Plaid seats beyond VW: BMW E30, Mercedes 190E and the classic Mini
Golf GTIs and Porsches get the attention, but three other cars have their own cult checked interiors. Here is what they had, and your options now.
BMW E30 and M3: Überkaro
The E30 3 Series — M3 included — was offered with a woven check cloth known among owners as Überkaro (“karo” is German for check). It is a quiet, fine grid rather than a loud tartan, and it suits the car's straight lines. Reproductions sold today come in shades such as natural, silver, anthracite and indigo.
If you want the E30 feel rather than the exact cloth, look at restrained checks: F18, grey ombré for a grey interior, F17, navy and green for a dark blue one. For a louder M-car statement, F11 with black leather bolsters.
Mercedes 190E 2.3-16 and 2.5-16: Karostoff
The 16-valve 190E models, and Sportline versions of the W201 and W124, used a checked cloth that Mercedes enthusiasts call Karostoff. Rewoven versions exist for restorations, typically sold by the running metre on narrower rolls than ours. As any supplier will warn you, new cloth never matches thirty-year-old seats exactly — sun and wear change the original.
In the same spirit from our range: F17 and F18 — dark, restrained checks that do not fight the rest of a Mercedes cabin.
Classic Mini: seventies plaid
Plaid cloth is typical of seventies and eighties Minis. It was used on the Clubman saloon — usually the Mini 1100 Special and Mini HL — and on estates from 1973, and the same kind of cloth turned up in the Triumph TR7. It is one of the reasons classic Mini seat upholstery is such a busy search in the UK.
For a period Mini the warmer, bolder checks work best: F13, red and blue, F14, red and light blue, or F16, orange and brown for full seventies.
Beetles, buses and custom builds
Plenty of plaid interiors were never factory options at all. Custom VW Beetle and bus builds often use tartan inserts with vinyl bolsters — here there is no “correct” cloth to match, so choose on scale and colour against the paint.
Reproduction or stylised cloth?
| You want | Buy |
|---|---|
| A concours-correct E30, 190E or Mini | factory-spec reproduction cloth for that model |
| The look, with a free hand on colour | a stylised plaid such as ours |
| A car that never had plaid | a stylised plaid — there is nothing to match |
None of our cloths is BMW, Mercedes-Benz or Mini factory fabric, and we do not sell them as such.
How much to order: yards and metres by job.