Busty
Highway Hunter
No disrespect but I see certain inconsistencies in your claims. The crucial question may be in which department you worked at Daimler and BMW. I also worked for both and various others and your points are at least misleading.
My major reservation is about that leather thing. First of all, that is not a fit and finish topic. It is a quality and by your definition (200000 k vehicles) a long-term quality issue. When it comes to that you are right as long as you talk about the S- and G-class, or some older Daimler models. But I was not referring to that. What also struck me is that OEMs don't order leather anymore, at least they don't in substantial quantities for their mass production vehicles. The dashboard units come finished, as do the door cards or the seats. Of course, all of those can be specified and ordered in different qualities but the margins in basic materials are not that substantial. Where the differences are massive is in structural complexity and detailing, i.e. flexibility within the cycle, ventilation (mostly of displays and electronics), physical/non-physical pressure points, tolerance etc. With regard to those aspects, I have to respectfully disagree with you. Moreover, a set phrase like 'lightyears behind' does not make it any more credible. Just take a seat in a current A-class and an A3 and repeat that ...
so it is hard to find online (afaik). However, the strict 'class A vs. class B' dichotomy is obsolete. Most OEMs have defined at least 30 criteria/dimensions based on which they define and choose the 'right' leather for the respective use case. I know that for some OEMs one criterium is sustainability. Of course, leathers scoring high on that variable will come with certain disadvantages regarding color intensity, color stability, shading, or cracking. But that is not the core of fit and finish.
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