I like the Pano in my E better than my C due to the tighter woven (darker) fabric. I do miss being able to vent the roof without opening the curtain, and totally blocking out the light.
I do like leather over Tex, and there are lots of Tex 350s. Consider an E550?
I love this color combination and it's what I have. How did I find it? It was in the middle of my dealer's show room and I told them "I want that one!" haha
As finding a car with those specs:
White: Easy
Sport: Very easy
Pano: Moderate
Black interior: Easy
Leather: Moderate
.
When I bought my E 6 months ago I searched the entire southwest (CA, NV, AZ, UT,NM) for a 12 or 13 model. My findings:
About 75% of Es were black or gray. This has been the case on all German cars imported to the US for at least the past 5 years. About 1 in 20 Es were white which is the most comon non-black/gray color.
Sport - agree. Almost all were sport
Pano - very rare. I don't recall seeing even 1
Black interior - very easy. I estimate that 90% had black interiors. Again this is the case for almost all cars made today but is a poor choice for the desert SW.
Leather - very rare. I estimate 95% have MB-tex.
I wanted a low mileage E that did not have black/gray paint nor black interior. I found about 10 in the entire region. I had the same problem buying my Audi TT roadster 2 years ago.
Since I bought the E, I see an E with the pano roof about once a month, about as rare as my Mk 2 TT.
The suggestion for expanding your search to include an E550 might be the ticket.
When I was shopping for my used W212 E550 this past fall (limited to the western US-ish), I was amazed at the lack of color choices - black dominated the lot. Easily half of the E550s had the P2 Launch Pkg. The Pano roof was nearly as common. Dynamic driver seats, air susp and Lane Departure were less common. Distronic was essentially non-existent.
When I did find other colors than black, it was a game to figure out what features I'd "lose out on."
When I bought my E 6 months ago I searched the entire southwest (CA, NV, AZ, UT,NM) for a 12 or 13 model. My findings:
About 75% of Es were black or gray. This has been the case on all German cars imported to the US for at least the past 5 years. About 1 in 20 Es were white which is the most comon non-black/gray color.
Sport - agree. Almost all were sport
Pano - very rare. I don't recall seeing even 1
Black interior - very easy. I estimate that 90% had black interiors. Again this is the case for almost all cars made today but is a poor choice for the desert SW.
Leather - very rare. I estimate 95% have MB-tex.
I wanted a low mileage E that did not have black/gray paint nor black interior. I found about 10 in the entire region. I had the same problem buying my Audi TT roadster 2 years ago.
Since I bought the E, I see an E with the pano roof about once a month, about as rare as my Mk 2 TT.
Interesting. Finding a S class, white, pano, package, black leather is almost impossible but I did it. 95% have the tan interior, and still not even a pano! Glad it's easier on the E.
I will say with past experience, the MB tex actually looks great and doesn't wrinkle and wear like leather does, even in a $110K S class. If someone gets in your car with MB tex, they think it's real anyway, because it's a Mercedes
Slideshow: A one-of-one U.S.-spec Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster became even rarer after a factory-backed transformation at McLaren's headquarters.
