While I can certainly identify many interiors as belonging to a certain exterior based on my memory of each, I suspect there are few interiors that, if you found yourself plunked into them sight unseen, would generate a deeply confident feeling that you know what specific car they should belong to. You might say “staid family sedan,” or “exotic sports car,” but absent any logos and signature brand motifs to tip you off, you probably would not be able to pin down an inside to a specific outside.
… for the most part, anyway. There certainly have been, and are, interiors that very much evoke the outer image of the machine in question. One that immediately comes to mind is the third-gen Ford Taurus (and Mercury Sable, natch), which saw Ford go absolutely oval crazy, inside and out, with perhaps the wheels being the only perfect circles on the car as everything else was some variety of oval or ovoid blob. Heck, even the brochure went all-in on ovals:
Another that pops into the ol’ visual cortex is the Vector W8, which got the interior kid-me expected the Lamborghini Countach to have. Boy, was I ever disappointed when the ne plus ultra of futuristic cars had an interior not to dissimilar from, like, pretty much any normal car. It was still cool, to be sure (if crappily assembled, which really blew my mind), but round gauges on a flat panel? Come on, Lamborghini.
The Vector, however … this thing’s interior walked what the bodywork talked, with orange phosphor screens framed by buttons, buttons, buttons, all arranged like the controls in a jet fighter’s cockpit. Delightful, and that’s why I still watch Doug’s Vector video a couple or three times a year.
That’s enough of me yammering, it’s time for you to take it to the comments:
Which Car’s Interior Most Looks Like Its Exterior?
(And feel free to flip it, if you wanna talk about cars that go hard on the outside and soft on the inside, or vice-versa.)
Top graphic images: Ford
2001-05 PT Cruiser. Retro, but very much a product of its time. For better or worse, what you see inside is a perfect reflection of what you see outside.
This is kinda weird but: Third Gen Camaro.
Whatever your feelings about the exterior were, you were equally excited, scared, or repulsed by the identical interior.
I’m seeing a lot of entries from the 20th century, so I’m going to counter with a few from this millennium.
1. Z12 Nissan Cube
The exterior is has a ton of rounded squares and rectangles and surprising concavities, and I’d say the dashboard matches that. The shag carpet on the dash and wavy headliner surprise you the same way the wraparound side/rear window, cargo door, and very rearward wheel placement do.
2. Tesla Model Y
The exterior seems cool and different and minimalist at first, but eventually you realize it’s ungainly as it sacrifices all design for utility (aerodynamics). Similarly, the interior seems cool and different and minimalist at first, but eventually you realize it’s done for utility (cost cutting)
3. Anything with exterior paint-matched dashboard trim, like the Fiat 500
It makes the interior literally look like the exterior what more do you want
Hmm…
Meyers Manx
VW Thing
Willys Jeep
John Deere
Vespa
This one’s easy…I nominate the Subaru XT coupe.
One of the all time perfectly matched steering wheels, sure, but also a wonderfully crazy interpretation of auxiliary control stalks.
Probably a Willys Jeep
My Crosley Speedster, because the inside IS the outside. Also the family’s 1929 Ford Model AA lumber truck, for the same reason.
(https://www.theautopian.com/a-bolt-a-maverick-and-a-crosley-hotshot-dressed-as-bearcat-members-rides/)
1962 Studebaker GT Hawk. Both the base structure of the dashboard and the entire body shell are leftovers from the 1950’s, but all of the outside trim was refreshed for a completely new modern clean minimalist look.
The Quasar-Unipower City Car, clearly.
Renault Espace III (or any of the first 4 gens, really, but the 3rd gen is the coolest IMO), 90s futuristic spaceship thing
Lotus Elise/Exige, where the interior trim is bare metal.
The T30 X-Trail we never got but Canada did. Weird soft roader thing inside and out
Perhaps the B-Class fits the theme too. Simple/utilitarian but luxurious too, especially with the sunroof.
Volvo 240 or 740/760 – whether early, middle or late.
(but not the Bertone Coupes)
Boxy, Simple and Good.
Lancia delta. The entire car could have been prototyped with LEGO
I need to put forth 2 nominees, who do the same things with opposite philosophies.
1. The Toyota Echo.
Inside and out, you have this minimalist, cheap (dare I say cheap and cheerful?) and WIERD vibe, pulled off in a clean and concentric way that only late 90s Toyota could do.
2. The fiat Multipla.
Inside and out, you get this slapdash, function first, but disorganized mess of shapes and angles that work together so poorly that it becomes completely polarizing to the American eye. This entire car looks like something hand drawn by a teenage art student on shrooms, drawing a sketch while someone yells a description through a paper cup and a string from the next room.
Great description of the Echo. I remember it being one of the first of the center-dash gauge pod cars. Also that Robin Williams’s creepy technician drove one in One Hour Photo.
You know in all honesty I think the first gen Saturn ion had a more Toyota Echo interior than the actual echo, but the exterior just didn’t fit it.
Cybertruck – the interior and exterior design both look they are waiting for the pixels to finish loading.
How about the ’99, first-gen Focus, aka the poster child for Ford’s New Edge design style?
It did a good job keying the interior to the exterior, though perhaps it was all a bit much, as both got toned down on the refresh a few years later.
The refresh ruined it. Spaceship Focus was by far the best Focus.
Mini Moke. The inside pretty much is the outside.
Can I have two?
Aston Martin Lagonda, and Citroen 2CV. One is a space ship of unobtainable dreams, the other is just what it is.
1967 Opel Kadett.
Much of the interior was unpadded painted steel. Just like the outside.
Jeep YJ- lots of rectangles where people were used to seeing circles
The Ariel Atom, ofc.
Hmm…
Does the Atom really have an interior?
Darn, missed that one