DavidNJ

On the US E320 the standard interior has a leather wheel, shift knob, and the perforated inserts down the center of the front seats.

A "Premium Leather" option, $1500 on the E320 and standard on the E500), includes leather on the entire seating surface of the front and rear seats, the door armrests (not the console), and the center of the doors, which ar now tuffed instead of concave. I

The ventilated seats require the leather interior in the US. With the ventilated seats, the entire seating service is perforated.

I'm not sure if the leather in the "premium leather" package is different than the leather used in the standard perforated insert. In a car with the standard interior, on two occasions I've seen salesmen feel the leather and vinyl repeatedly finding it very difficult to determine which parts were leather and which were vinyl. I guess that means MB uses very good vinyl and more mediocre leather!

In the US, dealer's never order the premium leather for E320s they sell from inventory. I have rarely seen it other then when it was required by ventilated seats, usually ordered with the US premium package.

Anyway, if we don't get ventilated seats which require the premium leather, should we still order it? We have until Friday to make our decision.

What is your opinion and experience?

Thanks

David

Barry45RPM

Only if YOU can feel the difference. The basic leather/vinyl interior feels pretty uniform & good, and most if not all of the 3's are ordered this way. If you are not ordering ventilated seats & most of the cars are ordered without them & it feels ok, why waste your money on it. Get the built in phone or even better, treat yourself to Satellite radio or Nav. Satellite radio in the car is SOOooo good! Especially on trips over an hour! Bottom line, dont order the premium leather because you feel it "should" be in the car. Only get it if you want it & will apreciate it every day thrughout the life of the car. Otherwise Satellite is a much more usueable/enjoyable option which you WILL notice & love every day!

DavidNJ

Already ordered the nav, sat radio, and phone with vcs (actually waiting for the new phone, since the car is an ED and won't hit Baltimore until October.

Also have the Drive Dynamic seats (only way to get multicontour), parktronic, tpm, active xenon lights.

Is the leather worth it, it seems your vote is no.

levind

I think it is worth it. I like the look of the premium leather door panels, and the smell of the leather interior. I also think a $50k car should have not have faux leather. It's the same as having fake wood.

jim256

From personal experience: I had a new W203 2001 C320, ordered from the factory, I applied the above "logic" to skip the full leather. I never felt the interior looked right with those concave, hard vinyl door inserts. I previously had a W210 '98 E320 with then standard full leather (diesels had the partial).

My dealer does typically order stock with the full leather, my inventory W211 E320 has it, and I would always order it if I have the choice.

FWIW

BWL

If you are going to spend 50K on a new car you should spring for the leather. MBtex may look similar, but the leather does look and feel nicer. I have also found the leather to be easy to care for (i.e. removing dirt and smudges).

Barry45RPM

I have it in mine because it is a 500. As you can see, I ordered my car with pretty much everything, because I dodn't want to spend that much on a world class luxury car, and feel that I cheaped out on something that should have been in it. You didn't mention it in your 1st post, but your car is heavily optioned already, so why would you leave the leather out? How much will it cost you per month additional? It seems not to go along with ordering everything else. If you don't get it you will probably regret leaving it out of an obviously loaded car. I thought you were looking to drive an E towards the lower end of the spectrum. Many people do. Thats why what's on hand on the lots usually only has a sun roof & possibly the HK sound system. Mass marketing luxury cars by the dealers, heh, heh.

DavidNJ

It is $1500, net of discount and sales tax it is maybe $1450. I would expect it to add $0-$400 on resale or add about $180/yr on lease (aren't residuals grand).

So its cost is anything between $180 and $400/year. Right now my wife wants to buy, so the high number would apply. The penalty of too many options.

And your right, I would be second guessing myself the entire time we own it. I will probably be second guessing on the ventilated seat/heated wheel question that long also.

spubar

In my opinion the doors look real ****ty without the real leather. Otherwise I couldnt tell the difference.

Apollo

Hi

On a car costing this much it has to be all leather. The additional cost is not justified though and MB must be making a killing on this profit wise. It also has an impact on resale value in the UK. So what can you do.

Davel

MB-tex holds up much better in the long run. Eventually all leather unless your a real clean fanatic will age and crack, I've seen 20 year old MBs with MBtex that still looked great. 90% of the MBs before 1985 came with MBtex. Leather is softer and for some more comfortable, I would take an all MBtex interior over leather anyday...

DavidNJ

Today I tried the different seats again. And I noticed something.

On the premium leather interior the tuffed cover of the door (the air bag is in the front seat on the W211) sticks out over the armrest. It sticks out enough that I wasn't able to rest my arm comfortably on the door armrest. To rest it, I needed to have my arm rubbing against the tuffed door covering.

I also noticed that the tuffed covering is air tight. If you push on one side it bulges on the other. That mad it impossible to effectively push against it to reduce its size.

Another note. I saw a platinum blue/blue interior E500 Wagon with appearence package and ventilated seats. Also so two E320 appearance packages and an E500 without ventilated seats. First, the blue/blue was quite captivating. I wouldn't purchase, but on a lease it may be a first choice.

Second, and back on topic, the leather on the ventilated seats seemed to be nicer--softer, more supple--than the leather without the ventilated seats. To me at least, it seemed more like the Nappa leather in the designo packages.

In twelve or so hours I need to make the final decision...and I am still undecided!!! Strong arguments on both sides so far.

bmms8

i think its still up to you, but 1500 is a lot, and im sure only you will know its leather inserts, and i think itll be better if you save 1500 since the probs you had with premium. but i can only think of one problem. if you are going to sell it, that might be a factor for the other person. GL with your decision!

codex57

Wait, so is the leather inserts MB-Tex or part leather and part vinyl? MB-Tex is teh vinyl right? So on a non-premium leather E class, what's the material I actually sit on? Cuz I'm not exactly impressed with it's quality.

DavidNJ

The perforated strip down the middle of the front seats are leather. The rest is vinyl. On earlier cars, the strip down the center of the rear seats was also leather. But not now.

This is less leather that ANY other car sold above $20k with a leather interior. However must cars below $30-35k have really low quality leather, minimal surface dye, and frequently a plastic coating on top.

bmms8

isnt it true premium leather by MB has a plastic coating? not because its cheap, but to keep it wrinkle free and stuff, isnt that the reason why its not very smooth.

on topic, what are you going for now?

DavidNJ

I haven't a clue and we have maybe 4 hours to make up our minds.

Three possiblities:

Standard interior and Heating Package

• More armrest room

Premium Leather and Heating Package

• Cool in hot weather/warmer in cold weather than vinyl
• Slightly uncomfortable door armrest
• Includes heated steering wheel
• Costs approximately $1430 more

Premium Leather and Active Ventilated Seats

• Maybe the softest, most comfortable leather.
• Slightly unusual look to fully performated seat.
• No Heated Steering Wheel
• Cost approximately $1760 more

If they had offered the appearence package on the CDI, we could get that with Airmatic, leather, active xenon lights, the silver and black interior trim (which goes well with ash) for $1300 more than the leather and lights alone ('04 pricing, '05: who knows?)

David

DavidNJ

Voting my the way is now 17-7-3, or 2:1 for the leather. For a poll that is a definite direction but not conclusive. For an Internet pole 4:1, or 9:1 would be more conclusive.

Also most E320s DON'T have the premium leather. I would say only 10-20%.

Barry45RPM

Don't you have a preference? If yes, follow it. If no leave it off if the money is any kind of issue. Finis!

levind

Just get the premium leather/ventilated seats. Don't worry about maximizing your resale. You will be sitting in those seats for thousands of miles; you might as well enjoy them. While sweating in the vinyl, you would constantly be wondering how the ventilated seats would feel against your sticky back.

adam2

Go for the leather. The half plastic/leather combo is not a choice i would go for on a £30K car. Leather will be a lot easier to maintain and clean than the vinyl and longer lasting. Your resale value will be more than what you quote. Although you may accept the twin option many exec used car buyers will not touch a car w/o leather so you will lose a lot more on resale.

LEATHER, AUTO, METTALIC paint are resale key factors

Sat Nav, wheels, audio do not affect resale values much.

I was in a similar dilemma 6 months ago, I'm glad i went for leather, it feels a lot better and you will find that its the single thing people notice first when they sit in your car.....ahhh leather seats.....Follow your instincts you know you want leather...Go for it......I was thinking maybe i could get something else instead as an option...but most things can be left out...you will get over them BUT leather is a MUST....believe me.

DavidNJ

Well, this should be my last post on this subject. I will actually be placing it in three threads that were related to this purchase.

The final car is an MY05 E320 CDI, Alabaster White/Ash leather, lighting, rear seat, and 426 premium (nav, drive dynamic seat, rear shades, rear side blinds, and entertainment package) packages and parktronic, tire pressure monitor, and sat radio. Phone w/VCS will be included when the new phone is announced. ED 9/3. So we won't have it in NJ until October.

The final decisions were a killer. Heated steering wheel or ventilated seats. Premium leather or standard interior.

The there were two deciding factors. After I pointed out the two strips of leather on the MY05 standard interior, my wife described it like as a vinyl skirt with a leather belt. Nearly as if MB was trying to fake-out the customers. The vinyl has leather-like stitching, and in a $50k car, you think it would be leather.

Second, although my wife may use a heated steering wheel 30% of the time, I only use it for the first 10 minutes or so on very cold days. On the other hand, the ventilated seats would be used on long sticky drives (our average trip is close to 1 hour because of the NYC commutes). Therefore, we would get more use out of it. And, the leather with the ventilated seats seems better than the leather without them.

Two factors weighed against this decision. Cost was one. The MY05 426 premium package plus separate ventilated seats is now $5200 vs. $3650 in MY04. Ouch!!!

Second, the convex tufted door trim (the airbag is in the seat) takes over an inch of effective width off the armrests compared to the concave standard interior.

Combined, they took the decision to the wire. However, we went with the ventilated seats.

I'd like to thank everyone for all their help.

David

levind

David:

Your car is going to be gorgeous. I am picking up mine 4 days earlier than yours. It will be a long wait...

Otto

this is a BIG mistake from mbusa.

the leather seat should be included as standard. (please mark up the base price to include it.) but providing an option without it. (a special order)

is there any reasons for a 50k+ car without it?