How long a wait for a light coloured interior?

[Bobby Dazzler]

There's a lot of us in this thread, but evidently we're still in the minority, otherwise black wouldn't be so dominant.

I would say it’s a function of most cars in the UK being financed in some shape or form, which makes factory options expensive as most - if not all - finance companies will structure the finance to fully recover the cost of those extras over the term of the agreement, ie the expected value at the end of the term I’ll be based upon a completely standard car without factory options.

So options costing £2400 would cost an additional £100 per month (plus interest) over a 24 month term. As a result most cars have zero or very few options. Manufacturers introduced high spec cars like AMG line or Audi’s S line add most of the common factory extras to be added with some more on top, and because it’s a model with no additional factory options it works out better value on finance, even if it might cost a little more.

Manufacturers revenue increases and buyers get more for their money even if they spend more in the process.

The other factor is most people donmt want to wait for a factory order. With UK buyers being a relatively conservative bunch, dealers and manufacturers don’t want to hold stock cars with a punchy colour inside or out as the market is limited. Combined these factors mean that black, grey, and silver over black is so common.

 

[ToeKnee]

I guess I'm in a minority in that I quite like a black interior......

 

[ChrisPDuck]

I guess I'm in a minority in that I quite like a black interior......

Among posters in this thread maybe, but probably not in the wider world.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

I guess I'm in a minority in that I quite like a black interior......

Minority in this thread, majority overall I’d say.

 

[TC350]

I’m not convinced by the earlier reasoning for the scarcity of light coloured interiors. I believe it to be a chicken and egg situation led by MBUK. Light interiors don’t seem to be such a rarity in other countries.

Even when buying new here, we’re limited to the colours being offered within the country rather than by those that the manufacturers can and will provide. We invariably see a range of exterior colours, with options at different price points, but at best a limited number of choices for indoors. In the UK we tend to get as much choice of materials as we do colours.

I strongly suspect that MBUK decide on importing a preponderance of black interiors because that’s by far the greatest seller. If that’s all that’s being offered, of course it’s the best seller. Even within the small sample of posters on this thread, we’ve seen a couple of people say that they’d prefer a light interior but have made do with black because that’s all there is.

Something else that seems the case with MB offerings in this country is that the sportier/higher powered models within each range are even more restricted to black. You can get light interiors, including light headlinings, in the base models but the AMG/sports models are proudly fitted with a choice of black or black headlinings.

There’s also the misconception that light interiors are harder to keep clean than dark. The light grey leather in my car is nearly 13 years old and mostly carried people wearing blue jeans and/or kids. It all still looks like new. Meanwhile, the black mats always look filthy a couple of days after cleaning. I never had that problem with the light grey carpet and mats in my old CLK.

As much as I love the Rolling Stones (Paint it Black) and Amy Winebox (Back to Black), I don’t want to sit in it all the time.