Back in the 90s, car manufacturers offered lots of extravagant leather types and color combinations. The Z3 was no exception!
Interior seats and configurations
The Z3 could be ordered with lots of different interiors. From seats to leather types and colors, we will try to bring some clarity to all the different combos you can find out there.
There are three kind of seats
From a shape point of view, there are 3 kind of seats with different foam and metal structures. To complicate even more, within each of them, we can find different patterns of leather / cloth.
Normal leather / Extended leather
With the standard leather, the owner basically gets some leather on the seats and the center of the doors. The rest is made of plastic and/or leather imitation.
With the extended leather optional extra, the leather feel is much more present. On top of the above, the owner gets a leather covered dashboard, same for the top of the doors, and the lateral parts of the center console.
Leather / Cloth types (most combinations displayed, non exhaustive list)
The Z3 could be ordered with lots of different interiors. From seats to leather types and colors, we will try to bring some clarity to all the different combos you can find out there.
There are three kind of seats
From a shape point of view, there are 3 kind of seats with different foam and metal structures. To complicate even more, within each of them, we can find different patterns of leather / cloth.
| Normal seats Standard on all roadsters up to the 3.0i, they offer little lateral grip, however make the cabin look a bit more spacious. |
Sport seats Standard on all Coupe (with nappa leather), they were an optional extra on the roadsters. Good lateral grip. |
///M seats Best lateral grip, but bigger people might struggle to be comfortable in them. Only available on the //M models, and some individual non-M Z3. |
|
|
|
Normal leather / Extended leather
With the standard leather, the owner basically gets some leather on the seats and the center of the doors. The rest is made of plastic and/or leather imitation.
With the extended leather optional extra, the leather feel is much more present. On top of the above, the owner gets a leather covered dashboard, same for the top of the doors, and the lateral parts of the center console.
| Normal leather Seats, center part of the door, gear lever, handbrake |
Extended leather On top or normal spec: dashboard, top of doors, console lateral parts. You can spot it with the extra stitching. |
|
|
Leather / Cloth types (most combinations displayed, non exhaustive list)
| Normal seats
Normal seats (roadster only) could be made of cloth (no leather) as standard on the 1.8 and 1.9, or half cloth half leather. Of course, you could also get them in smooth leather (Classic), or rugged on the inside (Oregon). |
||||
Normal cloth .
 .
 |
"High-tex" cloth  .
 . |
Struktur (cloth and leather)  .
 . |
Classic leather  .
 .
 . |
Oregon leather  .
 .
 . |
| Sport seats
Sport seats are the most common seats you can find, as they were standard on the Coupe and some Roadster (e.g. Sport Edition), and many roadster owners ordered them as optional extras. Some of them where half leather half cloth, but the vast majority were ordered with leather (Classic, Chamaleon, Oregon, or Nappa) |
|||
Struktur (leather and cloth)  .
 |
Oregon leather  .
 .
  .
 |
Chamaleon leather .
|
Nappa leather  .
 .
 .
 .
 .
 |
| M seats M seats were standard on M Roadster and Coupe, and also on some specific Individual editions. The have an additional support on the shoulder zone, and offer even more lateral grip. |
|
M S50 seats .
 .
 .
 .
 .
 .
 |
M S54 seats .
 |