Merino Leather.. Full vs. Full Extended
 

Mods, please delete thread..

Here is the new thread that is fixed:
http://www.Xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...d-vs-full.html

I agree 100%

Last year, before the ///M announcement, I looked at a 4.8i with the full leather (dash/door panels/etc). To be honest, I wasn't blown away by it.

I also considered the wet-factor, aka, how would it hold up if/when it got wet.

I agree re ventilated seats. Too much coin.

To each their own.

Colour me confused. Firstly, I fully agree with you on the extended vs full. I almost bought an M5, with Silverstone interior, and I would have taken it with extended (which means partial) rather than full. I suspect that it is 'extended' over the plastic panels that lesser models get. I couldn't justify $4500 CDN to get full leather on the X5M if I was buying one, and I like the two-colour more. You don't show the seatbacks, but that was a downside to the extended, because they were black in the M5 as I recall.

My confusion is with your photos. The reason that I liked the extended leather is that the door pockets, down low where they get marked up by foot scuffs, would be black. That is like in your second photo, which you label Full.

On the configurator for BMW.CA it shows the X5M extended as having black for the door pockets. Could there be a photo mixup, or is that black leather in the photo?

Excellent questions.. I've been plagued with the same, stupid "branding" question for a while.. But here is what I've come to learn..

All ///M cars come with "FULL" Merino leather. But strangely, "FULL" does not mean 100% optioned. It means, 90% leather.

If you want 100% leather, you have to add the "EXTENDED" package, which "EXTENDS" 10% more leather to the car, map pockets, etc.

So, unless I'm wrong.. And I'm pretty sure after all these months of confusion, I've gotten it right... "FULL" means NO CHARGE leather. "EXTENDED" means, $$$, which equates to leather on the map pockets and a few other areas.

Of course, Extended also comes with the comfort seats, which gives you another setting at the very top of your back and electric lumbar, which activates when you corner..

Does that help?

Mods.. Please delete thread..

Thread fixed here:
http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...tml#post658239

The posting order helps, but the photos still don't match up to the BMW brochures and the configurator. For years now, at least in Canada and the UK (which are the two configurators I use), extended leather is actually less leather than full leather. Extended is extended up from non-leather (which doesn't exist in the NA market).

Perhaps BMW USA reversed the nomenclature? The BMWUSA site is down, but some may know.

EDIT: I found the US price list in another post. As in other countries, Extended leather is the base version, and Full leather costs $$$. $3800 according to the price list (but then you have the pleasure of being able to add even more seat options, and you get a leather dashboard as a 'mandatory option')

I think that it's actually flipped.

Full = all leather - all surfaces including things like pockets and could include dash/console leather with the 4M5 option (no charge with full Merino or perforated).

Extended = stock - not quite all leather.

It's like a Starbucks venti/large/etc. BS. :thumbup:

Also, the comfort seats are part of the ventilated package ($1900) that requires perforated Merino seats ($3800).

At least that's how I read it (had to read it 3x) :)

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l5...rderSheet1.jpg

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l5...rderSheet2.jpg

Yoda voice: Strange it is.

If you build M3 and choose extended leather this is what you see.

If you choose option X2 or X3 you get 4M5 at no charge(NC).

http://resource.bmwusa.com/cosy.arox...h=665&angle=40

That vehicle has cloth as standard, leather for $950, and extended leather for $2000. The extended leather looks similar to the extended leather on the X5M, that is to say partial coverage. Full leather takes it another step.