BADD BRADD

I finally got to see the designo Graphite Edition in the flesh. The Corteccia color doesn't photograph well. The flash lightens it up a great deal, to where it looks like a medium shade of grey. Actually it is very dark, true to the swatch in the S-CLASS brochure. I always assumed the secondary trim would be the same as from the Black interior, but it actually is Charcoal, like the W220 series. The contrast between Corteccia and Charcoal looks much richer in person. The tops of the dash and door panels are Charcoal as are the leather on the rear package shelf and the Alcantara of the headliner.

AsianML

Nice pictures. I absolutely am in love with designo Graphite.

cjf_moraga

It does look nice... It also has the same padded leather pattern in the upper door inserts as my S600... Is the top of the dash a different material or leather? (The lower dash does not seem to be as the distinctive "seam" is not visible...

Chris

WSH

Thx for posting the pics....

Yes, the stitching of 600 on lower dash is different IIRC....

Wonder what other elements of interior detail MB keeps 550-like on Designos, not 600-like?

Given 550's lackluster hp/tq and brakes vs 600 (and Designo's poss still inferior interior leather details), may ultimately be a better value to simply get a new 600 rather than a high MSRP loaded 550 Designo....

trumpet1

Pardon me if I've overlooked it, but which engine is it ??? A 550 , 600, 63, 65???

lauer87

its a 550, if you look real close in the second picture you can see on the sticker it says s550

Z356

Chris re: your quote "The lower dash does not seem to be as the distinctive "seam" is not visible..." I think the photo Bradd attached doesn't show the detail...but its there. The lower dash does have the double stitched seam on the Designo Graphite S550. Below you will see interior shots of a similar 2008 S550 Designo, but with the Espresso (Sand leather) interior (and Flint exterior) instead of the Corteccia leather of the Graphite edition. You can see here clearly the stitching details. In general, the three '08 Designo interiors available for the S550 (Mystic, Graphite & Espresso) will give an '08 S550 a similar interior look as your '08 S600 except for: a)S600 has an additional piece of wood trim on the door (bottom by the armrest), b) S600 has wood on the top of the telephone pad, c) S600 has the more elaborate 'rows' on the alcantara roof liner, and d) S600 seats will have the 'V12' metal badge and the others will say 'Designo' on theirs. That is all I can think of, but maybe I forgot something else, besides the glorious V12 logo on the center of the dash! The interesting thing here is that the '08 Designo S63 looks a bit different from either the Designo 08 S550 and the S600, but that is a different topic. Z356

BADD BRADD

Here are some photos showing a little more detail. I shot a picture of about everything that I had always wondered about myself. The leather on the dash and door caps was smooth, not that MB-Texxy look.

BADD BRADD

This is about all that I have without getting too repetative. The Graphite exterior, Corteccia upolstery and Charcoal trim compliment each other nicely. I really like the Matte Oak wood with it, also. The designo Sand doesn't look any better than the Savannah/Cashmere combination. Actually I prefer it over the Charcoal trim and carpet which looks kind of cheap together in my opinion. However the pleated seats and door panels of the designo look much better. Well, you could always just get the S600.

cjf_moraga

Ah - thanks for posting those images.. I also see Badd Brad just posted some more detailed images in a separate post... You are quite right - the seam is there! This combination looks very fine indeed especially as the images are likely washed out by the flash... it seems exactly the same fine grained leather on the dash and doors... The only other part of the S600's interior that I think you missed in your accurate summary is the wooden insert and volume/channel and massage controls in the rear center armrest...

It's odd the really minor things that slightly irritate... when I look at an S550 that single strip of plastic between the door and armrest (you mention in a) just keeps standing out... It's the one thing in this Designo interior that should also have been wood to complete its otherwise very classy look...

Also interesting the spec Brad posted in his seperate post shows an S550 already at around $120K, and it still looks without some features such as Distronics etc.. So the price is already getting to within $10K - $15K or so of the real street price for an S600... I would certainly pay an extra $15K for the V12 and the entire options list... (Heck, I did!)

Chris

Z356

Chris: Good point. The S600 has the beautiful rear seat controls on the rear armrest. However, remember that all three interior Designos packages for the S550 and S63 are ordered with & required the rear seat pkg. Last year (MY07), this option was mandatory if Designo was ordered. This year MB just included it in the Designo pkg and raised the price of the pkg to reflect the higher content (read the MSRP window sticker in Bradd's other post). So my question is, what will that rear armrest 'controls' look like on the Designos? Does it have wood? Probably. But one set of controls will be missing, right? Yes, the S600 is pretty special, with some unique features which are not available to its 'lesser' stable-mates. Maybe Bradd has photos that could tell us if the wood set-up on the armrest is similar to your S600 or something different.

The lack of lower wood on the doors of both the S550 & S63 Designo is a deliberate sop to the S600 marketing team to confirm 'higher' status of their top line model. So it is obviously a compromise agreed to by competing MB groups within the organization, not because of the new S class design team failed to think about providing for it.

Without a doubt, the cost of a fully loaded S550 with Designo gets incredibly closed to a good deal on a S600...with a V12 and all options as standard. I think you made the right choice. Z356

BADD BRADD

As obsessive compulsive as I tend to get over car details, I never thought about checking the armrest!!! It's a shame that I live 100 miles away from the dealer, or I'd go see for myself. I'm surprised that they didn't ask me to leave anyway, since I was climbing all over their car like a monkey, taking pictures like the Japanese tourist in Caddy Shack. However, I did notice that the pull strap on the rear armrest was crooked. My father always told me that I could find something wrong with everything.

WSH

Hey Bradd, thx for the many pics

Btwn those pics and the various detailed obsvns, learned quite a bit re: Designo that I hadn't known previously....

Good to know there are a few OCD guys out there who notice/appreciate all these details (and also are annoyed by any defects and/or wear and tear)....