Full leather? pics

The Porsche dealer I bought my car from indicated it has a full leather interior, Natural Brown. He said the guy who originally ordered the car paid about $6000 for it including the three spoke leather wheel. 1. Is this full leather? The stuff DOES appear to be everywhere.... 2. Did it really cost that much new? 3. Are my gauge faces a factory option? I ask because the car was purchased last June, 5400 miles on the clock, and was absolutely bone stock. I'm also curious as to why someone would option a car this heavily (it also has the silver center console and aluminum shifter/e-brake handle), then not spring for Litronic headlights or the damn OBC?

Thats full leather, I have full grey on my Zenith blue 996. It does cost a lot (not sure $6,000) but it makes a great difference to the early 996 cabin Now I have it, its unlikely I would buy another porsche without it

1. Yep. That looks like full leather. 2. Yep. The full leather option on my '02 cab was almost $5K. I had to have my top dash replaced under warranty due to peeling (vinyl), and I looked into "upgrading" to the full leather top dash... it was going to cost me $2800! There were about 12 separate items they had to order (in leather, of course) to properly replace the top dash. Crazy. 3. Your gauges look like the factory aluminum look gauges except for the little blue marker at the tip of the temp needle. It's probably just the light/reflection from the pic. Cheers

The price of full leather varies depending on the color (it's not just the dye, some of it is different types of leather). $6k sounds high, but it could be that much if enough stuff is covered in leather (you mentioned the steering wheel). When you look at an order guide, you can get almost every surface covered in leather either in groups or a la carte. The price goes up very quickly. My old 996 didn't have full leather. It was a must have on my GT3 and looks much better than all that plastic (also it cuts way down on the squeaks & rattles). I have a black interior and full leather was $2920 and worth every penny. It looks like you have the aluminum instrument dial option. That cost me $855. I've got cruise control, waste of money. You can always swap out to xenons. Not cheap to do, but if it makes you happy go for it.

Yeah, the write up the dealer gave me on how the car was optioned was like $4600.00 for the full leather, $1400.00 for the leather wheel. But it wasn't the window sticker, he just pulled the number from somewhere. It was a "real" P-car dealer, and everything else has made sense, so.... Re: the blue tip on the temp needle.....actually thats the blue (cold) marker on the gauge face. I like the interior, but I'm glad I didn't have to pay those dollars for it. Imagine, the PO put 5400 miles on the car and took a massive depreciation hit!

Yes, looks nice. I have the same :-).

I got the red interior and I think the full leather option ran about $4500.

Doesn't full leather have leather around the ac vents in the center of the dash?

Nice. Full leather is the only way to go. Only problem with the 'naturals' is they don't do the soft-touch in same color. It's all black. Kind of sucky, but you can get by with some colors easier than others. Thought about doing a color-to-sample leather, but did not want to see the old '99 look with all that black plastic. But natural brown is a stunner with a few touches of black on it. Very nice.

full leather is one of the best options, makes the cabin at least somewhat luxurious. its better than plastic and vinyl that porsche makes you believe is in the name of weight savings.

SWEET!! weight savings in a car that you can't track or your warrenty will be voided.... as a previous poster said, it does make it somewhat luxurious (especially compared to my old boxster which has expanses of black plastic)

To the casual 'salesman', "Full Leather" on a P-car can fall far short of what FULL LEATHER really is. "Full leather" is just a beginning. I think the factory should rename it "A little more leather" Not quite Full yet. There are at least $10,000 worth of leather trim pieces that can be added over and above ticking the "full leather" option box. Natural leather is a premium over the regular leather-refers to the difference in hides/taning/color as opposed to content. You will have over $4000 of it with just the leather rear console, and large leather package. There will still be plenty of "soft-touch paint" to look at if you stop there however. The $6000 figure mentioned is entirely believeable, and quite frankly, somewhat light for a leather junkie. That's leather girly-boy territory. Regards, BD

Have you checked the option codes on the sticker under your hood and in your service booklet to see which leather package was bought with the car?

I have full leather in my 99 and I cannot imagine where I would want to add additional leather unless you want leather covered pedals.

A well optioned car with deviated stitching would change your mind. Regards, BD

...but I am under the impression that my 40th has the "full leather" option as did my '00 C4 Millennium. The Mille was natural brown was extremely nice.

Like I said, I cannot imagine ANY part in my 99 that needs leather, fancy stitching or not. Give me just 1 area in my car that would beneifit from adding leather? There is no where to put any.

I can't appreciate the full leather option on anything but my grandfather's cadillac. The last thing I want is a luxurious porsche. Its funny all super performance cars I have driven have cloth seat facing and little or no padded areas, leather or otherwise. Leather seating (which I have in my cars, BTW) does the worst possible job of providing any slide resistance in hard cornering. I don't mean preventing the car from sliding, I mean from having you butt slide on the seat bottom. In fact, I think full leather looks kind of "over done" in a Porsche... Jim

I can't appreciate the full leather option on anything but my grandfather's cadillac. The last thing I want is a luxurious porsche. Its funny all super performance cars I have driven have cloth seat facing and little or no padded areas, leather or otherwise. Leather seating (which I have in my cars, BTW) does the worst possible job of providing any slide resistance in hard cornering. I don't mean preventing the car from sliding, I mean from having you butt slide on the seat bottom. In fact, I think full leather looks kind of "over done" in a Porsche...but not quite as bad as having a big honking fire extinguisher mounted on the passenger's seat slider!! Jim

Hey Jim... Now there's an idea...we could start a whole new line of accessories...leather pedal covers. Maybe even a leather bra for the Porsche S and M club!! Jim

You must not spend much time at the track. I've seen a couple of fires that were quickly put out by those "big honking fire extinguisher mounted on the passenger's seat slider" carried by other drivers, saving massive damage to cars and once possibly even someone's life. As for the leather, it's clearly a personal preference. My car cost six figures. I'd feel like an idiot if I spent that kind of money and had to stare at that cheesy plastic dash all the time. I looked at a lot of GT3's before I bought mine and was totally turned off by the ones without full leather. My car is no garage queen either and sees the track on a regular basis. With the full leather I get the best of both worlds, quality and performance.

From the photos the full leather looks really nice. For my taste, I just can't get past the brown color though... I could never spend upwards of $$XXxxx and actually choose a brown interior. What color is the exterior?

You are right. It is personal preference. For sure your GT3 is a beautiful car but I think they are a bit over the top with "stuff". To me, IMHO, the '91 Carrera RS it's minimalist approach in design, handling, and function best exemplifies what Porsche driving is all about, not show and glow, not comfort, not cushion, not refinement, rather pure unadulterated guts, performance, raw power and if my memory serves me well Porsche would remove the vinyl/leather combo seats and replace them with cloth...

The exterior is Seal Gray. Sounds funny, but it works. I'll post a pic of the combo tonight. Re: the leather vs. non-leather in a sports car issue: the leather really gives the car a higher quality feel. I don't have issues sliding around on the leather seats, and it's definitely more durable than cloth, although it requires more upkeep. Real sports cars have had leather since real sports cars began. But I can definitely see the minimalist approach. My '87 911 only has partial leather seats, no leather anywhere else. But it works because the other materials (except for the cheesy center console where the A/C controls are) are high quality, so you don't miss it. The general knock on the non-leather 996 appears to be the "cheapness" of the standard interior materials.