nemex12

been wondering this as i have leatherette and want the head cushion from the leather seats.
I'm looking at these BMW E60 E65 E66 Headrest E38 E39 745LI 745i 760LI 740i 750iL 540i 750LI 750i 750 | eBay

paran

Tough call as UV degradation can change the color of material.

But leatherette vs leather should be an exact (super close) color match otherwise.

A BMW "leather interior" also has leatherette items on the door panels, etc and I cannot see any difference in appearance.

pjinca

There may be a slight difference in appearance. "Leatherette" is not actually leather at all, it's a synthetic leather. Not sure about your car Paran, but mine has leather on the door panels and center console. Possibly "extended leather"?

paran

You maybe right on the 545i, but you have a mix of leather, vinyl, etc and it all looks an identical flat black to me. But I guess flat black is the easiest to match. My car had these dopey headrest covers with an embroidered 545i logo on them out of leatherette, and they looked identical in grain appearance and color to the leather OEM material. Even felt quite close to real leather.

leatherette = vinyl leather = cowhide

ETNav382

If you have the premium package, which was xenon headlights and leather door inserts and maybe a few other things. I know all 550s have this and I would guess 545s too but maybe not.

tonyb635

If you are not sure, a give away is that leather/leatherette will have stitch seams and vinyl will not. If you have actual leather on your door panels and console, then you will have leather on your dash as this is the leather package option. This looks really nice, but if you do not care for it, it will loose this look as the car gets age and things get nicked etc. Then you will see the paint missing and the natural leather underneath. This option is available early on and becomes more popular towards the end of production when they start uping the nicer items with a better price option.