If I'm spending new car money on a car, I want a German car feel. As a matter of fact, I'm going to counter the Ion interior with its replacement's interior.
The dash and door panels are covered in soft vinyl. The A and B pillar trim is covered in what appears to be a nice fabric. My major disappointment with the Astra's interior has always been the seats. The driver's seat doesn't have enough thigh support for me. I have that problem in most cars I drive, though.
So GM does know how to build interiors?
FlightService wrote: They both had the same build quality, but perceived quality was extremely different. The soft touch stuff is a European thing and I am not surprised some of you don't get it. I still don't care too much about it, but I get it. The Japanese still don't get it...
I've got two cars at the polar ends of the spectrum, and like both. My 328 is all soft touch materials, and would be a very nice interior if a couple sections weren't coming unglued. The Dodge Dart interior seems to have been going for a deliberate hard touch - there's a bit of vinyl on parts of the doors, and a dash pad, but the dash is solid sheet metal with hard, matte-finished painted plastic trim running down the center. A lot of the door inside is bare metal too. And it looks a lot less cheap than many recent interiors do to me.
I've got to wonder where all the "hard touch" interiors have gone. Perhaps they can't easily be made to fit new safety standards.
The new Civic has been dissed so bad for it's poor interior that Honda is going to do a refresh. On the other hand, The new Fiesta has been applauded for it's interior for an economy car. Chrysler also has been praised for it's interior improvement.
Derick Freese wrote: If I'm spending new car money on a car, I want a German car feel. As a matter of fact, I'm going to counter the Ion interior with its replacement's interior.
But it LOOKS so terrible!!!!
My favorite interior on a car that I owned was on my '89 CRX. The center stack of the dash was angled toward the driver. It made it feel like everything was easily accessible and all about the driver. I guess if you have a CRX you don't give a damn about passengers anyway.
MadScientistMatt wrote:FlightService wrote: They both had the same build quality, but perceived quality was extremely different. The soft touch stuff is a European thing and I am not surprised some of you don't get it. I still don't care too much about it, but I get it. The Japanese still don't get it...I've got two cars at the polar ends of the spectrum, and like both. My 328 is all soft touch materials, and would be a very nice interior if a couple sections weren't coming unglued. The Dodge Dart interior seems to have been going for a deliberate hard touch - there's a bit of vinyl on parts of the doors, and a dash pad, but the dash is solid sheet metal with hard, matte-finished painted plastic trim running down the center. A lot of the door inside is bare metal too. And it looks a lot less cheap than many recent interiors do to me. I've got to wonder where all the "hard touch" interiors have gone. Perhaps they can't easily be made to fit new safety standards.
Yeah, BMW is HUGE on the soft touch, so is VW/Audi. The old Dodge stuff is horrible, Chrysler can spec (non of them actually make their own interiors, Faurecia, TRW, Lear (or who ever bought their contracts) Johnson controls actually build the interiors) a wonderful interior. Look at the new Grand Cherokee. But they can also spec some dogs too. They are working on an acceptable middle ground.
On a partially related note. Am I the only one that really WANTS to like Chrysler product and just can't?
In reply to bravenrace:
In reference to Nissan and Toyota interiors,
I loved my Maxima's interior and the Avalon is very nice to touch, although boring to look at.
Your right about the rest of the line.
Derick Freese wrote: If I'm spending new car money on a car, I want a German car feel. As a matter of fact, I'm going to counter the Ion interior with its replacement's interior.
i'm sure the dash is nice and soft to the touch, but do you really want to look at that every time you go anywhere?
Derick Freese wrote: If I'm spending new car money on a car, I want a German car feel.
Me too, but I'm more partial to the more minimalist days of German interior design, where it was all flat panels and such.
Derick Freese wrote: If I'm spending new car money on a car, I want a German car feel.
Spill beer on the seats?
Shopping at my price range, I am just happy to have an interior!
In reply to bravenrace:
The last time Chrysler had nice interiors (with certain exceptions) Nixon was playing with his recorder and I was watching the Banana Splits.
The interior on my 2007 Dakota Quad Cab looks like it was made from surplus material for a 1970s Flinstones' toy.
Come to think of it, the chrome grilles on most new Ford products look like they came from the Cylon cosutumes from the original Battlestar Galactica show.
Hmm...so the Ion Redline that's priced at a song should be avoided. Got it.
In my opinion, auto production stopped somewhere around 1972.
While we are on the topic of interiors, I stumbled across this article recently on the toxins from car interiors. Scary.
http://www.healthystuff.org/departments/cars/
I wonder why there aren't more metal intensive interiors. They look cool and you can make them structural.
The sheer awesome of all that aluminum completely makes up for a very boring instrument binnacle and kind of dumpy steering wheel. Imagine if Audi got a hold of it.
I liked it back in the old days when everything was painted steel.
Usually ya have to wait for someone (who supposedly is grassroots) to cry about cheap plastics in car interiors in someone else's thread, you mean your willing to start a whole thread on the topic?
Metal interiors are really loud, soft stuff kills noise. I definitely equate comfort with class/luxury as I'm sire most of you do. It's in the little things as well; how thick the rugs are for instance.
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