CC67466 - This is it...

Just over half a year ago it became known that CB57062 was more or less the only RHD E31 which came with a full compliment of leather including center console, door panels, seat backs, parcel shelf, A- & C-pillars and above all the dashboard.

Such sumptuousness is nothing special for the connaisseur of British luxury cars manufactured by Rolls Royce, Bentley or Aston Martin, hence it is quite puzzling why BMW did not offer any of this for the targeted clientele which was known for its fondness thereof.

Matter of factly BMW only produced around 60 RHD E31´s which had that "little bit more". Most of those cars were assembled in the last year of production.

Just over 20 went to OZ between 1997 and 1999 with the remaining near 40 cars destined for the UK. All but the above mentioned CB57062 came equipped with "Full Leather Stage 1" which included the center console and door panels on top of the normal leather upholstery.

Really all?

Well, not quite.

There was one (very) late build M62 which sports a "Full Leather Stage 3" in the Individual Data sheet.
Stage 3 now also includes all seat bezels and seat backs, the rear parcel shelf, the A & C pillars and the headliner covered in Nubuck leather. According to the data sheet it does not include the dashboard.

CC67466 is amongst the last 25 8ers produced worldwide and came off the assy line only one week before the production eventually stopped for good.

This car is now for sale in London with 26k mls on the clock and for a mind boggling 20k GBP.

Normally a car with this leather equipment would have received wooden center console inserts. Those were never available for RHD cars hence the plastic parts are also covered in Marine blue leather!

Is it that much overpriced? I don´t think so. I´d go for it if I was looking. Definitely
If you are looking for an E31 which marks the pinnacle of interior luxury - this is it... There is nothing that comes even close to it and considering the very low mileage the asking price is not that far away from that of other lesser equipped cars (which may be considered overpriced nevertheless).

Who is going to have a looksie and take plenty nice pictures of this luxury barge?

Cheers
Reinhard

Indeed a few items off the options list are missing - costing peanuts in comparison to the leather stuff, which must have been around 9k GBP back then. Further elaborated on here.

Cheers
Reinhard

Zitat von "BBMatic"

surely CB57062 comes close, or even exceeds it, seeing as it has the leather dashboard as well?

CB57062 definitely has even more of it but unfortunately this does not seem to be for sale now
And yes, information only valid beyond the Channel.

The leather clad dashboard and instrument cluster cover are the first ones that show signs of age. Those were actually already visible on the pictures of CB57062 - in short: it is nice to have but a pain to keep.

The leather covered instrument cluster cover is nothing really worth mentioning ex Individual (CC67446 does not have it) - there is no stitching to emphasize the choice of material. Such can only be found on cars ex Buchloe (Alpina).

This picture shows the decorative stitching on the dashboard of CC41580, a Stage 3 car.

The one below shows some detail of the Alpina-exclusive stitching on the instrument cover cluster.

Unfortunately the Alpina made covers do not last a lifetime and many have warped hideously under the sun due to the intrinsic properties of natural leather which starts to shrink irreversibly around 70-80°C:

Some 60 odd cars also had the front bezel of the instrument cluster covered with leather. This works well where the colour of the instrument cluster cover matches:

If it clashes with the surroundings it takes some time getting used to

Cheers
Reinhard

Zitat von "BBMatic"

what is the most stunning interior (in your view) on an E31 you have personally seen that is not a museum car & actually in regular use?

In here is a pretty big PDF file showing interior shots of all Individual E31´s archived until August last year.

PDF can be magnified to at least 100% (was A0 formatted). I assume that most of those cars are in more or less regular use and only very few hidden away in a collection.

Quite a few of those interiors require no less than acquired taste

One of the craziest - and to boot undocumented - interiors I have seen is an all Hazelnut leather orgy which made an appearance about two years ago in Sweden:

The "most stunning" with some likelihood is that of CB08553, one of the first official Individual showcases:

...where the use of leather goes on...

...seemingly forever

This is to date the only known E31 where "everything" was covered with leather, far and wide beyond "Stage 3". In the early 90´s this seemingly was just a matter of money. Later on such extravaganza was no longer in the order book.

Cheers
Reinhard

Pity that - let´s hope someone reading here pulled that trigger and we can still hope to receive better impressions of the interior.

The Ebay ad ran for 3 weeks - pictures were taken on Sep 28 acc. to timestamp and there is a tiny notice in the ad saying: "Last updated on 30 Sep, 2012 14:42:20 BST"

Cheers
Reinhard

Boot compartment is in fact clad in Nubuck leather which, depending on the definition is included in "Suede"
Nubuck is basically the same upper leather (shagreen) that we have on the seats etc. only treated in a special manner to receive a soft touch. Many other "Suedes" are not made from the uppermost layer of the skin but rather from grainless split leather.

Unfortunately Nubuck is also extremely sensitive to basically everything and quite honestly the worst choice possible for the boot

It is very nice for the headliner - CC67466 had the same in Marine blue...

Colour differences I am not sure about. In the early years the Individual data were quite bland stating "full leather acc. to <some number>" and did not detail what type of leather, what extent and what colour would have to be used.

For CB08553 it only states Magenta/Champagne which may have implicated the same for the boot compartment.

Cheers
Reinhard