why black leather?

[beem]

We have been lookin at c class estates and cls with intentions of buying one, we saw one at brooklands mercedes with a nice beige interior with proper wood trim but it sold, now everything we look at has a claustraphobic black interior and 80% of the cars for sale up to a year old are silver, did mercedes have a big discount on silver cars with black leather and no sunroofs last year?

 

[renault12ts]

Yes they did. You could lease one very very cheaply.

 

[beem]

Is that the reason, that explains why there are a lot of low spec cars out there. 1 careful owner? maybe not then.

 

[BTB 500]

Silver with black leather is a classic M-B combination that has historically been very popular.

Black interiors are widespread in all makes/models of car.

 

[EDZ649]

The majority of people I know prefer black leather to some of the awful colour combinations that are out there, not just MB I might add. I suppose black goes with any external colour where some of the browns & beiges don't. It's all a matter of personal choice. Maybe we should have a poll?

 

[glojo]

The majority of people I know prefer black leather to some of the awful colour combinations that are out there, not just MB I might add. I suppose black goes with any external colour where some of the browns & beiges don't. It's all a matter of personal choice. Maybe we should have a poll?

Would a poll achieve anything?

I dislike silver paintwork and I dislike black interiors but it is my personal choice and nothing would persuade me to like either

I agree that some interior colours do not look right, but to me a black interior with a dark coloured car looks soooo depressing. I like a nice light and airy look

 

[BTB 500]

I like a nice light and airy look

Achieved on my SL by lowering the roof

Actually the hood lining (and hardtop interior) is light grey.

 

[EDZ649]

Would a poll achieve anything?

I dislike silver paintwork and I dislike black interiors but it is my personal choice and nothing would persuade me to like either

I agree that some interior colours do not look right, but to me a black interior with a dark coloured car looks soooo depressing. I like a nice light and airy look

Just for a bit of fun, nothing heavy, just to see what colour people prefer generally, which may show why car manufacturers use a lot of black interiors. I'm sure they do plenty of research on these things.

 

[Mudster]

Mercedes (and also BMW and Audi) don't colour match their interiors very well to other colours.

They have two basic plastic colours for the dash and all the trimmings....black or light grey. So only Black or grey leather looks like a complete interior.

If you go for another colour leather, it looks like they've plonked the seats from another car in as an afterthought. IMO of course.

I commented on this in the "S55" thread recently.

Take a look at Jaguar for instance, whan you choose ivory leather, the dash and trim combo is altered accordingly to complete the interior look.

When i was last placing an order for a Mercedes I'd have loved a creamy or chocoloate iterior...trouble is it looked wrond with black plastic bits, grey headlining and black carpets and I wasn't willing to spend thousands with Designo making it look how it should. Therefore in my mind your only real options for leather are black or grey...and I don't like grey.

Obviously it's cost...they don't have to make 5 or 6 possible interior dashboards etc when two will do.

All very personal of course.....

 

[Ade B]

Black seems to be the default option.. personally prefer lighter colours.

Black leather dark, claustrophobic and hot on a sunny day
My orion grey leather is great, spacious and airy and cleans up easily unlike the cream mushroom/combos of the same era.


Ade

 

[N/B]

MB and AMG have definitely lost their flair for interiors.
Tbh the W203 C55 and W209 CLK 63 were f'ing pitifully decked out considering the calibre of the car.
Even the standard 190E 2.3/2.5-16 interior is a little too gloomy and dark for some.

Let me take you back to the 1980s...

Standard MB:

AMG:

Brabus:

Zender:

Yes, I did save the best 'til last!
^How f'ing cool is that?!

 

[lynall]

My last car had lighstone leather seats piped dark brown, nice colour combo but what a pain to keep clean, blacks much easier.



Lynall

 

[V12]

Mercedes (and also BMW and Audi) don't colour match their interiors very well to other colours.

They have two basic plastic colours for the dash and all the trimmings....black or light grey. So only Black or grey leather looks like a complete interior.

If you go for another colour leather, it looks like they've plonked the seats from another car in as an afterthought. IMO of course.

I commented on this in the "S55" thread recently.

Take a look at Jaguar for instance, whan you choose ivory leather, the dash and trim combo is altered accordingly to complete the interior look.

When i was last placing an order for a Mercedes I'd have loved a creamy or chocoloate iterior...trouble is it looked wrond with black plastic bits, grey headlining and black carpets and I wasn't willing to spend thousands with Designo making it look how it should. Therefore in my mind your only real options for leather are black or grey...and I don't like grey.

Obviously it's cost...they don't have to make 5 or 6 possible interior dashboards etc when two will do.

All very personal of course.....

Even my 190 had a cream headliner to go with the cream cloth seats, not exactly a highly specced s-class!
All 210's with cream trim, got a matching coloured dash (and all plastics!), along with 140's, 129's, 220's, 163's...the list is endless. MB used to have LOADS of colour options, even on very basic standard cars!

I'm not completely up to date with their newer models.

 

[Mudster]

Even my 190 had a cream headliner to go with the cream cloth seats, not exactly a highly specced s-class!
All 210's with cream trim, got a matching coloured dash (and all plastics!), along with 140's, 129's, 220's, 163's...the list is endless. MB used to have LOADS of colour options, even on very basic standard cars!

I'm not completely up to date with their newer models.

That's the problem, it's not like that anymore. Plastic is black or grey and thats it. Unless you want to spend 5 figures on designo options. (or buy some of the more expensive models).

So that means anything other than black or grey leather looks like someone bought the interior of another car and fitted it.

 

[V12]

Another reason why i should go back to my 190

 

[219]

The 'traditional' Mercedes colour combination was always white with red leather - this goes back at least to the 1920's when white was the German national racing colour ( just as the British had Green , the Italians Red and the French Blue ) ; the silver famously came about when the paint had to be scraped off all the cars prior to a race to bring the cars just under the weight limit - henceforth the Mercedes fixation with silver .

I have had one white car with red leather ; a grey one (now black) with red tex ; three with Mushroom leather and Blue,Red and Black exteriors - all these cars had black dashboards which did not look out of keeping with the rest of the cars . I have also had a couple with blue cloth interiors and blue exteriors which had blue dashes . Oh , and my Ponton has red tex seats , with cream door cards and dash inlays ( originally grey paintwork but now red ) . Mercedes also used to offer various two-tone paint options . The brochures used to show all the interior/exterior combinations in a chart with symbols for recommended/not recommended combinations .

All boils down to personal preference .

 

[glojo]

The 'traditional' Mercedes colour combination was always white with red leather - this goes back at least to the 1920's when white was the German national racing colour ( just as the British had Green , the Italians Red and the French Blue ) ; the silver famously came about when the paint had to be scraped off all the cars prior to a race to bring the cars just under the weight limit - henceforth the Mercedes fixation with silver .

I have had one white car with red leather ; a grey one (now black) with red tex ; three with Mushroom leather and Blue,Red and Black exteriors - all these cars had black dashboards which did not look out of keeping with the rest of the cars . I have also had a couple with blue cloth interiors and blue exteriors which had blue dashes . Oh , and my Ponton has red tex seats , with cream door cards and dash inlays ( originally grey paintwork but now red ) . Mercedes also used to offer various two-tone paint options . The brochures used to show all the interior/exterior combinations in a chart with symbols for recommended/not recommended combinations .

All boils down to personal preference .

Ithought white was the Japanese National colour

 

[Deleted member 6183]

We have been lookin at c class estates and cls with intentions of buying one, we saw one at brooklands mercedes with a nice beige interior with proper wood trim but it sold, now everything we look at has a claustraphobic black interior and 80% of the cars for sale up to a year old are silver, did mercedes have a big discount on silver cars with black leather and no sunroofs last year?

I'll bet that lots of the cars that you have been looking at are Milton keynes cars, i.e. on a KS numberplate.

I would be surprised if any MB registered cars, ex management or hire most likely, would have any unusual colour combinations. Black and silver is probably as safe as you can get.

 

[beem]

I'll bet that lots of the cars that you have been looking at are Milton keynes cars, i.e. on a KS numberplate.

I would be surprised if any MB registered cars, ex management or hire most likely, would have any unusual colour combinations. Black and silver is probably as safe as you can get.

Actually, the one we looked at in brooklands was a mb directors car in red with beige leather and all the toys.

 

[NuisanceValue]

You see a few SL models in black with red leather, but I prefer black or blue with beige leather myself. In the 129 series, beige leather comes with a brown dash which suits the scheme very well.

Black leather is perceived to be harder wearing as it doesn't show as much wear and tear, though I find it too dark.

I would love to be able to spec a black or very dark grey SL in the dark brown chocolate leather they had some time time ago (I think this was a Designo colour scheme) This would be perfect for me, though I enquired in a dealer and believe there are very very few with this combination produced.

I wasn't aware that the traditional colours were white with red. I also thought that silver cars coupled with blue leather were a traditional combination? Or have I made this up myself? Either way, if I was forced to have a silver car a dark blue interior would be my choice.