I owned a 1LT C6., a 2LT C7, and now a 3LT C8 (Marello red dipped). I can already tell there will be more cleaning and up keep of a 3LT.
Worth it. Hail yeh.

 

I'm leaning towards the 3LT for the 'dipped interior', however can't help but wonder if it will have dash delaminating issues that plagued both the C6 and C7 3LTs. GM supposedly resolved the issue with the 2019 C7, however there's still plenty reports of 2019s having developing the issues. Some more than once. I realize the the C8 dash is a totally different design, however still cause for wonder.

 

Don't know. You'll need to ask someone with a 1LT/2LT.

 

Got the Elkhart Lake Blue. Looked at the smurf blue two-tone interior and it just didn’t look right. My C6 was a 4LT. Had the bone white leather interior. Looked super nice, but I often wear black denim jeans for work. The black from my jeans was transferring to the leather seats of the car. That made me decide to just got with all black leather interior on the C8. No suede. JMO. Car is status 3000. Should be born in Jan/Feb.

 

I have a friend with a 4LT C6. Interior is amazing.

 

Yep, it's a marketing, profit issue and done on purpose! It was the issue for me when GM got "cheap" after 2015 and made the 3LT look not only cheap but IMO also like a "patch work quilt!" See pic below of my 3LT 2014 C7 and what GM offered from 2016 to 2019 for the C7. When I bought my 2017 Grand Sport was ready to buy what I had in my prior Vettes, a Black interior as thought the 3LT looked bad!. Wife saw and i agreed the 2LT Red interior fit my white 2017 Vette. IMO Black is a good choice as you get essentially "dipped" but without a premium price.

Some think the fake leather beit Mulan, Vinyl or whatever looks a lot different. I don't! My 2LT 2017 Grand Sport Balck dash it came with was soft if you pressed on the surface and had a leather like texture. Fake leather, Mulan, Vinyl or whatever is manmade and passes through embossing rollers during manufacture. It can be made to look however is desired, smooth, more heavily "leather like" texture or BOTH! For example, the seating surface and bolsters can be made of the same material, one smooth, the other more textured!

SIDEBAR
Have been critical of what I consider deceptive marketing of the interior materials since I had my early 3LT C7. (My C6 3LT interior was black.) GM will not say what material is used where! They also elude (like the furniture industry) that their coined name Mulan is really tanned animal hide leather. The only clues as to what-was-which were in leaks in the 7 years I had C7s:

• First a GM engineer (not Corvette) said they found real leather was not best for bolsters and it was likely the 3LT bolsters were not and why the literature always said "Napa on seating surface."
• Second in an interview of folks in BG the plant manager when pressed admitted Mulan was "bonded leather" and contained some finely ground leather scrapes. (If you want to know of issues with Bonded Leather look at info from the furniture association. They warn about putting boded leather chairs near hot air vents and where it's in direct exposure to the sun.)
• Third. This brings up the problem with C7 3LT dash's exposed to the sun. A number of folks had it shrink from the air intake openings and it had to be replaced- expensive. 1LT and 2LT's had no such reports. So it was concluded by most folks the 3LT dash was Mulan bonded leather and the 1LT and 2LT dash's were Vinyl!

Nope won't find GM saying what material is used where except for the 1st lime on the C8 seats! (see pic below.)


All 3LT's. Had to buy a special model that came with Spice Red Interior to get what you did in a 2014 and 2015 3LT!

For the C8 for the1st time GM admits the seat bolsters are NOT real animal hide Napa leather but rather their "coined name" Mulan!

 

There have already been reports of the area around the HUD area delaminating. Leather has a habit of shrinking with age, heat and direct sunlight. That's the only reason I kept away from the 3LT and went with the 2LT. The $$$ horror stories on the C6 forums was all it took. Once the leather shrinks you're SOL. It can't be reglued. The dash or dash component must be replaced. Stand by for future delamination of the replacement too!

 

^^^
Agree of the possible concern from past experience with C6 and C7. The C7 3LT dash on some cars shrunk. BTW I had zero issues with my C6 3LT and 2014 C7 3LT. BUT disagree with the term leather or that it will be a general issue with C8!

In the US, not some other countries, "Bonded Leather," with is a faux leather, is allowed to be called "Lether" but in some that term is only allowed to be used for real tanned animal hide! Read the furniture industry concerns about "bonded leather" that contains some amount of finely ground real leather scrapes as a filler. They warn about direct sun exposure, etc. But as they note that can be whatever amount of finely ground real leather scraps the manufacturer decides to use and all have their own propriety names similar to GM's Mulan.
(Of note also similar to Chrysler's name Corinthian Leather promoted by Ricardo Montalban! It was only years later that he admitted Corithian leather was a name coined by the Chrysler Ad Agency!)

However, about 1 foot of my 3LT dash from the windshield is NOT even faux leather compared to my 3LT 2014 C7 where the lesser amount was! It's a plastic type material with hundreds of moon-like craters! Looks like GM may have learned their lesson! In addition, I think the C7 bonded leather that was probably Polyvinylchloride mixed with perhaps up to 20% finely ground real leather scrapes is now the more expensive Polyurethan without leather scraps as a filler rather that the cheap Polyvinylchloride. (BTW Polyvinylchloride is made from cheap salt to produce chlorine, which is combined with ethylene.) I have not seen any significant issues raised other than speculation about the 3LT C6 and C7 dashes. Sure, there will be a few of any issue and those who will use that as an excuse to not spend the money. But IMO it's unfounded.

My 3LT has a somewhat unique material about a foot in front of the windshield unlike the thinner strip of black Mulan on my 3LT 2014 C7. It has hundreds of very uniform moon-like craters and is not faux leather. Hopefully GM has learned their lesson from the C7 3LT where they replaced some dash material on warranty. Folks where it happed later were told "normal wear" and had to have the dash material replaced themselves, EXPENSIVE. Note the air vent is located in this plastic like material. BTW my 15-month-old 3LT has zero issues.

 

Jerry, my mistake. Why would I assume that any option that you opted for or any aftermarket item you bought would have anything wrong with it? It would always be the best choice. Your continued redundancy and regurgitating the same information is proof of that. Silly me... BTW... GM didn't fix the problems of leather dash shrinkage from the C6 to the C7. Why would you assume they fixed it for the C8, other than the fact that you opted for the 3LT C8??

 

Natural Dipped 3LT. Cmon!

 

3LT more better.

 

Said it was my opinion, to which I'm entitled! You can have yours! I looked at mine and as I said it's not fake leather for a foot next to the windshield. It's never been real tanned animal hide as that is only on the higher end seat and then ONLY the seating surface NOT even the bolsters (Oh and maybe the small wrist rest!)

I also believe from what a poster found that the higher-level fake leather Mulan is now Polyurethane NOT cheap Polyvinylchloride with 10 to 20% finely ground-up real leather scraps as a filler.

Frankly I had zero issues with my 3LT C6 I had for 6 years or the 3LT 2014 C7 I had for 3 1/2 years before buying my 2017 2LT Grand Sport because did not like the 3LT patch work quit look that year. GM hooked me again to get a 3LT C8 because of Natural Dipped!

From Forum Posts don't think it was a high percentage of cars with the dash issue but don't have quantitative data. But all will believe what they wish or some justifying not spending the money by assuming it will be an issue!

I keep posting what I think is GM's BS comments about interior materials. The C8 is so honest, low price for a high performance ME, pushrod V8 etc no need to be deceptive about interior materials IMO. BUT my guess is it's not up to Corvette Marketing it's a corporate issue and they have to follow corporate policy of what can be said and why they allude that Mulan might be "real tanned animal hide."

 

I went with 2LT and GT2 seats....not to confuse the issue even further.....:-)

 

I went 3LT because I wanted the stitched airbag cover, the Alcantara on the A-pillars and headliner, and GT2 seats. Worth it? For me, yes. Individual choice if it’s worth it.

 

Looks good. Remined of my 2LT 2017 Grand Sport I got with Red interior and it had a lot of Black. Good combo IMO.

 

My 17 GS with red seats....after market covers....

 

Of everything I've ever read anywhere on this forum, JerruU is as close to truth as it gets regarding leather types.

A Google search of Mulan leather will only bring up GM and forum websites. It's bonded leather which is the equivalent of making paper out of a piece of wood.

Considering other luxury brands (infinity, Cadillac, Lexus) all use some fancy name for glued scraps and plastic (leatherette, leathaire, Alcantara ect) I can't fault GM for doing same thing and calling it Mulan.

I've seen "experts" on these forums call Mulan everything from Indian to Italian to split hide.

It's nice to see someone get it right finally.

 

I have a 3LT in my HTC. The microfiber suede on the A-pillar does nothing for me. The HTC doesn't get the fancy design in the roof that a 3LT coupe gets. I went 3LT for color combo.

I will consider 2LT for my Z06 with the GT2 seats. Maybe order the hornpad from the parts dept.

 

The stitched horn pad was the main reason I got a 3LT on my C8, but I may drop to a 2LT on the Z06.

​​​​​​​Where can you can a 3LT horn pad for $450?

 

Thankfully I bought my blind - have yet to sit let alone touch one in person. I went with a 2LT with GT2 two-tone seats (red & black), can’t wait to see what it looks like once I take delivery!

I actually prefer vinyl over leather, my wife is in the commercial furniture industry & knocks leather all the time, it just doesn’t hold up synthetic. That’s not to say leather isn’t nicer but for practicality vinyl has it beat.