Leather vs. Leatherette

[Jay Karolyi <karolyi74@xxxxxxxxx>]

Greetings,

>I'm assuming we are talking about real leather here
(I'm not completely familiar with leatherette, but I'm
pretty sure BMW hasn't used fake leather for interior 
stuff any time recently).  

BMW has always used leatherette and still does...my
'71 2002 had it and my folks '86 325 and '94 318i has
it.  Car and Driver recently tested a new 325ci and
noted that it was odd that a $35,000 car was
upholstered in leatherette.  The base model 3 series
has always been upholstered in vinyl as standard as
far as I know. Uplevel models like the "is" and
cabriolet had real leather.

Germans make a great leatherette though, it's tough to
tell it from real leather.  The missing leather
fragrance is the only giveaway on my folks 318.  It
holds up better than leather over time too.  My '88
cabriolet has leather and, ahhh.., the smell of real
leather is worth the extra cost and maintenance.  :)

Jay Karolyi
'88 325i Cabriolet Royalblau (109,000 miles)
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