MBTEX is HOT & Doesn't breathe.

Light Grey MBTEX doesn't bake in the sun, but it doesn't breathe either. ( I can't imagine BLACK MBTEX)



My lumbar area of my shirts is always soaked through after sitting on MBTEX. Especially after >20 minute drives.
*to the point considered trading it in for the exact same vehicle sans mbtex with ventilated leather.

I might as well be sitting on a plastic bag.

Resorted to using a thick beach towel over the seat to keep some air flow and absorb moisture.

* If you live anywhere remotely warm/hot (South of the Mason Dixon) get the ventilated leather.

Other than that can't be happier.

Remember, it's not totally out of the question to reupholster your front seats. You can still get genuine MB seat skins and do a simple swap out of material.

I have MBTex in the Almond/Beige configuration. I live in Texas and just went through a summer of many days of 100 degrees plus. I do not have a problem with the seats even in these temps, which I attribute to the light colored interior and the exterior being in Diamond White. I'm sure the darker colors as you described would be much worse and is one of the reasons I went with all the light colors. I have also heard the "ventilated" seats are not that effective as they only suck air in rather than blow cooled air out. They are probably still better than nothing but I have no real complaints with what I have.

You wont feel like they are blowing a wind storm up your... You know what I mean but ventilated seats do help. I always had the same issue with perspiration on my back in warm not to mention hot days of summer, until I got vented seats. I don't even remember what it's like to walk out of the car with shirt being wet in the back. Arm pits are another story

I would suggest to look in to getting perforated leather and re apolstr the seats first, see if that works first. Cheaper than training in the car.

Ventilated seats are basically 5 fans built into the seat. They BLOW AIR OUT onto your back and legs. I can definitely feel it on my back as it does help cool the leather around the fans, although on my legs it's much more subtle (since I"m sitting directly on the seat). But yes, it's simply the air in the car that's being blown just like any other fan.

Hey, are you driving a 2013? For 2013, the MB-tex now has ventilated seat-like perforations. I haven't seen them in person, but I imagine they will help with this issue. From the pictures, I think they also make the seats look better and more like real leather.

In fact, I think even the regular leather seats look better with the perforations, and was the additional motivating factor for ordering the vent seats on my soon-to-be-built ML....assuming the reported leather shortage doesn't delay it.

Does anyone have an MY13 with MB-Tex that can report to us how they feel?

My '08 E350 has perforated leather seats (or MBTex, not sure which), but they feel hot to me after a while. I test drove a '13 ML350 with ventilated seats, which were a noticeable improvement. Unfortunately that ML was not configured to my liking, and I'm told I still can't order one with leather. My SA told me the shortage is so bad that 550s and AMGs are going to be built with MBTex.