Auto interior talk.

Shift518 Automotive
1

Bring this up to Saratoga one night so we can drive around and pick up rich seperated/divorced rich cougars and smoke fancy cigars.

I have this wierd thing about interior fit and finish in cars and im curious how it is in newer high level porsches. I have driven Boxsters before and was on the fence on interior trim while I drove and old 951 and was impressed for its time. So far I have not found a car with a more quality substantial feeling interior than the lexus sc430.

Interior:
99% of american cars- cheap, lots of plastic, fake leathers FAIL

Pontiac GTO- Nice, stronger feeling(for american), nice seats, ricey-ish plastic FAIL

Audi- Feels good, good amount of leather, seats a little hard,good button feel, ugly FAIL (close pass though)

BMW- LOTS OF PLASTIC, NOISY(creeky squeeky), feels cheap, radio area ugly FAIL

Lexus- Lots of leather everywhere, everything feels heavy, Vents cheap, wind noise, soft amazing feeling leather, awesome buttons and controls PASS

Newer Honda- All plastic, Button feel is awesome, steering wheels are ugly, guages set-up retarded- PASS (for poor people and girls)

Acura- HONDA SHIT FOR A HIGHER PRICE TAG, THEIR WOOD INLAYS ARE SHIT!!! FAIL

Mercedes- ??? IDK. I’m dying to find out though. Possible next SRS car

Porsche- soft leather, comfortable for tiny cabin space, horrible sound quality, noisy boxster very cheap ON THE FENCE(i need more input)

2

New Porsche is like most new VAG…boring interior. Comfy but boring.

3

Lexus paints their leather (not dyed like Audi)
Lexus paints their wood on metal inlays to make it look purdy (not real wood like Audi)
Lexus doesn’t reinforce their dash with polymer molding to give it a firm feel and reduce noise and prevent warping over time (like Audi)
Lexus uses stamped steel hinges on their doors/trunk/hood (Audi uses forged billet pieces)

So I guess the question is, wtf are you looking at and/or touching?

4

Stop by next you’re going by. We can take Danielle’s new C out. I love it. Makes me REALLY want a C63!

5

I had a 99 a4 and I currently have my 97 SC400. I also recently drove an 04 SC430. If its not real why why do sc400 owners sand thiers down and then re-stain it? Noise wise SC400 vs A4 my SC has very little cabin noise compared to the A4.

6

How do you know Lexus ‘paints’ their interiors, Justin? Just curious.

7

Ron, are you serious? It’s painted, they sand it down and re-clear it. There’s no ‘staining’ process on any Lexus ‘wood’ interior. Take a wood panel out of the car and look at the back…it’s either plastic or metal depending on year/make/model that’s sanded down super smooth, painted, and clear coated. You think Lexus finds wood from shiney trees and Audi uses wood from dull trees? Painted/Cleared vs Real/Lacquered makes a huge difference:) Take your fingernail and scratch at your leather. You can physically peel the paint away. That’s what makes it so ‘soft’. They beat the hides and then spray paint them. Very soft and supple, but wears fast and is vulnerable to damage. Audi uses a natural dying process on the hides, which while making them stiffer, adheres better to the surface and wears better over time. It’s kind of like painting wheels (soft, will chip/wear) vs powdercoating.

Benny, I’ve worked for Audi for 5 years, it’s my job to know:)

At school Audi buys all their competitors cars and literally cuts them and rips them apart so you can see how they construct them. BMW uses the 2nd best materials to Audi that I’ve seen. I’ve been able to be there vs Lexus, Mercedes, BMW, Acura, and Jaguar. Mercedes is the only other company that uses real wood in their cars fwiw.

8

IMHO, Lexus makes, by far, the best luxury automobiles on the road. I miss mine.

And older BMWs are plastic and creaky as hell. The new ones are substantially better. They are so much more fun to drive than the other cars in the price range I never gave a crap about the interiors.

American cars - lolnm

Audi drives me crazy because the finish wears off the buttons after 20k miles and the flappy clutch is straight out of a Honda.

The new Merc Benzs are the best all around upscale daily driver I’ve tried in the last year or so. They rule.

[/unsolicited opinions]

9

Many would disagree, but I think my C5 ZO6 interior is nice, and nicer then a Supra’s which seems very dated. Yeah, my radio and HVAC controls are common to most GM’s, but I could not care less, and that’s all that matters.

In general though, choosing a sports car over another because of the interior is stupid. Give me a good chassis and powerplant, okthxbye.

10

I’m one of them, cant stand the interior of a C5 Z, I’m verry happy with my Supra interior.

11

Audi and mercedes are the only cars with real wood. I’ve taken all of them apart while installing radios and they are a royal PITA to get apart (wood ones). All of th lexus’ that i worked on were def. plastic. I did do one BMW that had real wood… and it sucked b/c the clip was broken from previous work, so when I went to remove it, i ended up breaking the wood. That was NOT a cheap fix… lol

12

We can agree to disagree then. I think some of it has to do with the fact of the C5Z being a true 2 seat layout, with the Supra having the extra space in the cabin from the (useless) rear seat area. Gauges look dated also, but I’d only expect that from a car that was designed almost 20 years ago.

13

threads way off topic can some one report it to mk876547653476R

thanks

14

SL65s had a suede headliner (in a convertible no less ) and air conditioned seats that blow cold air up your ass :excited

15

Yeah, we’re going a little out of control w/ the thread splits.

16

hank, blow me, and i mean that in the nicest way possible, yall try to bust on me because im one of the few moderators that actually go through the forum and the threads and split, move, delegate where needed… and travis, not out of control with splits, people on here are just dumb and cant keep anything remotely close to the original topic, resuliting in split topics/discussions

17

Audi interior>Mercedes interiors. that is all.

18

GM has the worst leather interiors.

My grandmother’s Jeep has the most comfortable seats Ive sat in. Its an '04 Grand Cherokee Columbia outerwear edition.

19

That’s not a biased opinion at all.

20

Nah sorry…

C63 AMG interior >>>>>> Audi A6 interior:
http://germancarscene.com/wp-content/uploads/c633-4-07-07.jpg

http://www.cardata.com/images/2008_new_cars/2008.audi.a6.interior.jpg

Or even

S550 interior >>>>>> Audi A8 interior

I’d take the Benz interior all day long over the Audi interior.