low miler

I see so many ALL LEATHER 928's for sale in Europe, its crazy! It seems as though at least 80%, or more, of all GTS's offered for sale in Europe are ALL LEATHER cars.

I just wonder why we Americans (those with post '86 models), didn't put up the extra $$$ for more leather goodies. I don't care about the fact that the leather warps after so many years etc, it just seems that if you had the money to be able to afford one of these beasts new, that you would have spent the extra money for the most options available.

I really can't imagine walking into a Porsche dealership in 1995 with tons of money in my pocket and saying, no, I want as much vinyl as you can give me because I'm concerned about what might happen to the leather ten years from now. Come on!

Anyway, here's a typical European 928 GTS for sale right now. It has leather dash, center console, instrument housing, headliner, cargo cover, complete doors, A and B pillars and special leather shifter color to sample. It also has heated sport seats.

Keep in mind, that this is a typical European 928, and not an unusual model.

Bill Ball

Egad. I thought all leather included the seat hinge cover at least colored to match. That black one looks really out of place.

low miler

I'm sure that could be easily rectified. But I'll bet its at least still leather!

2V4V

Perhaps you can't imagine it, but from my circle of friends/acquaintances/car buddies who can (and do) go in and pay cash for these cars new, I certainly can. They'll buy carbon fiber just to avoid Porsche's deliberate incompetance when it comes to doing leather interior pieces. Looks nice new, lasts like a Yugo.

In fact, most of them have had a coupla Porsches already and are tired of getting screwed by Porsche for new leather dashes when the 3-year old, immaculately clean, garaged, climate controlled, has under 10K miles, $100K car needs a new $3K+ replacement dash because the leather is pulling away.

Greg

low miler

Well, I guess for one, I could easily afford a new 928 if they were still available. Secondly, carbon fiber is about the most awful looking option since body side moldings!

Now, this particular GTS has about 120,000 miles on it. It looks like he got his monies worth out of it, wouldn't you say?

He paid for the extra leather, took care of it, it's not pulling up and he enjoyed the extra amenity!

IMHO, leather is the real option of class.

2V4V

Some people get lucky. I have seen Porsches that were religiously maintained with even Leatherique have their leather go TU in no time.

These same people own other marques with several cows inside, and they hold up fine under the same ownership, storage, maintanance, and driving regimens.

Perhaps that's not leather. I haven't seen Kermit the Frog on TV in a long time. Coincidence? Hmmm...

BTW- Don't get me wrong. I love leather. I just wish Porsche had done a better job with the underlayment design and execution.

low miler

Now with that, I can agree.

I do love the cars over there though. I just wish it was feesable to import one to the States.

I have never seen so much leather, wood trim, pre-wired cell phones etc. than I do on Euro 928's.

Jim_H

That is the ugliest interior I have ever seen.

M Danger

I like it! i know it weird but its cool, how much do they want for it?

Barry Johnson

Man I love that! seeing the green interior from the outside is just cool

low miler

I think it's sweet too! Unique and something other than the usual U.S. interior options of cashmere, champagne, grey or black. Boring!................

Remember that '93 zermatt silver 5 speed with classic gray interior with MAGENTA carpet on Ebay about six months ago? That thing at first looked so ugly with that magenta carpet, but after a minute or two, it really grew on you. It was so unique to see such an unusual U.S. model that it ended up bringing $40,000.

I guarantee this one would bring at least $30,000 over here, even with the 120,000 miles, because its so unique.

Oh, by the way, they're asking 19.900 Euro which is about 25K U.S.

Heres some pics of that U.S. GTS with the magenta carpets:

mpesik

That green interior is kind of FUNKY! Low-miler I concur with you on the carbon fiber- Looks like shalacked 80's dress pants! Thanx for the pics. Interesting!

Vilhuer

That car has been for sale for ages and no takers. Think it was talked about in here in spring and it still hasn't sold. Too weird color. It might have changed to other dealer as pictures are new.

Hate disagree but I'd say 20% at most is percentage of full leather cars in Europe and even this applies to last years. Add sport seats and manual gearbox and one has to look for years to find one in any color combination. Wish I would be wrong. It's true we have interesting color combos other than basic black, white and silver with black interior. But mileage is usually much higher than in US and most of them are automatics.

Seat hinge covers are usually black plastic on all cars that don't have one of the few standard color interiors at the time. On those they're plastic also. I'm sure they were available on leather as special request but it wasn't included to normal full leather interior package. Ex Sweanders GT has them black even though it has almost all imaginable options.

At the moment there are more manual GTS's for sale in mobile.de that almost ever before during past four years. First one has interesting color combo and it has been for sale about month now.

http://www.mobile.de/cgi-bin/da.pl?i...6439&sprache=2
http://www.mobile.de/cgi-bin/da.pl?i...4188&sprache=2
http://www.mobile.de/cgi-bin/da.pl?i...5072&sprache=2

Here's other slightly different interior combination. Been 4 sale for year or more.

http://www.mobile.de/cgi-bin/da.pl?i...8752&sprache=2

Lagavulin

I like the purple metallic!

Niels Jørgensen

LOL!

Lag, I had a Datsun Cherry once which I had painted that exact color!

I remember getting a color sampler from the painter - more like a 500 page book really - of all makes and models. Spend countless hours going through all shades and hues, and finally ended up with a 928 color of all things (Not sure I knew what a 928 was back then).

Funny thing is, the Cherry started out the same as my current 928: silver/blue. It's odd ending up with two cars in the same color scheme and having one painted a color that belongs to the other. Especially since I never really picked a car because of its color - it's way down my list of requirements.

Freud could probably tell you a story or two about me