No, it is brown, is supposed to be brown. I have several dashes in my shop, walk by them frequently in the yards, and it is very easy to mistake the dark brown dashes as black. However, when you compare the dash and center console in any brown-tone interior to the center console and dash in a black interior car, the difference is obvious.

I've had several people with palomino, cream-beige, tobacco etc. interiors swear that they have black dashes, but the right light reveals the difference.

Another interesting thing is that Mercedes stopped molding the cluster surround in black, around '91, for the 201 and the 124, not sure why on that decision, so the late 201 and 124 all have a dark-brown cluster surround.

Flash photos also seem to show the brown more than simple observation, I don't know why.

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff