Mercedes driver wins Dh4,000 compensation for wrong leather

The 72-year-old man paid just under Dh166,000 for a used Mercedes E300 Cabriolet.

A 72-year-old owner of Mercedes E300 Cabriolet won a ruling for misleading advertising after he discovered the 'leather' seats in his car were partly made of plastic.
Kerry Costello from Suffolk won £850 (Dh4,000 approximately) compensation after motor ombudsman ruled seats advertised as leather should be 100 per cent leather. Upholding Costello's complaint, ombudsman said that the description of leather seats used in Mercedes sales brochures was 'misleading'.
Costello bought the £35,000 pre-owned Mercedes with 'black leather' interior last February from a local dealer in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. Costello, the retired businessman, went back to Mercedes to confirm his car seats were made from leather or partly from plastic.
But when he did not get a satisfactory response, he took his complaint to the motor ombudsman. "I paid a lot of money for this car and expected an accurate description of what I was paying for. If other drivers follow the same path as me I expect they will get the same result," Costello was quoted as saying in Daily Mail.
Mercedes told the ombudsman that the seat was leather 'but uses other materials to give it rigidity and structure' and stressed that Costello did not incur a loss as he bought a second-hand car. However, the ombudsman said the description of the seats was 'misleading'.
Mercedes charges a premium of £912.50 for customers who opt for leather seats on new cars, as opposed to those made of synthetic material called Artico, which is similar to vinyl.