Black interiors
Discussion
I was ready to order a new model E Class 3 litre. Rather extravagant, but I do keep cars for a long time and I thought I would be able to order my chosen specification.
I now know that M-B Germany want their launch cars provided to journalists and reviewers, to look as good as possible, so many have light interiors.
Talk to a UK dealer and you cannot choose some specifications, although they are available for the German market.
There is no point in paying new prices for a car with features that are not to personal taste, so I ditched buying a new car and have turned my attention to the 2021 to 2023 facelift model. The differences to the new model a fairly minor anyway and at least those cars do still have a few physical control switches.
On the M-B used listing though, there is almost no non-black interior cars available.
Interesting that M-B initially promote light interiors, but then in the UK just seem to sell black.
Factory orders would presumably have been possible, but maybe few for non-black interiors.
As an aside, it was interesting to be told, that UK dealers don't have much/any say in the specifications of their showroom cars.
Apparently the cars just arrive from M-B.
Perhaps this must be why, when asking about EQEs and EQSs, the reply is, "We have plenty of them!"
Dewi 2 said:
I was ready to order a new model E Class 3 litre. Rather extravagant, but I do keep cars for a long time and I thought I would be able to order my chosen specification.
I now know that M-B Germany want their launch cars provided to journalists and reviewers, to look as good as possible, so many have light interiors.
Talk to a UK dealer and you cannot choose some specifications, although they are available for the German market.
There is no point in paying new prices for a car with features that are not to personal taste, so I ditched buying a new car and have turned my attention to the 2021 to 2023 facelift model. The differences to the new model a fairly minor anyway and at least those cars do still have a few physical control switches.
On the M-B used listing though, there is almost no non-black interior cars available.
Interesting that M-B initially promote light interiors, but then in the UK just seem to sell black.
Factory orders would presumably have been possible, but maybe few for non-black interiors.
As an aside, it was interesting to be told, that UK dealers don't have much/any say in the specifications of their showroom cars.
Apparently the cars just arrive from M-B.
Perhaps this must be why, when asking about EQEs and EQSs, the reply is, "We have plenty of them!"
I found the choices of paint/interior/wheesl hugely restrictive. I couldn't find an E43 with any other than black leather with red stitching and red seatbelts (WTAF?) so that killed that idea stone dead. They'd literally stopped importing C Classes in Tanzanite Blue (why? just why?) and they all seemed to have black leather. None of them had any chrome and they all had hideous black wheels with diamond cut faces. As far as I am away ALL of these are decisions by MB UK. I just gave up and gave mine a big service and a suspension refresh. It'll do me another couple of years easily.
I then went on holiday in France in August. Loads of normal-looking Mercs there. Just not here.
PositronicRay said:
I do find black leather ages better.
Yeah but not red f
king seatbelts. I don't vape and I don't wear a backwards baseball cap.Seriously though, I'll tolerate black leather if the car's got a sunroof or a pano. But pretty much all the cars I looked at didn't have a sunroof and had black everything including the headlining......uuurgh..
My current car didn't come with a sunroof but at least had white headlining and ivory seats. The seats still look great although at some point I'll have the fronts re-coloured. And the interior feels as light and airy as an interior can where there's no light coming in from overhead.
AC43 said:
They have become worse and worse in recent years. Last year I looked at replacing my 212 with, maybe, a 213 E43 or one of the hybrid Cs or Es (under pressure from my family to "be more eco"). I was looking at cars that were 5 or 6 years old.
I found the choices of paint/interior/wheesl hugely restrictive. - - -
I found the choices of paint/interior/wheesl hugely restrictive. - - -
Thank you for your reply AC.
It is not just me then. I presume M-B Milton Keynes are mainly catering for business and fleet users, so not too bothered about selling to individual customers who want to place factory orders. Why that should be, I have no idea, because automated computerised production systems are said to be completely flexible. Hopefully they are pleased that I quickly decided not to trouble them, by placing an order.
Very limited choice of interior is not the only thing. The majority of W213 facelift cars for sale now are Night Editions ie. de-chromed.
I already have a V8 sports car, so now want a smart luxury car, not a stealth car with black exterior, black interior, black headlining, black wheels and black chrome trim.
Here are two W213s that look good to me.
Do you like them?
Won't find those in the UK though.
I might be able to help you regarding '(under pressure from my family to 'be more eco')'.
I tend to keep my cars for a long time (have used a W208 CLK 320 for 20 years, still going well, with it's perfect light grey leather), so did have sime thoughts about buying a hybrid.
I had imagined that if the battery failed, then I could carry on just using the petrol engine. Oh no, a wrong asumption. I have now heard of two 2014 E-Class hybrids that both experience battery failure in year 9, ie. just out of warranty. They could not be driven at all because the petrol engine works in conjuction with the main battery. Battery replacement was quoted at over £20,000 fitted. Neither car was worth that amount. One was scrapped, the other still remains, but is useless.
And there is me, still enjoying a 23 year old Mercedes Coupe.
There is far more to battery technology than I realised when they were first promoted.
Of course, for anyone who only keeps a new hybrid car for 3 years, it would not be of any concern.
Edited by Dewi 2 on Thursday 25th January 19:38
said:
It all started a few years ago when MB UK stopped bringing over any petrol Cs or Es unless they were AMGs. BM and Audi carried on on selling 335s, 540s, 545s, S6s and so on but MB said AMG or nothing. Why? Nobody knows.
Then they started lumping groups of options together so a mate of mine ended up with a GLC he hates. He wanted the audio upgrade but that was only available along with the concrete suspension. The ride is awful.
Whoever ordered my 212 in 2010 went for a 5.5 V8 in a discrete package. De-badged, no Sports body bits and standard wheels. Being a 500 it came with air suspension and the big brake kit (the Sports bit that actually matters....), Intelligent Light System and so on. He threw in the light interior, upgraded the leather, ticked the cooled seats, Distronic and...errr...Night Vision.
Last year I finished an audio upgrade and did the suspension refresh and it will see me good for a while longer now.
Genuinely can't think of a newer Merc I'd like - I suppose the 400d is the closest; similar performance and you don't have to buy the Murdered Out look.
Shame, as this is my 4th V8 Merc and they have all been excellent. Oh well.
As far as I'm concerned MB UK starting losing the plot years ago in yet another drive to capture the 'yoof' market and bang out as many reps cars as possible. I spend a lot of time on the continent and it always irritates me when I see the specs that they have and which MB UK deny to customers here.
The recent change to 'stores' instead of dealers (mine told me that they were now just like my local Apple store [whatever that is, I don't have Apple products] ). I've had MBs (at least one but generally two) for 30+ years but find their approach to customers has changed at the same rate as the number of models has increased; there are so many of them now that I've no idea what half of them are.
In short, no, it's not just you.
The recent change to 'stores' instead of dealers (mine told me that they were now just like my local Apple store [whatever that is, I don't have Apple products] ). I've had MBs (at least one but generally two) for 30+ years but find their approach to customers has changed at the same rate as the number of models has increased; there are so many of them now that I've no idea what half of them are.
In short, no, it's not just you.
AC43 said:
I can't the images from this laptop but, yes, this is a "thing" that is constantly moaned about on MBClub message board.
Hopefully you can see this video. Two of the images above, exterior and interior are of this car.
The car is a W213 (facelift) Exclusive Line.
The Exclusive Line was not available in the UK.
Strangely, the Exclusive Line is now being offered in the UK for the present E-Class W214, but not with the inline 3 litre petrol engine and the interior colour I wanted, is the only one not available. No sale to me then.
Your mention of no petrol engines, might have been at the time of the diesel craze. They were/are available for W213 (not so common as diesel versions) and W214.
Dewi 2 said:
AC43 said:
I can't the images from this laptop but, yes, this is a "thing" that is constantly moaned about on MBClub message board.
Hopefully you can see this video. Two of the images above, exterior and interior are of this car.
The car is a W213 (facelift) Exclusive Line.
The Exclusive Line was not available in the UK.
Strangely, the Exclusive Line is now being offered in the UK for the present E-Class W214, but not with the inline 3 litre petrol engine and the interior colour I wanted, is the only one not available. No sale to me then.
Your mention of no petrol engines, might have been at the time of the diesel craze. They were/are available for W213 (not so common as diesel versions) and W214.
I didn't mean all 212 petrols went - it was just that you could only have a 4 pot or an an AMG.
All the V6s and the other V8s went. Shame.
I would be grateful for your guidance.
I have been looking at the M-B used listing, for W213 facelift cars and am very confused about the options fitted..
The 'Feature and Equipment - Show All' section is quite confusing, because it seems to list standard features combined with option/Package features, making it very difficult to know which options are fitted to a particular car.
I have even seen package names listed, which are not mentioned as packages in the UK brochure.
Smartphone integration package.
KEYLESS-GO package.
Navigation Connectivity package.
That particular car is an E 200 AMG Line Premium Saloon. I think Premium is a package of listed options, so those three examples might be part of the Premium package.
All this might have something to do with the UK only offering a few limited packages of set options, whereas in other markets, options appear to work in a different way.
With Aston Martins, you can easily obtain a build sheet, which clearly lists options that are fitted in addition to the standard specification.
Can a list of specific options be obtained for M-B cars, so that it is then clear what each package contains and which features are individual additional options?
Finally do any of you know whether Keyless-Go (which seems to be compulsory with the Premium package) can be permanently disabled, so that entry always requires pressing a key fob button when close to the car? Main dealers are often now just fitters of boxed parts, rather than motor engineers, so perhaps that is something an expert independent M-B garage can do.
Thank you.
Edited by Dewi 2 on Sunday 28th January 10:20
PositronicRay said:
I do find black leather ages better.
All of my Mercedes have had a cream leather interior, my current 19 year old E Class has nearly a quarter of a million miles and the leather, like the rest of the interior is still like new. I find all black interiors depressing.Gordon Hill said:
PositronicRay said:
I do find black leather ages better.
All of my Mercedes have had a cream leather interior, my current 19 year old E Class has nearly a quarter of a million miles and the leather, like the rest of the interior is still like new. I find all black interiors depressing.My current E Class has ivory leather. Ay 14 years old it still looks great. To be picky, the fronts are a little dried out but that's my fault and would have happened to any leather. Family car, used for eveything.
Each to their own I suppose but I moved to Mercedes from bmw for amongst other reasons the relative difficulty finding a black bmw interior.
Not sure I get the comment re red seat belts, vaping and baseball caps. Again, each to their own.
I find black / dark interiors have more cohesion on the basis that often trim panels etc are dark so with a cream interior you often get splashes of dark anyway.
Not sure I get the comment re red seat belts, vaping and baseball caps. Again, each to their own.
I find black / dark interiors have more cohesion on the basis that often trim panels etc are dark so with a cream interior you often get splashes of dark anyway.
Trustmeimadoctor said:
You will be very hard pressed to find a c or e class with leather unless it's a full AMG version
Since the trim levels are something like:Sport
AMG Line
Premium
Premium Plus
Nearly all the C and E class have leather since very few Sport were sold here in the UK. My C Class AMG Line does.
AC43 said:
Gordon Hill said:
PositronicRay said:
I do find black leather ages better.
All of my Mercedes have had a cream leather interior, my current 19 year old E Class has nearly a quarter of a million miles and the leather, like the rest of the interior is still like new. I find all black interiors depressing.My current E Class has ivory leather. Ay 14 years old it still looks great. To be picky, the fronts are a little dried out but that's my fault and would have happened to any leather. Family car, used for eveything.
Thank you for your replies.
When looking for a non-black interior CLK 320 about 20 years ago, I had to wait nearly one year before one apppeared at a main dealer. Pale grey part leather, which has lasted very well now for 20 years. Only in the last few months has some seat stitching come undone, but that has nothing to do with the colour. That model had different size petrol engines, I wanted the 3.2 V6. Diesel did not complicate that model range.
I am now looking for a facelift W213. Was hoping for another pale interior, but as nearly all the E-Class have diesel engines and I want petrol, my interior colour preference will no doubt have to be abandoned. If M-B UK permitted a W214 petrol 3 litre, Exclusive Line, with pale interior, they would have got a sale. You can now have Exclusive Line in the UK, but not 3 litre, so no sale.
After researching the W213 facelift, I was interested to see that the new model W214 has fewer differences than I had originally thought. One benefit of going back a generation, is that at least the W213 still has a few physical switches.
I think the absence of Exclusive Line availability with the UK W213, can be sorted fairly easily too.
Edited by Dewi 2 on Wednesday 7th February 21:50
Trustmeimadoctor said:
Nope all fake leather
What do you mean by fake leather?It is not cloth which was the basic level option. I can also assure you my C class AMG Line Edition does have real leather, as does my wife's A35. My last C class was a sport so cloth. I think on the higher models it may be Alcantara which is also fine by me although you could call it 'fake leather'.
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