UDPride

Im trying to help someone solve the mystery of his black interior on a 1988 Carrera. Hope you guys can shed light.

Some background, and chime in if you believe this is inaccurate (particular to 1988):

Base 911s only came with a limited amount of leather. The entire seats were not leather. In many cases cloth or vinyl were standard on parts of the seats.

The 911 turbo however (which I have an 88 for comparison sake) came with a significantly upgraded interior. From what I can see the turbos in 1988 for the leather/leatherette beltline upgrade as standard equipment. This was about a $1700 upgrade option on base 911s. In other words I dont think my 88 turbo has everything full leather (seats, door pockets, sides of doors, etc) even though it kind of looks like leather. The seats are indeed full leather and I have stitching on my door pockets, but Im not convinced the turbos were full leather up to the chest.

I say the turbos came with the leather/leatherette beltline option and not full leather because I have a buddys 1989 turbo window sticker and he simply has a "leather/leatherette beltline deviating color" option for about $180. In other words, far too inexpensive to be the full option, so it suggests its just a color substitute (minor charge) for a standard option on the turbo.

Now to the 1988 Carrera in question.

The person believes he has a full leather interior comprising fronts, sides, and backs of seats, the actual piping on the seats, door map pockets, and door sides. Only the dash and headliner are not leather.

According to the 88 Salesman fact Book, there are these possible options:

Leatherette Trim: $1229
Leather Trim w/Leatherettte Beltine (in my opinion the turbo interior?): $1637

Then we have a couple extra interior options with codes:

98 Interior w/Variation of Std Color/Mat: $2,550
99 Interior w/Non Std. of Variation Color/Mat: $3620

If I try to glean more info on these options from this online decoder:
http://www.kindel.com/porsche/options/options.asp, which may cover the same code over many years and yield a homogenized description, I get:

98 Standard Porsche Leather Interior (deviating std. color combinations)
99 Leather Upholstery to Sample

There is only one more option in the 88 Fact Book dealing with leather and thats code 980 Supple Leather for $319. I dont think we're dealing with that as on my Cayman, that just a softer leather on the butts of the seats.

OK since this is black leather, that tells me the color does not qualify as any deviation. Black was so common that I dont think you would pay code 99 for a black leather interior.

So what do you think was the most likely option for this interior? I made sure to ask if the beltline (non-seat stuff) was leather and not leatherette and the gentleman has several Porsches and compared them and he's convinced we're dealing with leather here with actual leather grain when comparing to Porsches he knows are not leather. On small scratches he can see the base brown leather under the dye.

Does anyone have a car with full leather (but not dash or headliner) on their car? What does it say on the window sticker?

Any light you can shed, Id be most appreciative. Thanks.

rusnak

I have what must be full leather on my '84, which includes the door interior and dash, front and rear seats, fender well covers, door tops. Excludes door pulls, door pocket lid, and headliner.

Marc Gelefsky

OK, my car is an 86 and I used to assume it was full leather but I'm not so sure because I don't think the dash is leather but the front and back seats are full leather, the rear deck is, the fender well covers, Lower console, shift boot, door pocket lids, door cards.. all leather. I also seem to have a very plush carpet in the frunk.

UDPride

So anyone with an idea of what each of the different interior trim options mean and what this car probably has? Thanks.

911 Crazy

in the "frunk"????

Amber Gramps

front + trunk = frunk

Jay H

Chris,

Is there a two letter interior code on the white option sticker on this '88 in question?

Jay

strick10

trunk + front = tront

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UDPride

I solved the mystery!

The trunk interior code is LE. Normal standard black partial leather is code LT. LE is specific to "Leather/Leatherette Beltline-Black" only. I found these codes on my 1986 and 1987 Fact Books and put the pieces together for 1988. The 88 Fact Book must have run out of space because it has no interior codes specified for each interior upgrade level.

But this was confirmed by looking at a 1988 911 I have with base standard partial black leather interior. Its interior code on the sticker was LT. I found another car with "Leather/Leatherette Beltline-Black" on the options line item for $1703.00 and up at the top where the exterior and interior codes are, it was LE.

There are specific codes for specific colors of upgraded interiors, just like there are specific codes for base interior colors and materials.

Similarly there is a corresponding code for upgraded burgundy in this same leather/leatherette upgrade level. All base interior colors that are offered in any upgrade level have a different code entirely in that upgrade level for the same color.

And these codes are NOT shared across multiple interior upgrade levels. If there is a full black leather or partial black leather with cloth inserts upgrade level, black is going to have specific codes for each of those levels too.

So the interior code is not just color, its color AND trim level.

Case closed.

theiceman

Could it be possible the dash has been replaced as Leather on the dash was known to shrink and pull and split.

Having said that If i was given an option for leather that is exactly what I would want .. everything leather and have them do "leathertte" on the dash as it will look good for years that way.

Jay H

My books show the same thing for LE. Leather with Leatherette Beltline (Dashboard, KneeBar, Door Sills, Window Sills and Backwall Top Section in Leatherette).

Marc Gelefsky

I don't think the dash was ever changed, I have owned the car for 16 years now.
But I agree, I would rather not have a leather dash anyways.

Edgy01

When you get reports back the year of the car is very important. During the 1980s Porsche began to back off on the amount of leather that was part of a "full leather" interior. My 1981 SC was completely loaded with leather, save the A pillars. Dash, doors, rear seats and seat area, and of course, all of the front seats.

Porsche was getting some poor results from leather dashes shrinking from heat so they began to back off on things like the dash in leather, opting instead for a more stable high quality vinyl. I found that if you don't park in the sun everyday and use some common sense, a leather dashboard is going to hold up. (I liked them in particular because they don't 'outgas' like the vinyl ones always do). Unfortunately, with each year, the amount of leather actually in a "full leather" interior began to get smaller and smaller with each passing year--even on the Turbos. It's just a guess--but I think the days of a seriously "full leather" interior ended around 1985-86. From then on it became a la carte, and thus more expensive.

UDPride

^^^ That is pretty much my same finding. 1986 still had a Full Leather option for about $1980, however by 1987 the Leather/Leatherette option for $1600 was taking over. If you wanted a full blown cow suit on the inside, you needed to step up into the "Std. Deviation Material/Color" and "Non Std...." where customers swapped out a material like leatherette for leather on the parts that were not leather. These were $2500 and $3200 options, the latter probably being a type of leather or color not normally offered in those classes. Each class had a color/material wheel. Then there was the interior to sample which pretty much meant anything goes. That was usually code 98 or 99 or something in the 90s.

For the big arab whales that ordered cars with 300 options, they ended up creating new options 'group' numbers for those customers that were then placed on the hood sticker as there was no room to parcel each option out one by one. So those customers have options codes unique to their car only.

Jay Gratton

My '85 has the full leather option as well. I wish it had cloth inserts in seats, that would certainly make it more user friendly in the summer.