Show me good car interiors from the 80's

[MR2 Fan]

I have this bias where I think that in general car interiors from the 80's are either really bad or just plain/functional.

So if you know of good car interiors from cars designed in the 80's, post them here

[Crazed_Insanity]

Yeah, early 80s was pretty bad, but I do believe things began to trend much better during the later part of the 80s... I particularly love the interiors of the 1988 CRX/CIVIC... that's why I bought one I guess. :p

I couldn't post any of the pics, so I'll just post this link: https://mybuildgarage.com/2011/01/1988-honda-crx-rebuild/

I still think it's a good looking car today! I would no mind driving one of them as a commuter except for safety issues... they're so light and so low to the ground... with 0 airbags... probably won't end up well in a crash with a typical SUV on the road.

[JoeW]

I had a 89 Crx Si for a little while until thieves basically destroyed the interior stealing my stereo system. Loved that car.

[2ndMoparMan]

paging Regular Car Reviews....

[MR2 Fan]

That CRX interior is pretty nice

[retsmah]

Also had one of those (a '91 Civic Si), I really liked the interior of that car. Although it would probably also be fair to call it pretty plain and functional I think!

[MR2 Fan]

I should clarify, plain/functional is fine, but like the F40, there's NOTHING in the interior, it's just a racecar interior (part of why I'm not a big fan of the F40 anyway as it's just a race car for the road as far as I'm concerned)

The Porsche 959 is pretty nice

https://live.staticflickr.com/5090/5216237077_2fba72d619_z.jpg


but the exception to the rule. 80's American cars, forget it, pure dreck.


I'm not even a fan of the MK1 MR2's interior much (ironically this pic is from "Top 10: Dashboards of the ’80s")

https://images.honestjohn.co.uk/imagecache/file/crop/1200x800/media/12444885/08~Toyota~MR2.jpg

[retsmah]

We've covered all of my 80s interiors now! I've still got an '87 MR2, although it hasn't seen the road in a while.

I think it's a pretty functional interior, but doesn't look particularly amazing. The little pods on the sides of the wheel with the headlight and wiper controls I actually like, and the little flat area over the HVAC controls is nicely sized for a modern smartphone... not sure what it was originally designed for! Main issue at this point is it doesn't hold up very well, hard to find one where a bunch of plastic isn't broken. Back in like 2008 I hit a pothole and the passenger side A pillar trim just snapped in half and fell off under it's own weight!

Looking at even a very good condition MR2 interior, it's still kind of a mess. The speaker covers don't look like they fit at all, the driver's side vent sticks out of the dash while the passenger side is recessed, the area around the gauges is made out of like 10 different pieces of plastic that sort of fit together.

[MR2 Fan]

haha, yeah. The controls near the steering wheel are kinda cool but the rest just doesn't flow well. I like how 90's interiors, while sometimes boring at least flowed well. Then again, the boxy interior matches the boxy exterior, just would have made some changes.

[Rare White Ape]

This 1981 Mitsubishi Sigma workstation is enough to give me childhood nightmares. Our's wasn't this cool, though. This is a Sigma Turbo, whereas we had the less powerful but more upmarket 2.6 with the Astron II engine. It was purchased in the late-90s as a family car when the old Peugeot 905 wasn't worth fixing any more. The colour scheme on our interior was light beige velour throughout with a darker shade of brown for the dash top. I distinctly remember sitting in the front seat of the non-air-con-equipped cabin on a hot summer's day on the way home from school musing about the proximity of my knees to the dashboard and wondering what would happen to them if we were to hit something pretty hard.

https://d3lp4xedbqa8a5.cloudfront.net/imagegen/cp/black/800/600/s3/digital-cougar-assets/tradeuniquecars/gallery1907/mitsubishi-sigma-dash.jpg

[Crazed_Insanity]

Also had one of those (a '91 Civic Si), I really liked the interior of that car. Although it would probably also be fair to call it pretty plain and functional I think!


My sentiments exactly! Plain, functional, and pleasing to the eyes! I didn’t think it’d be possible to design an interior plainer than that until model3 came along… :p

Actually come to think of it, I think I was drooling over the entire Honda line up during the late 80s… if our family were richer, I’d beg my parents to get me the prelude, unfortunately we could only afford the the 4speed 70HP standard hatchback! :p anyway, I remembered prelude interior was pretty nice!

Toyotas really looked pretty horrible back then… mr2 back then looked ridiculous in comparison… only thing that interest me was the mid engine configuration…

[neanderthal]

Mercedes W124.

Businesslike without being cold and industrial. Highly functional. Ergonomic.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Mercedes-Benz_500E_%28W124%29_interior.jpg

[MR2 Fan]

:up: