upholstery question...
 

I wonder why M-B didn't ship cars to the US with cloth seats in the 70's and 80's. If you think back to that time, most Lincolns and Cadillacs had "crushed velour" and so did most other upmarket brands. You could get leather, but cloth was a huge seller. Why not Mercedes? They sold it in other markets, why Tex or leather as the only options? Even BMW sold some cloth seat cars, even though the upholstery fell apart quickly. Volvo did cloth, vinyl and some leather. SAAB did mostly cheesy mouse-fur cloth in a gross orange color. Chrysler sold some "Corinthian leather" but mostly velour in their fancy cars. You could even get the eyeball-melting cloth with the huge squares of brown and white in Porsches. Just pondering...

I know of at lest one junkyard car which was in the 70s and it had cloth seats. Milt.

We can add this mystery to the question of "why did euro 240Ds not have oil coolers?" :D

I like the cloth seats IF the outer panels are tex. I found the 100% cloth seats are too hard to keep clean.

cloth seats
 

My 70 250/8 was sold new in Japan and had the cloth seats like the Euro's;
After copious rain while evacuating from a hurricane one summer, they got soaked and stretched; ended up replacing panels and seats with MB-Tex out of a junk 68 220D, which happily lasted until the body rusted away from around them...

"Available" is the key word here...... Back in the olden days of 1960's folks custom ordered their Benz generally a year in advance with available features like two-tone color combos, reclining bench instead of bucket seats, extra large fuel tank, sunroof, fitted luggage, etc.

Then little by little MB standardized their line especially for export to America. My guess is that European tastes *preferred* the comfort of worsted wool upholstery, so MB unloaded all the vinyl (along with automatic trannies) on the USA.

Seems natural for them to cater to special orders nearby in Europe and standardize their American product. Hell, I'll bet the best examples never leave Germany. And thats why the European market got alot of amazing stuff like the limited edition 230E fuel injected 4cyl w123 sedan that we've never seen.

Nevermind 5-spd transmissions that MB has secretly included in the Top Secret "available options" list since about 1968 for preferred customers only.

But United States is not the only country to get screwed. Australians, intense automobile fans, reported on this forum awhile ago that NONE of their pillarless open-air 114 coupes were equipped with electric windows. What a pain-in-the-ass it must be for them to hand crank all the windows down to enjoy the 114 coupe's finest feature.

Had cloth been standard we would be enjoying fewer fine examples of these cas today. The stuff just doesn't hold up as well as TEX has.

Tex must be some amazing stuff...I've seen cars that are literally falling apart around it, with seat frames that are mis-shaped and the horsehair pads are crumbling to dust, but the tex covers look OK. I do wonder why the palomino color fades to the sickly pink color sometimes.

The issue I have with Tex is that I associate textured vinyl with old VW Type 1's (Beetles) and have trouble thinking in terms of high-end cars with pleather seats. My dad always ordered Oldsmobiles with vinyl seats, AM radio and manual windows and locks, so I associate vinyl with el-cheapo cars. It also brings back bad memories of driving from Cincinnati to Florida on vacation, sweating and sticking to the hot vinyl...my dad preferred open windows to A/C for some unknown reason. Add sand to the mix on the trip home and it was a terrible ride.

Dave,

If you ride on MB Tex for four seasons, you will come to appreciate the comfort. Have hopped into the old 220D on a 110deg afternoon and didn't get burnt, and have gotten in the car of a morning at below zero. Will admit that the cold end is not as good as the hot end of the scale. But most of these cars have a good and operational heater.

You have already commented about the durability, which is really fantastic.

By the way where was the Florida destination, west coast somewhere?

Durability=Quality
 

Hello,
ALL cars that were supplied to tropics like Malaysia had Tex interiors before 1980. Back then, if it lasted a life time, it was considered a *quality product*.
The US market got more of the sixes and V-8s because of the huge mileages that cars cover over there as a general rule.
And you don't want the M102 2.3 engine, it blows headgaskets with boring regularity AND for some reason that I cannot figure, breaks the single row timing chain just for laughs.
That is one reason I got myself a W115/M115 200 gasser. Virtually bombproof. Oh, it does have the brickred MB-Tex interior that was supplied on every W115 diesel taxi here-every 150,000 or so :pleased:
Have a good week.

I for one am glad no velour or cloth became popular. Give me MB TEX everytime, thank you. I have 34 year old MB TEX seats that are looking like new and 39 year old seats that I only replaced because the seats underneath needed rebuilding, but the surface vinyl was in nice shape. Velour to me looks liknd of tacky, at least until it gets ketchup stains and rips and dirty, then it looks like something else.

Mal-Asian engines
 

Nachi -

I'm intrigued by your engines out there in Kuala Lampur...always fascinated by the myriad 4's and 6's that populated the 60's-70's...

You mention your W115/M115 - is that a 2.0 or a 2.2L gasser engine?
And what cars was the "M102 2.3 engine" carried in?, what years?
How is it different from the 127's and 180's?
Concur on single-row chains, and put M130 twin-chain gear into the front of my M114 when I rebuilt it, in an attempt to guard against catastrophic failure...

As for MB-Tex, the moisture- and UV- resistance is phenomenal. Pretty good plastics those Germans made - just look at the longevity of the hard vacuum lines and their connectors in old 114's and 123's, even the diaphragms in the actuators - considering how many cycles they survive, and how thin the membrane is...

My darling daughter does, however, have an issue with her 280CE's MB-Tex in summer, in Richmond, Virginia - having nothing whatsoever to do with the unhappy confluence of black MB-Tex and short shorts, of course...

Stan, ask him about his 170DS too...... I've only seen pics of the 4cyl 230E, was w123 chassis.

230Es
 

Dog, - I'm not at all up to speed on the later 300's or 230's - and 'spect he'll answer up soon - seems to be a regular.

Did see one W123 230CE for sale near Baltimore - drove very peppy - looked to be a smaller version of the later simple 300E engine, would have happily bought it had the owner not had a misapprehension about the distinction between "unusual" and "rare"...plus the usual Washington-area confusion about the value of both dollars and Mercedes...
It was a Euro - mechanical window winders and cloth upholstery and the manual heater controls like a 240D (having just finished working on daughterperson's 280CE ACC-II, I nearly bought it just for THAT...) Cute car.

Stan

Lycoming...we went to Sanibel and/or Naples several times a year, and hit Disney World on the way down on the summer vacation each year for one long day...now I have 7 kids and the thought of taking that brood to Disney makes me, and my wallet, sick.

Gulf sickness
 

been to Sanibel or Naples lately? Burgers and cokes for that brood will have a similar effect there, as well, nowadays...