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I've had light beige or white leather interiors in all of my cars. Even my 10 year old BMW leather looks as good as new. That said, I clean the leather with mild soap on a damp microfiber cloth every couple of months.
I've had light beige or white leather interiors in all of my cars. Even my 10 year old BMW leather looks as good as new. That said, I clean the leather with mild soap on a damp microfiber cloth every couple of months.
Woolite and water is cited as a very common mixture to clean leather seats. I've done it before, seems to work. Look it up.
Light colour interiors are just fine durability wise, but one has to adhere to a schedule and clean them periodically. As well, watch for dropping stain inducing liquids and wearing excessively dirty garments. The enjoyment of a nicer looking interior is in my opinion well worth the occasional need to clean (which you should be doing regardless of colour). No different than a nice piece of furniture in your house, treat it with care and respect so it provides enjoyment for you.
My wife's E has Black and Grey combination. IMHO the Designo interior is really spectacular and extremely comfortable. Don't eat in the car with these perforated seats. Haven't needed to cleaned them yet.
Joe
I had a designo Porcelain white leather interior in my CLS and currently have designo Deep Sea Blue in my S550, which has Silk Beige exclusive napa leather on the door kick panels and floor mat trim. The CLS had issues with selvedge (raw, unwashed denim) jeans and the S with dirty shoes. A good leather cleaner will save the day. My Land Rover dealer gave me some branded leather cleaner for my Range Rover's Light Ivory seats. That cleaner works great on both my MB as well as Range Rover.
I have the black/grey and love it. Also have the black piano line trim with it. Looks stunning. Also, it is comfortable as heck. Recently drove 11 hours each way on vacation and you really noticed it (the active seats help too).
2020 S560 Sedan, 2019 SL450, 2019 E450 Luxury Trim Wagon
The ultra light color interiors make zero sense to me. Some of them are attractive when new, but can quickly go down hill. Who wants to be cleaning them constantly? We are getting my wife a new E400 sedan and will go with the Designo black/gray interior. Her current 2016 E350 has the Crystal Gray Nappa interior. The first thing we did was get a set of black floor mats which makes the ultra light carpets livable, but the blue from her denim jeans rubs off on the seats and is not easy to get off. Go with the black/gray.
I like cars with awesome interiors--it shows that details matter and have the ability to care for them. I decided to cover my Silk Beige designo mats with blue lambswool carpets in my S and added a white mink (faux) throw over my Range Rover's light Ivory leather. I still think the hardest interior to care for is the original Rosser Cognac painted pebble leather which can easily be stripped if the wrong leather cleaner is used...and even more so if it's 45 year old like in my 600. If you're gonna go decadent you might as well go all out.
I hesitated for a long time about the color of the leather seats... in the end I went with black (again)
light colors ar a ***** to keep clean.
and i've yet to see a 2nd hand car that has light leather seats in tip top condition...
Dark upholstery gets just as dirty as light upholstery. It is a matter of visibility. No matter what the interior color is If it is dirty I don't want to sit on it and soil my light colored attire.
2020 S560 Sedan, 2019 SL450, 2019 E450 Luxury Trim Wagon
Nobody is suggesting that dark interiors don't need to be cleaned and maintained. However, it is a matter of every little thing showing up like a sore thumb on carpets and seats that are nearly WHITE, as opposed to darker carpets and seats that look great, even inbetween cleanings.
The real problem here, is that MB, for the past few years, has been pretty much giving us extremes when it comes to interior color choices. You can choose an interior with ultra light beige carpets or black. What ever happened to nice, rich browns, reds, saddle tans, etc? Here are examples of what I feel are truly magnificent interior colors, one from Porsche and one from Bentley. Why can't MB offer us interior colors like these? They used to.
Stream, totally agree. It's too bad that MB has panned to the masses and gone the 80/20 route with respect to interior choices. Even Range Rover offers up to seventeen interior color combinations. I recently met with the Mercedes-Maybach research team and they showed me some interior options that they are working on. I thouhgt they needed to offer more choices and material options to be competitive with their segment of the market.
Nobody is suggesting that dark interiors don't need to be cleaned and maintained. However, it is a matter of every little thing showing up like a sore thumb on carpets and seats that are nearly WHITE, as opposed to darker carpets and seats that look great, even inbetween cleanings.
The real problem here, is that MB, for the past few years, has been pretty much giving us extremes when it comes to interior color choices. You can choose an interior with ultra light beige carpets or black. What ever happened to nice, rich browns, reds, saddle tans, etc? Here are examples of what I feel are truly magnificent interior colors, one from Porsche and one from Bentley. Why can't MB offer us interior colors like these? They used to.
My E300 is the luxury with dark brown nappa leather and natural brown ash. Since it is the luxury, it has beige headliner instead of black too. Aside from the diamond pattern, this is basically what my interior looks like. It is incredible, and those of you not excited about beige and black should consider it strongly. It looks very luxurious
2020 S560 Sedan, 2019 SL450, 2019 E450 Luxury Trim Wagon
Originally Posted by dbtk
Stream, totally agree. It's too bad that MB has panned to the masses and gone the 80/20 route with respect to interior choices. Even Range Rover offers up to seventeen interior color combinations. I recently met with the Mercedes-Maybach research team and they showed me some interior options that they are working on. I thouhgt they needed to offer more choices and material options to be competitive with their segment of the market.
I posted my idea on the W222 forum: Change Maybach into a bespoke line of S Class cars. Offer both the current extended wheelbase, but also the "regular" long wheelbase, as all USA S Class sedans arrive in. Offer many special exterior colors, along with a "paint to sample" ala Porsche. Allow customers to select from many different colors of leathers and fabrics and allow them to say "I want the seats this color, the top of the dash this color, the carpets this color," etc., ala Bentley. The current Maybach has such a tiny audience. The extended wheelbase is not a car to drive, but a car to be driven in. With my idea, Maybach would be something S Class owners would aspire to and I think sales of Maybach badged cars would soar.
I posted my idea on the W222 forum: Change Maybach into a bespoke line of S Class cars. Offer both the current extended wheelbase, but also the "regular" long wheelbase, as all USA S Class sedans arrive in. Offer many special exterior colors, along with a "paint to sample" ala Porsche. Allow customers to select from many different colors of leathers and fabrics and allow them to say "I want the seats this color, the top of the dash this color, the carpets this color," etc., ala Bentley. The current Maybach has such a tiny audience. The extended wheelbase is not a car to drive, but a car to be driven in. With my idea, Maybach would be something S Class owners would aspire to and I think sales of Maybach badged cars would soar.
Ironically, that is similar to discussion I had with them. The new Mercedes-Maybach lack the bespoke nature of the original ones from the 1930/40s and the more recent 57/62 to compete with Bentley Mulsannes and Rolls-Royces. I referenced how Rolls-Royce has upwards of "10,000 color choices" (they actually have 44,000). In addition, the selection of leathers, woods/trim and other assorted interior items should be unique to the Maybach...and not readily available to regular W222s to your last point. I see we are like-minded on these things.
My E300 is the luxury with dark brown nappa leather and natural brown ash. Since it is the luxury, it has beige headliner instead of black too. Aside from the diamond pattern, this is basically what my interior looks like. It is incredible, and those of you not excited about beige and black should consider it strongly. It looks very luxurious
I love brown and black together, as well as gray and brown combinations. The interior of my 213 is brown (albeit standard MB-tex) and black with black flowing lines plastic ("wood" I am told).
I like cars with awesome interiors--it shows that details matter and have the ability to care for them. I decided to cover my Silk Beige designo mats with blue lambswool carpets in my S and added a white mink (faux) throw over my Range Rover's light Ivory leather. I still think the hardest interior to care for is the original Rosser Cognac painted pebble leather which can easily be stripped if the wrong leather cleaner is used...and even more so if it's 45 year old like in my 600. If you're gonna go decadent you might as well go all out.
Nice 600; I'd love to see more pics of it!
Originally Posted by Streamliner
The real problem here, is that MB, for the past few years, has been pretty much giving us extremes when it comes to interior color choices. You can choose an interior with ultra light beige carpets or black. What ever happened to nice, rich browns, reds, saddle tans, etc? Here are examples of what I feel are truly magnificent interior colors, one from Porsche and one from Bentley. Why can't MB offer us interior colors like these? They used to.
Originally Posted by dbtk
Stream, totally agree. It's too bad that MB has panned to the masses and gone the 80/20 route with respect to interior choices. Even Range Rover offers up to seventeen interior color combinations. I recently met with the Mercedes-Maybach research team and they showed me some interior options that they are working on. I thouhgt they needed to offer more choices and material options to be competitive with their segment of the market.
I think the real answer here, and Mercedes-Benz clearly knows it, is that most (or at least enough for it to matter) owners either: can't really afford those bespoke options on a car they are buying, or don't really want/care to spend the money for those extravagant details. As sad as it is to say, and as much as the truth hurts, many Mercedes buyers are purchasing the cars for the status symbol and the perception that it evokes, rather than the personal enjoyment and satisfaction. THAT is what sets Maybach and Porsche and Rolls-Royce buyers apart from Mercedes buyers.
2020 S560 Sedan, 2019 SL450, 2019 E450 Luxury Trim Wagon
Originally Posted by tresean1
As sad as it is to say, and as much as the truth hurts, many Mercedes buyers are purchasing the cars for the status symbol and the perception that it evokes, rather than the personal enjoyment and satisfaction. THAT is what sets Maybach and Porsche and Rolls-Royce buyers apart from Mercedes buyers.
Are you saying that Maybach, Porsche & RR drivers don't buy their cars as status symbols?
Are you saying that Maybach, Porsche & RR drivers don't buy their cars as status symbols?
Don't know about those drivers, but MB is mostly a status symbol. Lots of cars on the lots have just the P1 package. There are other brands out there that have more options for a lot less money. Then it means it's a status symbol. It's nice to see some people ordering the cars with the P3 package, in previous models, they never even got the P2 package. In other words, lots of what are supposed to be luxury cars with no luxury features.
07-05-2017, 10:58 AM
