Topic: First Drive: 2016 Mercedes-Benz GLC 300 4MATIC

[itsMarc]

out of all the plastic/vinyl seat materials, Benz's artico is the best/closest thing to fair quality leather i've seen.

Agreed. I also think Mercedes' Artico makes BMW's Sensatec (the X1 and X3s in particular) feel really cheap in comparison...

[tpl]

Artico leather isn't leather.   It's plastic.  Please don't refer to it as leather as if it's actually real.

^This!

They are not "Artico leather" seats. they are Artico plastic seats.

Other than that pet peeve I quite like this car. I don't mind the styling and the increase in interior space might well put it in contention to replace the ML next year. I'm still not sure I can get around the whole "Ipad glued to the dash" thing though

I rather like the fact that they are using fake leather seats. A buying point for us animal-loving car buyers...hard to find a non-economy car these days that doesn't have leather seating.

I agree.  If the manufacturers offered a high quality alternative to leather I'd buy it.  It just grates on my nerves that they call it leather.  This article calls it leather too. Just call it Artico.  Most leather seats feel like plastic anyways nowadays so I'd rather save some cash.  More importantly, with all of the great materials available why are we still killing animals for chairs ?

OK but what will you do with the hides of all the animals killed for food?    I'd bet that is where most of the cheap leather seat coverings come from.
The M-B I had for a year was Artico...I was happy with that and I am not sure I can tell if the cheap leather in the Q5 is any better as a seat covering.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

I think it's a shame the luxury brands in NA aren't more progressive. I'd say the i3 i8 are exceptions.  They really tried to rethink almost every aspect of the car's production and its materials.  Too bad it's so ugly and has such a short range.

  Why haven't they been on the cutting edge of technology instead of being essentially the rear guard? There's no reason why a high end electric or turbo-electric or what have you, couldn't have been introduced  by Benz or BMW long before Tesla showed up to shake things up.

Ages ago, premium brands like Duesenburg were the ones to push technology. They had DOHC, four valve per cylinder, supercharged engines when most everything else was still using normally aspirated flatheads.