stevebez

I gave my steering wheel a good inspection over the weekend and noticed - at least to me - that it is NOT leather covered. The stitching appears to be mock stitching into the plastic.

Anyone confirm this ? If so pretty crappy and time to get the F1 suede / alcantara wheel - btw seems alcantara is not best suited for steering wheel ... and that suede is better - any thots ?

Perhaps an after market upholsterer can recover the stock wheel in alcantara / leather . This is possibly the easiest and cost effective way.

Rgds Steve.

Mad TKD

I think your right steve. I am really pissed at how expensive this car is to have a crappy cheap steering wheel. I am looking a getting a new one also.

kleiv

And it's huge too

ima55r2

My wheel has real stitching. It's really tight but I managed to wiggle loose some threads. It's deceiving because the embossed patterned leather matches the plastic center cover.

The MB site has this for the E55 too.

"AMG-designed leather-trimmed sport steering wheel with raised thumbgrips and fingertip manual shift controls behind the upper spokes."

vixapphire

i noticed the same thing; "this is leather????". my old jag s type R had a tastey fat leather wheel, incl. perforated bits at the 10 and 2 o'clock regions.

as for the e55, how this ballbuster car comes off with the dainty-thin wheel it's got is a mystery to me. over on the cls55 forum on this site, there's a "carlsson interior" thread that's got a great-looking steering wheel. i'm not big on the wood portions, but that alcantara stuff is nice. is there a beefier version of the e55's steering wheel -- wood or leather -- available, and if so, where to score one?

corgiman

Having owned a car with a suede interior - if you don't brush the suede (or alcantara) regularly it looks like s**t. Also VERY difficult to clean....caveat emptor.

Fly Low

I agree I had an alcantara wheel in my e46 M3. I would consider myself somewhat of a clean freak and I had to brush it quite a bit. But when clean it looks great.

E55_POWER

Hey at least Alcantera headlinger is standard on the E55, it's an option on the M5 now.

stevebez

How about the CLK DTM s/wheel ?

Rgds Steve

vixapphire

my solution for the pantywaist steering wheel width problem in the e55 has been to wear driving gloves. they're real leather, and add to the perceived thickness of the wheel!

silly, perhaps; effective, definitely.

incidentally, with regards to an alcantara/suede wheel, would wearing gloves preserve the overall appearance of the ultrasuede better than using one's bare, oily mitts on the wheel? just curious...

v

art@kronen

Check out my Carlsson Steering wheel thread!

corgiman

Gloves should do the trick - assuming you only handle the wheel. But what a pain. I am very meticulous with the car - no eating or drinking etc. But when you read the paper in the AM and leave for work newsprint is hell! I only get black interiors because they hide the most dirt.

vixapphire

man, people still read newspapers? that's sooo 20th century! nothing that a laptop and wireless card w/ dsl can't fix