General : - any colour as long as its black

[oldgrey1]

I have driven BMW's for over 25 years and loved every one of them. I have always had grey leather upholstery. After my last purchase circa. 2 years ago I decided that I did not want to have BMW's offering of black leather - it seems that almost all BMW's now have black leather?
(I tried a luxury Merc and found out that they are very badly built and the dealer support is hardly that - got my money back and bought a 550i - with black leather - hmmm, since that was all that was / is available).

I recently tried ordering a new 550i and Nappa & Merino are now not allowed (in SA?) - only Dakota. If I choose the M Sport option I have to have black interior (roof & seats) - no other colour allowed. So, no can do.

Other luxury cars - e.g. Merc, Land Rover, Range Rover, Maserati all offer very good quality leather in shades other than black. (Sure, BMW has a few other colours, but very few people opt for those)

1. I'm curious - what is the BMW love affair with black leather?
2. Why is only Dakota "leather" allowed on such a car? (550i)

 

[KarshS]

You joined this forum to rant about leather:roflol:

Did you maybe ask bmw why?
We are just fanatics of the brand after all

 

[sash]

You joined this forum to rant about leather:roflol:

Did you maybe ask bmw why?
We are just fanatics of the brand after all

firstly +1

secondly i cannot contribute as i have never purchased brand new and never will, so am the type who has to make do with other peoples choices..,

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thirdly i love black interiors with black leather and feel that lighter shades look awesome when new and cared for, but those that dont look after them...:yuck:

Theres just one E46 330d m-sport with red leather that i love raise:raise: but that has been maintained so it still looks good. I hate when the lighter colours and there marks and stains on them.

 

[dvst8]

Thats strange.

You are offered other colours.

Maybe the dealer is just trying to push available stock on to you. Try a few dealers.

 

[Nastaliq]

i think you got shafted by the dealer.

I have an Msport that I bought recently and I had to settle with the anthracite roof liner (black) which is what I wanted after my previous E90 (had a grey roof-liner). I could choose any interior colour, brown, cream, grey, red, whatever I wanted. I opted for black as the previous car had cream and it took a lot keeping it pristine.
Now with a 1 year old, keeping a cream leather interior clean will be even more problematic.

Unless the car was already built, if you were ordering a 550i all options would have been available to you.
If you choose an individual line, you can choose nappa/merino etc.
as the dealers use rules to specify what you can add on which lines (exclusive/sport etc and now modern, urban and Sport lines).