I've noticed a slight change in the interior between the 2007's and the 2008's.
In the 2007's the panel around the headlamp switch was color coordinated with the interior color. In the 2008's the panel is always black.

I wonder why? I guess they did not what to deal with having suppliers provide that little piece of plastic in three different colors. I prefer the color coordinated look.

The pictures are my 2007 Gl450, a picture of a 2007 by DR.GL450, a picture of the GL550 from autospies and a picture a 2008 GL450 posted by blync.

 

I noticed that also but kind of really never made the connection. The bean counters are at it again...

Maybe my choice of black interior was a good one...:-)

 

That is one heck of a catch. I too like the coordinated look of the '07.

 

The headlight switch surround is black on all the models now.

 

I have always thought it should've been a little square of matching wood trim on that surround.

 

Is it the end of the world?

 

Now that is a very constructive thought.............

 

Yes, yes it is!

 

No, but I will admit that the non-matching cover is ugly.

 

The second to last one is the 550, right? I was just noticing that it had multicontour seats.

 

No, of course not. But, cjh6793 certainly hit the nail on the head.

 

Wouldn't be my first choice, but I really don't think it's terrible. There are enough other black components on the dash and console so that it does not look totally out of place.

 

I noticed that on many 2007 models as well. If you look at 2006 C-Class, E-Class, CLK-Class (and probably others) and then compare them to the 2007 models, you will see they switched to the black one. I think it is incredibly cheap of them to do.

On another C-Class thread, someone actually pointed out that the headlamp switches used to illuminated, but Mercedes decided to save 1 cent and take out the little light bulb for 05 I think.

 

I agree, these cost cutting moves are really stupid. I guess they think because lexus doesn't have an illuminated switch they don't need to either.

 

The MB Website still has an image of the 2007 dashboard in Macadamia.

When you have this view across the entire dash, you can see how the color coordinated plastic around the headlamp switch on the drivers side, balances with the Macadamia color of the entire glove box front. There is a look of uniformity beneath the wood trim where the dash remains relatively vertical. Then the glove box area and the driver's side area bend inward toward the foot well. And on the driver side there is the BIG parking brake release.

But clearly, from an aesthetic sense of balance, the color coordinated plastic is the proper choice. Unfortunately, not the choice that MB made.

 

This doesn't surprise me. for the 2007 C-Class pictures on mbusa.com, they were actually showing one picture that was a pre-facelift sport sedan. I guess they figured since it looked simlar enough, they could get away with it.

 

I don't know why they do this kind of stuff. How much could a color coordinated light switch surround and illuminated light switch cost them. $10?? total. That is probably even overstating it. So increase the base price of the car by $15 to cover these costs, no one will notice. But we will notice when they do change things like this, and it will make us shake our heads at them.

 

My 2007 also has the black trim piece....

Of course the whole interior is black as well

 

When it comes, mine too...:-)

 

Just a thought - I wonder if M-B has temporarily run out of colored surrounds and they decided to use black ones to keep the assembly line running. If so, then the colored pieces will show up again. If so, it should be interesting to see what M-B and GL Faher have to say about this latest move. Must have been a decision based on their superior intellect.

 

I don't think Fahrer is coming back but maybe he will to prove me wrong.

Mine is Black interior too so this is NBD for me. But it sure is a bone headed move.

 

Whahappen? Did he go crackers?

 

 

I think he liked to spout off details of upcoming models, etc. and receive the associated praise, but he found the critizism a bit hard to take.