E46 Leather Seats - Liveability in winter and summer

[pfr]

I have black leather and in the summer (more like from spring till fall) I use a cover that consists of small wooden pieces, so it breathes. In the winter it gets cold but gets pleasant really fast with the heater. Of course it is a question of preferences; I turn off the heater after a minute or two but my wife keeps it on low for hours.
However cold it is, the leather does not get noticeably stiffer.
Hope this helps...
- Peter

[johnrando]

It's def not as hot as you'd think in the summer. It's pretty cold in the winter so I'd try to get heated seats. But, it gets to a reasonable temp soon enough from your body heat and/or car heater. You could go leather then some nice seat covers for winter as on option. But good ones aren't cheap. Interested in what the true winter people have to say.

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk 2

[NorCalZman]

Winter: heated seat retrofit
Summer: 3M Crystalline tint

:-)


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Hermes]

It's def not as hot as you'd think in the summer.

I doubt you have your top up in summer, besides it probably breathes better than my steel top. The leather itself isn't too bad in summer, its the byproduct of an all black interior on a hardtop that your car turns into an oven. It was the same back when I had my E32 with black leather.

BP, maybe buy some grey seats and dye them NB?

[oldzilla]

It's def not as hot as you'd think in the summer. It's pretty cold in the winter so I'd try to get heated seats. But, it gets to a reasonable temp soon enough from your body heat and/or car heater. You could go leather then some nice seat covers for winter as on option. But good ones aren't cheap. Interested in what the true winter people have to say.

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk 2

It does get cold in Denver, it have not noticed any real stiffing of the leather (25 degrees and lower). I have heisted seats and yes they make a difference but body heat and the heater work just as well.

[JupiterBMW]

Back to the original question, BP... I am not 100% on this, and I don't know if our E46 cars have it or just the newer cars, but I am fairly sure it is only verts that get a special leather treatment. I remember reading/hearing about this somewhere, but I can't recall...

Either way, I find that even if it isn't ultra hot outside, its all about the sun exposure. If you're in the shade and its still 90+ degrees, the leather is fine... But, even if its only 70 and parked in the sun, it'll be toasty buttcheeks...

Hope this helps.

[wsmeyer]

MY2006 is when they started putting something on the leather seats to keep them from getting hot. I assume it's just something that absorbs a UV but I'm not sure.

By the 3rd year the stitching was coming apart on my drivers seat so they replaced the whole thing under warranty. Now after sitting in the sun you can feel the difference between the drivers and passengers seat. It's a pretty substantial difference but that also means that it wears off after a while.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

[Johnmadd]

I live in an area that is hot from spring until fall and has a few months of cold in the winter. I have a black car with black leather seats and in the cold the heated seats heat up very fast and in the hot months its no worse in my opinion than cloth. When its in the 90's and above your car will obviously be an oven inside and the ac in these cars work well enough to quickly get you cool enough. I have no problems with the leather temps in hot or cold. All of this said, I do have tint 20 in the rear and 35 up front although I honestly dont think that matters if your car sits hours in the sun in a parking lot its gonna be hot as he'll inside anyways.

[brettbimmer]

BP, was there ever an Alpina cloth interior offered for the E46 sedan? Just a thought. (JP, are you up to speed with this, knowing that you are a guru on such oddball BMW trivia questions?) I suppose M hurricane cloth wouldn't look proper in the ZHP either.

As others have said, leather is going to be hotter then cloth, due to the limitations of breathing against your body (unless the car is a newer then the E46 era that has cooled seats). It is definitely colder then cloth in the winter too, though heated seats do help warm it up within a couple of minutes. I love the look of a leather interior, but it is an added level of maintenance to maintain it properly too.

Here's another thought - leather does NOT help keep you planted in the seat on the track. It is actually a PITA...or more specifically a pain in your left knee bracing yourself against your door in my experience. Ending up sliding over into your instructor's lap does not usually gain any points during an HPDE event.

[Hermes]

BP, was there ever an Alpina cloth interior offered for the E46 sedan? Just a thought. (JP, are you up to speed with this, knowing that you are a guru on such oddball BMW trivia questions?)

Hahahaha...

Alpina B3 3.3







...but as you can tell it has those stupid Recaro's with the buttons on the top

Edit: hold on, facelift sedan looks like it came with normal sports seats





591 built total, only about 80 were facelift versions