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
You answered your own question with the 3G Taurus. They took an almost Audi-esque car and made it unbelievably ugly.
…my 1998 E38 740iL…
Willys MB Jeep
RX-8 There are rotary cues everywhere
That’s the inside of the car looking like the inside of the engine; totally different =P
Volvo 240-series, pre-85! rectangles on rectangles, with two little circles in the middle (speedo/headlight)
Chrysler Turbine Car. Orange and futuristic on the outside; orange and futuristic on the inside!
Surprised no one has mentioned the Lotus Esprit. Wedge outside, wedge inside.
Somebody beat me to Volvo 2XX/7XX series, so I’m gonna say “Forward Look” Virgil Exner-designed Chrysler Corp vehicles. Some of those (’61 Dodge) had dashboards with pods resembling the tailfins outside.
Air-cooled Beetles, especially before they got a dashboard pad instead of painted metal.
Polestar 2, very boxy and square everything.
I think one not mentioned yet is (always the answer) the NA Miata, especially the NA6. Both are extremely simple, smooth, functional, and super charming. Both interior and exterior put a nice little emphasis on the popups with the button to pop them right in the center of it’s climate vents. Inside is just as unpretentious as the outside, and has an emphasis on driving just like it should.
NA Miata is a good call. Simple functional dash, flat door cards, quality materials. The only thing that hurts the vibe is the World’s Biggest Airbag in the steering wheel, but short of swapping in an aftermarket steering wheel or an NB Nardi unit there’s not much to be done about that.
Yep pretty much, and that steering wheels wasn’t what came in JDM or base Canadian models, so it was clearly not the intended design direction, so I try to overlook it. A Momo Montecarlo or Nardi Deep Corn fits that interior so beautifully.
I am patiently waiting for the unobtainium airbag module in my NA8 to crap out so I have an excuse to swap in a Deep Corn. So far it’s been annoyingly uncompliant.
Maybe sell the airbag module to someone who thinks they need it and make the swap?
I am hoping to swap in a silver Momo Prototipo on my NA8. Maybe swap in the NA6 dash too!
Back when I had my NA6 I did a Montecarlo, definitely go for the Japanese Daikei Boss hub, and not a cheaper/quick release one. Overall pretty easy job. The daikei hub comes with an airbag resistor that keeps the warning light off which is a must, otherwise they buzz at you.
Also if memory serves I went 330mm instead of the more typical 350mm diameter, which added some good steering weight with the factory Power Steering. Also smaller diameter and Foamectomy combo meant I could finally fit comfortably in the car at 6’0″. Would highly highly recommend it!
Nah you just have to get one brought over from Japan. NA8, no airbags and the flat dash. It’s beautiful!
Or…just swap the whole car for an NB SE with the Nardi : P
Or that’s what I’ve done anyway lol
“Ford Taurus (and Mercury Sable, natch)”
What is a Natch, is it a trim level on the Mercury Sable?
Natch is a very delicious french cheese.
Excellent on natchos
Natch is short-lingo for naturally.
not once in my life have I said “wow that looks like a natch”
1958 Citren DS – interior corresponded wih exterior, and it looked like nothing else
Late 1950’s, early 60’s aesthetic of american cars was bold with shapes and colours:
1959 Cadillac Series 62 – everything looks wide and low inside and outside
1960 Plumoth Fury – essence, almost caricature of 1950’s car design, with strange rectangular steering wheel
1963 Chrysler Imperial – with fins flanking instrument panel, and fins on the outside and loads of chrome
On the other end of car spectrum is Citroen Mehari with it’s simple plastic body
Ladas – square and crappy on the outside, square and crappy on the inside too. And underneath, and under the hood.
After watching Garage 54, I now have a very soft spot in my heart for Ladas. It is entirely irrational, but yet, here we are.
Having spent a bunch of time in the things in Eastern Europe I don’t. The only Commie-cars that weren’t complete crap were Skodas and Tatras. Making worse versions of ancient Fiats and Renaults is not the way to run an auto industry.
Ford Ka, same organic design on the outside and inside
90s TVRs, I’d say.
As a lifelong flight sim fiend, that Vector’s interior seems very neat. Even the air vent seems out of an airplane. Side note, I love how the fuel level indicator is more prominent than the ground speed indicator. That probably doesn’t suggest great things about its fuel efficiency…
“Which Car’s Interior Most Looks Like Its Exterior?”
Any convertible and especially roadsters.
That’s a good one. I loled.
The gen 2 ram did tastefully until they all started falling apart but I guess if it was a rust belt truck probably still very similar interior and exterior.
The whole Ford bubble era the Taurus did it but so did the f150 I guess you could argue the super duties of that era too with alot of squares and little bit of roundness.
The Chevy celebrity is another car that was as square inside as it was outside.
Totally unrelated, but that Taurus “football” head unit (that’s what we called it anyhow) brings back a lot of memories. I worked in the car stereo business when that generation of Taurus came out, and it was the first mainstream car where you couldn’t easily retrofit a standard DIN or double DIN aftermarket head unit. You used to be able to buy a head unit installation kit for damn near any car, but when that Taurus came out, it caused us a great deal of consternation due to the way that the HVAC controls were integrated with the stereo head unit. I think Scosche may have made an installation kit that fit, but it was hideous and expensive as hell. I’ve always thought of that Taurus as the beginning of the end for the car stereo hobby, because a lot of OEMs started adopting a similar design, making it more and more difficult to install an aftermarket stereo.
Anyhow, that Taurus and the Focus are the cars that come to mind for me when I think of cars that have matching interior and exterior designs.
“first mainstream car where you couldn’t easily retrofit a standard DIN or double DIN aftermarket head unit”
Not the third-gen Camaro “Berlinetta” with its weird OEM swivel head unit?
Oh wow… You’re right, I totally forgot about those. Fortunately I didn’t run across many of those. I bet I’ve only seen one in the wild. There were some other weird GM head units out there too. I seem to remember some Sunbirds (probably Cavaliers and such too) that had a weird little square head unit, but I believe there were still installation kits for those.
Older GMT400 trucks (1988+) came with weird small square(ish) head units. Tape player, if included, was separate and near the middle of the dash. I’ve seen folks hack up the tape player hole to fit a standard DIN head unit (but the wires need to be extended to reach). And then the original small square head unit either sits dead, or is removed (leaving a hole in the dash).
Either way, it’s not an elegant swap.
I’m 95% sure that’s the same head unit that they used in the Sunbird and Cavalier for a while. I remember them, but fortunately I never had to do a head unit swap on one.