mmarshall

You raise some interesting points here but it's hard to tell " what if ". Many people are shunning beef for health reasons, or, like in in Hindu and Buddhist cultures in Asia, will not harm a cow for religious reasons.
I don't actually have any hard figures with me but it would be interesting to see how many leather-seat vehicles are sold in, say, India, where cows are considered sacred. Of course, widespread poverty in that country precludes a lot of vehicle sales in the first place.

tetra7

the part that makes me laugh...okay if you are against killing cows, so how about you stop wearing oh lets say..most shoe products..belts...leather jackets...leather sofas..etc

can we say DUMBASS

mmarshall

My point exactly.....the whole issue is so complex it is hard to make any sense out of it.

CleanSC

This has to be the most retarded thing I've read all month.

MB, as pompous as they are (yea, it's a 4-door coupe, unreliable and overpriced but you WILL buy it and love it) is now bowing down to PETA activists?

PETA????



Next they will make cars that run on soy so Greenpeace activists can march with signs in front of someone else's oil-using, atmoshere-clogging facility.

GHEY.

When did they stop listening to the people with money? The people that they sell their high end cars to? The people that want a reliable car (damn is that so hard?) with *leather* in it. The people that are all about excess. The people that will MAKE OR BREAK YOU since they are your entire market.

Nah, PETA's pissed because we use leather in our cars from animals that were slaughtered and eaten last month anyway. So we better listen.



I'll tell you right now: They will sell maybe 5 cars without leather and all 5 will be PETA extremists trying to make a point with their cow-friendly yet environment unfriendly fuel-burning Mercedez-Benz.

mkorsu

PETA is the largest group of misguided fanatics resident on this planet today!!! For anyone interested, check out an episode of Penn & Teller's show Bull*hit on Showtime. You'll begin to learn what type of hypocritical fools they really are!! If someone chooses to not eat meat...fine!!! More power to you! Me, I like BEEF!!! and I will continue to eat beef until my arteries are so clogged my BP will be 2/1, along with Pork, Chicken, Veal, etc...

For those who don't know, PETA (or more specifically, it's INSANE leader), proudly supports ALF. ALF is the Animal Liberation Front. They are the ones that firebomb research facilities that perform tests on animals! Makes perfect sense to me....a cancer victim may finally see the end of their long struggle with a treatment that works but we'll pass on that because a lab rat may be killed doing the research.

Also, PETA has on its publicly viewable year end financials, expendiatures for 2 freezers. Not, the home units mind you, but the big azz industrial ones. The ones that according to people involved in that industry say are used for one thing and one thing only, storing frozen MEAT! PETA admitted that it had euthanized more than 2/3 of the animals it saved!!!! Now if that doesn't make you question their motives I don't know what will!!!



P.E.T.A. - People Eating Tasty Animals


Oh, sorry for the rant guys. This is just one of those issues that causes me to rebel against my daily lithium intake!!





You know, I should also add something here that actually related to the post!!!

As others have stated, this will be an option on the vehicles. Whether or not anyone chooses it is yet to be seen. I'm sure their will be some mild interest in cloth seats just due to the fact that some people prefer them. I highly doubt ANYONE will by a MB solely for the fact that they are "doing their part". MB is so transparent here that only PETA would believe that this "cloth effort" was done as a step towards "saving" animals.

Incendiary

A lot of the people who really believe in what they're saying do look for products that contain no leather in them. They're really not that hard to find...

And unless I'm remembering incorrectly, the cloth was an option. So it's not like MB is not making cars with leather anymore, they're just offering a cloth option.

And MB and other car companies have been bending under pressure by activist groups already. Diesels and hybrids, anybody?

I'm for high-grade cloth, like the alcantara/suede stuff found in some Audis and BMWs, or really soft, cushy leather, like that in the Q45. The leather in entry-level cars like 3ers just doesn't cut it for me.

curiousg

I am not sure about Mercedes, but there are some car makers (namely high $$$ marks like Rolls, Bently, etc.) that 'hand-pick' hides from cows in northern, Eastern European climates so that there are fewer blemishes from insect bites, etc. Not sure if these cows are slaughtered for meat first or not.

nthach

Looks like MB-Tex is making a comeback. The stuff lasts for a long time, but it feels just as plasticky as Ford vinyl.

nthach

it's not even leather, it's leatherette.

Incendiary

Huh? BMW offers leatherette or leather in its entry-level cars. Just as MB offers MB-Tex (leatherette) or leather.

Anyway, I think MB already offers fabric cloth or leatherette in all, or if not all most, of its cars in Germany. They're basically not making any concessions at all, but it's a good marketing move to capture the two people who actually care about this stuff in the first place.

CleanSC

None (yet) because as you say it just came out. Give it time.

LexFather

Rodman Strips for PETA Ad at Fashion Week

Mon Feb 7, 6:22 PM ET


By BRUNO J. NAVARRO, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - Often his own fashion statement on the basketball court, Dennis Rodman made one at New York Fashion Week, revealing all in an ad for PETA.

Photo
AP Photo



The tattoo-resplendent former NBA star appears nude, in profile, in the celebrity anti-fur ad for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Rodman's 6-foot-8 presence appears with the slogan, "Think Ink, Not Mink: Be Comfortable in Your Own Skin and Let Animals Keep Theirs."

"I'm very against people mistreating animals in any fashion," Rodman told The Associated Press Monday.

Rodman, 43, who has sported hair in a rainbow of colors and once appeared at a New York bookstore to sign autographs in a wedding dress, said he gained "a totally different perspective" after watching a PETA video.

"I'm not ashamed to show my body," he added.

"We are very happy to work with PETA," said Fern Mallis, executive director of 7th on Sixth and the lead organizer of New York Fashion Week. "We think that everybody's position and point of view should be heard. We wanted to do it in a peaceful, productive way ... no more violence and paint on the runway and damaging or harming people's property."

"This is a democracy," she added. "Everybody's entitled to their opinion and to wear what they like."

The billboard ad — unveiled Monday at the tents that house invitation-only designer runway shows at Bryant Park this week — will appear in Hollywood, Calif., and New York in the next few weeks.

In past years, PETA members have disrupted events and protested designers who use animal hides in their clothing lines. But that began to change in 2003, when PETA joined Fashion Week and presented its own line, designed by Gaelyn & Cianfarani, to draw attention to animal-friendly collections.

PETA spokesman Michael McGraw called the collaboration "an indefinite truce" and praised organizers for helping to coordinate Monday's event.

"It will allow us to get our anti-fur message precisely to those who need to see it," he said.