schumacher - they had it in stock. It was installed for free. I'm not sure if that's just the chrome trim, or if that included the P-D black part with the C-S transmission button as well. Is it all one piece? (not including the leather shift boot)

Glyn M Ruck

I understand it is pressure & vacuum formed & that there is an aluminium sandwich in there. Does this sound correct from your examination.

ChrisBrown

Yea, that sounds right from what my piece looks like. The second layer is metallic, followed by a few layers of wood, then the stain.

QQQ

In the W202 launch brochure back in 1994, it states the wood trims are backed by a layer of aluminium to prevent the wood from splintering and hurting passengers in a collision. Back then MB was top in quality. Surprised they still do that for W203.

Utahkompressor

....same way they make the curve on classic guitars + stream-heated so the wood doesn't crack!

ChrisBrown

I'm amazed as how thin the layers of the wood are that are sandwiched together. That's a great cutter they have.

Glyn M Ruck

Interesting - thanks

Glyn M Ruck

I find the quality on my W203 to be better than it was on my W202 - both SA built cars