The Mystery, and Beauty of Extended Leather..........

[Starscream]

Today in this thread I decided to satisfy peoples curiosity of what exactly BMW Extended Leather is,
For the M Roadster its a $2700 option, For the Z4 Roadster its a $1700 option,
So there have been threads I have read where people have asked, "just what exactly do I get?"

Well I'll show you using my M Roadster,
Firstly there is a $1000 price difference in the M Roadster and the Z4 Roadster option cost, There is ONE thing you get with extended leather on the M you cannot have with the Z4, More on that with the pictures,

Firstly lets look at the car,
This is my car (and no prizes for guessing my first name)
Its finished in beautiful jaw dropping Imola Red paint, with Black Nappa Extended leather inside,
Other options include everything you could possibly add to an M Roadster, and I mean everything,

So here it is in all of its Imola beauty,





Next we look at the seats and roll hoops,
The seats on the M Roadster (and coupe) have the ///M logo recessed into them, Personally I love this feature, I think id even welcome the M logo colored with stitching but lets not go there right now,



You can see the hoops are actually covered with leather, This is a ///M only feature and cannot be added to the Z4,
I'm sure everyone is aware the roll hoop covers are silver on the Z4 where the M roadster gets black roll hoops, Adding extended leather covers them with black nappa leather (regardless of color of interior)






And just one more look at that ///M logo

[Starscream]

Next we will go into the car to look at another extended leather feature, The door cards,
You will notice with the extended leather the entire door card is covered with leather, Not just the middle "stripe" as other Z4's/M's without EL,



Also quickly to point out, The silver paint used for the door handle and the door release handle seems to be much glossier than my previous Z4 3.0i, Im not sure if this is an M option, Or an extended leather option,
Its hard to see exactly what I mean from the pictures but if anyone is into Formula 1 as I am the color and glossy finish of this silver is very much like (dare I say it) the McLaren silver paint they use on their F1 cars,
So heres a shot of that,



and back to the door cards




Now we look at the center console,
The EL covers the entire center console with leather, Starting at the buttons for the roof/heated seats and finishing behind the driver at the roll hoops, The only exception is the center storage box lid and plastic cover above that which remain plastic, The knee pads on the sides of the transmission tunnel are also leather,

[Starscream]

Finally EL covers the windscreen surround and the vanity mirrors with more of the cows good stuff,
The map light surround, the entire window surround and the mirrors front and back are finished in leather,







Lastly these pictures have nothing to do with EL but I just love the size shape and feel of the ///M stitched steering wheels in the M models so I took a picture of that for people to see,



Also (again lastly lol) a few shots of another M exclusive option and my personal favorite interior option, Carbon leather,
Hard to see exactly from the pictures but its leather strands stitched into a carbon fiber look, I think it sits very well with the whole extended leather theme and sets off the interior at the same time as not being too over the top tacky,






and thats it!

So to recap extended leather (For the M Roadster) adds,

Leather Roll hoops,
Leather Door cards (full)
Leather Center console
Leather front window and map light surround
Leather Vanity Mirrors
and a $2700 bill at the end :p

Is it worth $2700? Thats up to the individual driving the car, For me I love it and glad its in my car, just adds to that "something special" element the cars have.

Hope you enjoyed the long winded thread and the pictures

[WLH]

Very nice as I have never actually seen that option in person...

[ovrkll]

Very nice!!! Glad you posted those, since, as you mentioned, everyone asks what extended leather is.

[Wondermike]

Carbon leather with extended just looks awesome now if only your car was silver

Oh, great pics too, as usual

[Ski]

Sweet, gotta love the leather..

[Z4good]

Thanks for the pics. All that leather really makes for a classy interior! Just awesome.

[Starscream]

Very nice!!! Glad you posted those, since, as you mentioned, everyone asks what extended leather is.

Yup,

I don't recall anywhere having any pictures of EL in detail, Even the BMW site and brochures leave you in the dark,
If the option was there id like Imola Red extended leather, I think that would look great,
Glad everyone liked the pics

[veryhuman]

Looks so nice! Love the center console details.

[Rick Hunter]

So can anyone tell me what the extended leather option includes?








Just kidding. Starscream, your ride is just pure sex. And that deep rich colour... sex times 10.

[epbrown]

So the obvious next question is: is the leather Corinthian?

[Starscream]

So can anyone tell me what the extended leather option includes?








Just kidding. Starscream, your ride is just pure sex. And that deep rich colour... sex times 10.

Cheers mate

You gotta try this wax I'm using, brings out Imola like no other wax Ive tried

[GAZA62]

That looks awesome really like that a lot do you have any probs with the roll bars rubbing on the inside of the top as i have read on here this can happen with the leather option.

[Starscream]

That looks awesome really like that a lot do you have any probs with the roll bars rubbing on the inside of the top as i have read on here this can happen with the leather option.

So far no, But It does rub as the top comes up,

The hoop is hard as nails though, not as soft as the rest of the leather, and I'm sure they would have tested it,

I have warranty until 2012 anyway so I'm not going to be the one shelling out $1500 for a set of leather hoops if they fail