Wise words from the Anti-Black Caucus. (That sounds dreadful - perhaps they ought to be the Beige Tendency. Or is that worse?)
Fear not the light interior. As Humph says, a bit of a wipe from time to time is all it takes - and the same is true of a black one, since the dirt is there even if you can't see it. My Volvo, with its beige-grey 'Oak' interior was chosen in 2002 when we had a toddler and an embryo; ten years and 130,000 miles on, the few signs of wear are mostly related to it being a fabric interior rather than a leather one; if I'd known then I'd be keeping it this long I'd probably have gone for the half-leather 'Svangen' option, but still not in black.
Funny, isn't it, how people these days seem happy to choose black exteriors that look great for ten minutes after washing, or until the car moves, whichever comes first, then filthy until the next wash, but fret about whether the interior will show the muck?
I've not looked at the Cinnamon option from BMW but if it looks like the Brown interiors offered by MB and Audi, you get an interior that looks like it was designed to be black, only with brown seats in place of the black ones, and the effect is jarring.
The funny thing is, brown leather is one of my favourite materials: most of my shoes and belts are in shades of brown, and I secretly covet a variety of brown leather work and weekend luggage, but I've yet to see it done convincingly in a modern car. I think it may be because the seats have to tone with the functional, technical parts of the interior, and those just look wrong in anything but black or dark grey; that's why there are no brown iPads.
This has parallels in my own search for a Mercedes E estate: the (rare) alternative to black inside those is light grey, and I have a problem with that that maybe you can help with. The trouble is that grey leather takes me back to an 80s world of ruched loafers with little chains on, yellow Farah slacks and Ralph Lauren polo shirts. Not a style I ever affected myself, you understand - I was still a student then - but it appalled me in my elders and I'd have a hard time adopting it now. Perhaps uncle Humph can offer some encouragement from behind his study desk, followed by a paper bag of gobstoppers and the muttered exhortation, "Don't tell your mother."
|
