mis3

I have black leather seats on my current CLK320 (w209). After 11 years of daily commute and 210k miles, these seats and the burl walnut trims still look great. My car has been well maintained by Meguiars products.

Just like my current car, I tend to keep my ride for many years. So I have to choose the interior based on long term use.

I have been reading this forum for the past few weeks. First of all, MB-Tex is more durable than leather and it will look great for many years. Light color seats will age worse than darker seats.

How about interior trim? Which trim would age better?

StanNH

Black piano plastic trim scratches easily and shows fingerprints. The gloss finish wood trims will show small "micro" scratches which have to be polished out occasionally. Open pore Black Ash requires almost no maintenance.

MB-Tex holds up better than leather, but leather is leather. The look is similar, the smell and feel are not. I've had both, and prefer the leather. Black is easy to maintain, lighter colors do require some periodic cleaning.

rbrylaw

What Stan said!

mis3

Thanks for your replies.

I currently have the burl walnut wood in my car. Is this considered gross finish wood? I do see scratches on the clear coat on these trims. I do not mind them at all.

Maybe the interior will be too dark to match black leather with black ask wood.

One time I tried but failed to remove some jeans stains from a white leather seats. Quite frustrating...

rbrylaw

I think you meant "gloss" on the Burl Walnut? Yes, it's a high gloss trim. I have the same trim in my 2012 E350 Coupe and it's held up well, but I can see micro scratches on it. This is why my new C300 is coming with the Open Pore Black Ash. All the richness of real wood without gloss or micro scratches being so easily seen.

I also have the Cranberry Red Leather in my current car, which has held up incredibly well after 4 years. I like it so much that it's the color leather coming in my C300 (which is being built one week from yesterday!). I agree white leather is very difficult to keep pristine.

If you go through the top sticky you'll see several example of Open Pore Black Ash with black interiors. It wouldn't bother me to have that combination. It would certainly require the least maintenance.

StanNH

This is what Black Ash looks like with black leather seats.

mis3

Thanks StanNH for the picture. The seats sure are not as sexy or eye popping like red or beige but the whole interior looks elegant.
There are definitely more considerations (seats, trims, options, etc) to choose a car for 10 years

Is this palladium silver similar to charcoal? Charcoal was a very popular color many years ago.

miketc

Why does MB only have black ash wood for the US market? I see lighter color ash for the other countries. I have gloss wood trim but definitely get ash other than black or non-gloss wood trims.

rbrylaw

Why Mercedes does anything they do country by country is anyone's guess, to be honest..........

mis3

Agreed. The only choices for 2016 non-AMG C sedans are C300 4-matic and C450 4-matic. Don't really see the need for 4-matic in Vancouver.

rbrylaw

Even less need for 4matic in Tampa, FL. Fortunately for me, we can get a rear wheel drive C300. It let me add more creature comfort options as opposed to paying for a drive system I don't really need.

pek

That happened to me, too, with light leather seats in my prior (non-MB car). I primarily wear jeans to work, and I was not able to get the dark stain out of my light seats. And light interiors are the way to go for me in the US South. So it was mb-tex for me, even though I don't have the leather smell. And no crotch-cooler without leather, I do miss that a lot from my other car.

mis3

Did you mean that with MB-Tex, you were able to remove the Jean stains?

pek

Um, no, I got the mb-tex so I wouldn't have the lite-colored leather-blue stain problem in the first place. I hope. I'll let you know in a few years. The lite leather was in my Buick LaCross. Got it because it was designed primarily by Opel. I sure miss my 70's Opels.

pek