HOW TO tell if its real leather. PIX

my grey interior is leatherette...and everyone said they didnt make it in grey

If taken care of properly, leather can be re-dyed and stained to look new again very easily.

If taken care of properly, leather can be re-dyed and stained to look new again very easily.

well that sucks, i have 2003 330ci with leatherette i wish i had real leather

fun info! gona go have a smoke and check! =) hope its leather... =/

Originally Posted by SpeedDemon

If taken care of properly, leather can be re-dyed and stained to look new again very easily.

let me have your wheels

Mine's real.
I love the smell of leather (AND CRAYONS) in the morning...

Originally Posted by kinggrimwood

It is a common question that people ask if the leather is real or not. Maybe this has been posted before but i've never seen a sticky for it.

First and foremost, PREMIUM Pkg does NOT promise leather. SPORTS pkg does NOT promise leather.

YES, you can tell by looking at it!

Please read the text above each picture indicating what you are looking at.



First, Take the basic front seat. There is a fold in the LEATHER. leatherette does not have this fold. Please examine the difference between the two photos. The first one has leather, the second does not.




The same exact thing goes for the back seats. As follows, the first one has leather, and the second one does not.




On a sport seat it is difficult to tell. The below picture does have leather. If looking to see if a car with sports pkg has leather, it is important that you look at the rear seats as it is much easier to tell on the back seat.



This is accurate information for any year e46. This is according to the Sales manager at Kuni BMW in portland, OR. It's the same on any recently made BMW. He assured me that this is accurate and true information. Many times leather will not show up on the history report, and unless you can get a hold of the original invoice, this is the easiest fastest way to determine real leather. I hope this helps.

PIX No.1 No.3 No.5 are leather for sure...
No.2 and No.4 are not

Leather seats come with premium package...not sport package...
my 325ci has sport package without leather ...
and my 330i with premium has leather for sure~~

if you have both sport and premium package...u sure have same seat like pix No.5

I hope it helps

Originally Posted by zach113092

well that sucks, i have 2003 330ci with leatherette i wish i had real leather

No you wouldn't Real Leather SUCKS it cracks and stains so easily.

It would be good if it was black

Another way to tell if it's leather is when you fold down the arm rest in the back, there's a piece of hanging material covering the skis hole, that piece will tell you if the rest of your seats are leather or not. It's treated one side and doesn't have backing.

its real!!! whoooh hooooooo!!!

Aren't all ZHP cars real leather?

Originally Posted by RockLee

No you wouldn't Real Leather SUCKS it cracks and stains so easily.

It would be good if it was black

oh i got black leatherette, i think real leather is so much more comfortable and better looking, my brother has real leather in his mustang.

i like leatherette too. i have leather in mine, its ok. i hate it when it wears out though.

just take care of it, leather will age just fine, even better than leatherette.

I don't get the hype about leader.
My black leatherette sport seats are ten years old and still look like new. The black leather of my previous car (98 E36 coupe) had been cleaned and moisturized every month, yet the driver seat very visibly looked worn compared to the passenger seat. And that after seven, not ten years of use.

Originally Posted by 330ciandr6

my grey interior is leatherette...and everyone said they didnt make it in grey

Are you sure? because I have a brochure and it says that they don't have grey leatherette.

The way I test is to press a fingernail into the material, then quickly remove and look. If you don't see any indent at all, it's leatherette. If you see the 'dent' recover in a few seconds, it's leather. Someone mentioned pressing with a thumb. Same concept, but I think this works better.

I use leather softener from Color Plus. IMHO it's better than anything else I've tried, and I've tried most products mentioned on the forums. It's also less expensive for the quantity you get. So far my new to me 2002 330Ci has absorbed about one pint. The South Florida sun is hard on leather.

My question is --- if you have leather -- and some parts of my seats show slight cracking, so they are leather -- is the entire seat leather -- I am getting ready to repair the seat bolster --(small hole) and that part really doesn't look like leather ---
(car is a 1999 E46 328i -- sport package --5 spd -- power sport seats -- black interior --) thx
Dale

I was told by my mechanic when I had a pre purchase inspection that you can also tell very easily if you see the stitching, real leather is folded over on the side which you can cleary see in the images posted. I had the cheap stuff in there and had no clue until he advised me.....didnt buy that car!