Can someone advise me when (if?) REAL LEATHER seats were available in 240's? I confess to looking for deals on eBay, and I am constantly annoyed by ads which proclaim "leather" for years which I am reasonably certain leather was never an option. Just my little pressure point, I suppose... but how can anyone (especially used car dealers) confuse leather with vinyl?

YES I HAVE TAN LEATHER SEATS IN MY 1985 240 WAGON

I bought my 82 245 GL new and it came with leather seats as std equipment.

Leather has been available (and common) in 240s since at LEAST the early 80s, and before in certain models.

Later on (86-93) the GL models usually had leather, but not always. In the 91-93 model years, leather was an ala carte option on all models, and I think standard on the "SE" model (but not the 92 GL from what I've seen).
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Chris Herbst, in Wisconsin.

Hi Smitty,
I have (2) '82 242glt's. One has the blue velour seats and the other has tan leather seats. The tan leather looks better(imho) but the velour is much more comfortable.


Dan

I am not aware of any years that leather was not available as an option for the 240. All the turbo cars had leather, as did all the Bertones.

For standard seating, sedans got velour (earlier) or cloth (later), and wagons got vinyl.

There may be some exceptions.

Greg

I don't recall leather being available on 240's in '88 when we got our first brick - either vinyl or cloth. Thanks for the reply.

You're right--for the DL models.

The DL was either vinyl or cloth. The GL was available with either cloth or leather (and most of them were leather equipped).
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Chris Herbst, in Wisconsin.

ah, ok. I do know that for 84 (and probably 85), leather was standard with the 240 turbos. Are you the original owner of the car? Probably a bunch of the old 240s with crappy leather seats have had cloth switched in.

Greg

Volvo lists velour as standard from 83-85, and leather as optional. Although it would seem as if most of the turbo models were optioned to the GL trim level than the base trim level.

The option packages that Volvo offered especially in terms of trim, were very confusing. The same thing went for 740T models, which came both with velour, cloth/leather, or leather upholstery. There was not a standard, although it seems as if most of them came with the cloth/leather, or leather trim packages. But in later 740Ts the velour was much more common, and they no longer had the velour/leather.

Also, in different areas of the country, it is possible that some trim levels were equipped a certain way. But Volvo says (not always reliably though) that the 240T was equipped with velour upholstery standard.
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Chris Herbst, in Wisconsin.

ahhh, you're right! Here I've been going on about how all the turbos had leather, but I guess I misread or mis-remembered my info.

This is basically what my 84 brochure says:

DL
Sedans have cloth with vinyl trim, vinyl is standard on wagons. (no mention of leather)

GL, GL Diesel, Turbo
Sedan has plush velour, leather is optional w/ additional charge.
Leather is standard on wagon.

Thanks!
Greg

Yes, while I craftily edited one of my posts above somewhere that incorrectly stated the later 240 standard/option interiors. Hehe... nobody caught it.
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Chris Herbst, in Wisconsin.

I've got big fat leather seats in my'85 240GLE,and very nice they are too.They appear to be standard on most 2,7&9 series GLE's (or GLT's in other markets.) They just look and feel like vinyl after a few hundred thousand miles if neglected.