For some time now all I seem to hear is that the plastics are a bit harsh to touch, look cheap etc in reviews, but what we dont hear is how they have favoured after 5 or so years of abuse compared to the high quality soft touch materials that seem to give everyone a semi these days. So I had a look at my cars last night as it was sparked by me thinking that one looked a bit of a state.
So three cars, two Jeeps, on a 52 plate Cherokee and a 56 plate Grand Cherokee and a 60 plate 520D. Two young kids and my house has been completely re-wired and replumbed with extension added over last 5 years with the Cherokee taking most of the brunt of the materials movement.
Out of the three the one which looks the worst for wear is certainly the BMW. There are scuffs, scratches and dirt marks which seem to take an age to move (and you can still see them afterwards) - compared to a quick wipe over in the Jeep with those wipes you can buy in Halfords and its looking smart and tidy again.
If I kept the BMW for the same time as I have the Cherokee I can not see the inside standing up anywhere as near as well as the so called cheap cabin plastics, and would probably not even reach 5 years old if I put some of the stuff in it that the Jeep gets.
Do others of you find that the cars with the "cheaper" interiors seem to be faring much better over the life of the car than the soft touch brigade?
17 November 2009
The interior of my last car, a 2006 Skoda Fabia VRs, wore brilliantly - it covered nearly 90,000 miles in my hands and looked, literally, like new when I traded it in for a Seat Ibiza 2.0TDI. Even the seats with White Bolsters, cleaned up with Shampoo and a wipe and showed no signs of material wear in the 4 years I had it.
The aforementioned Seat Ibiza, on the other hand, is different kettel of fish. It rattles and creaks, the drivers seat material has puckered up in about 20,000 miles, the carpet matt is of such a design that your heel actually rests on the floor and not on the matt - result being that it's almost worn through. The window / door seals leak when it rains and water runs off the boot lid and into the boot when you open it in the wet. I could go on for several pages (and I mean several pages!) with a tirade aboutt all the failings of this vehicle, but you'd get bored.
Yes, there's a big difference between interior quality and interior style...
14 February 2009
I remember riding in an A3 Sportback a few years ago, with 2 years and 60k under its' wheels, and all that nice-to-touch black finish had worn off in several areas, leaving white plastic showing through. Beauty being skin-deep is OK as long as the skin is thick.
21 February 2009
"Interior quality" unaccountably impresses journalists and so sells cars in the showroom to the faithful. They aren't interested in it after six months, it'll be someone else's then. I guess it therefore makes more sense for manufacturers to make an interior like branch of Laura Ashley than to spend a bit more time and money on mundane things like wheel bearings, or suspension bushes. Personally I can't say I touch much inside my car (steering wheel, gearlever and handbrake aside) so "soft touch" is wasted on me; as long as it looks good and doesn't rattle I don't care. In fact, even if it looks bad so long as it doesn't rattle I wouldn't care.
16 May 2012
Sorry folks, but what the interior of my car looks like does matter to me. I spend a lot more time inside looking at that while driving vs the looking at the exterior. Hard moulded plastics with mould lines, and unpleasant surfaces to the touch put me off.
We had a Toyota Yaris (previous generation to current model), and the plastics were really hard in places, and I'd expected them to get scratched easily, but even though it quickly looked like cr*p, it always cleaned up with no scratches.
I've had a new 5 series for over a year now, and all it's soft surfaces are holding up well despite me occasionally dragging Trials motorcycles boots through it, and various B&Q visits. Only part that's a pain is the high gloss wood trim, where you can see all the micro-scratches in the sun despite careful cleaning with a micro-fibre cloth.