Alcantara headliner or stock?

[EYEHAVEYOU]

Just re-glueing what's on there never seems to look right, so if you're going to recover it entirely regardless, I'd say go alcantara. Every time I'm in an interior with an alcantara headliner, it just feels like such a nicer place to be. Such a small thing but makes a big difference - one of the reasons I'm drawn to E39 M5s.

As far as value... your car already seems to have a good # of mods, I don't think adding alcantara headliner is going to materially impact what it's worth (perhaps a different story if it was bone stock).

[sina]

Haven't seen it on any E46s but rode along in a couple of Porsches with Alcantara headliners and absolutely loved it. Wish my car had it. It gives the cabin an extremely premium look and feel.

[SteelGreyM]

It's a pretty sweet look. My friend did it to his slicktop. He even found somebody in our area that wrapped the headliner, A, B, and C pillars for $250. He bought material for $50. He had professional results for $300.

It's not an easy job. I highly recommend practicing on a junkyard piece before your own stuff.

[Obioban]

I wrapped both my sunroof headliner and now my slicktop headliner in Alcantara. It is WAY harder to do on the slicktop.

I like it. I did it in the same color (one shade off black) alcantara that BMW uses in their higher end cars. Our M5 came with it stock, which is what really made me want it in the other cars-- it just feels really nice/high quality. And, unlike on the steering wheel or seats, no concern about wear on the headliner/pillars.

I do think it's one of the hardest things to capture the feel of with a picture. Instead of going off a picture, I'd try to track down an M5 (any e39 or e60 with a leather dash) and see how you like it IRL.

[old///MFanatic]

I have a factory slicktop. So the headliner is a bit more rare, and expensive as is the configuration (no sunroof). I baby this car but it was outside in unusual sun/heat while getting construction done on condo. To my dismay the stock headliner separated and needs to be re-glued. My first E46 in 2000 had a sunroof. I think perhaps non-sunroof headliners are closer to roof and thus get exposed to more heat, or maybe not.
My question is would you stick with the factory headliner, or go Alcantara since taking it out? I feel car value would actually go down with Alcantara vs stock on a slicktop. Interested in hearing thoughts of which to do? Thanks