Mercedes W210 Wood Trim: Burl Walnut, Bird's Eye Maple Or Classic

On a W210 E-Class, the wood tells you which car you are sitting in. Mercedes built the W210 in trim lines, and each one had its own finish across the console, the doors and the dashboard. Replace a cracked piece with the wrong wood and the whole interior looks slightly off, even if nobody can say why.

Here is how to tell the woods apart, what to check before you buy a used piece, and the one thing about W210 part numbers that catches people out.

Three trim lines, three woods

Burl walnut is the wood most people picture in a Mercedes. It is a deep brown with a dense, swirling figure, and on a W210 it marks out the Elegance line, the more traditional of the two upper trim levels.

Bird's eye maple went into the Avantgarde, the sportier line with a more modern interior. On the W210 it is a dark grey finish in which small eye-shaped marks catch the light. It looks almost black from a distance, which surprises people who expect maple to be pale.

The Classic line sits below both, and its wood is lighter and finer grained. The finish on our Classic shifter surround is Platane, a type of sycamore.

If you are not sure which line your car is, look at the pieces you are not replacing. The door cappings and the dashboard strip should be the same wood as the console.

The part number does not tell you the wood

This is the detail that catches people out most. On the W210, trim pieces in different woods can share the same base part number, because the number describes the shape of the part rather than its finish.

Our own stock shows it clearly: the burl walnut console and the bird's eye maple console below both carry 210 680 21 36. Order by that number alone and you could receive either. Always check the photos of the actual piece, and match it by eye against your car.

Single DIN, double DIN or navigation

The console trim surrounds the radio, so its opening has to match what is fitted. Cars with a standard single DIN radio use one shape, and cars with a double DIN radio or COMAND navigation use a console with a taller opening. The double DIN consoles we have are for facelift cars.

That matters if you are changing the radio at the same time. Moving from a single DIN unit to a double DIN one means changing the console trim too, and it is worth buying both in the same wood at the same time.

Buying used wood: what to look at

All original W210 wood is at least twenty years old now, so condition varies. Before you buy, look closely at the photos for:

• Hairline cracks in the lacquer, usually at the corners of openings and around switch cutouts, where the veneer is bent tightest.
• Lifting or white edges, where the clear coat has started to separate. That tends to spread.
• The mounting tabs on the back. A beautiful piece with a snapped clip will rattle for the rest of its life.
• Colour against your other pieces. Lacquer darkens with sunlight, so a piece from a garaged car can look lighter than the rest of a car that lived outside.

If the wood you already have is cloudy rather than cracked, read why Mercedes wood trim fails before replacing it.

While the console is apart

Swapping console wood means the climate control unit is already half out. If yours has missing pixels, dead buttons or a dim display, this is the moment to deal with it.

Two more worth knowing about: the beige sun visor set fits both the W210 and the W202, and the bird's eye look carried on into the W211 E-Class and C219 CLS, if you have one of those too. We have a W211 and CLS bird's eye maple shifter trim as well.

Match the steering wheel

A wood and leather wheel that matches the console pulls a W210 interior together more than any other single part. Our W210 steering wheel builder offers burl walnut, bird's eye maple and designo maple, so you can match the wood your car already has. Start with your chassis in the builder.