Can you suffer an ugly interior?

Everybody tells me my car has the ugliest interior ever, but I really like it with its 80's charm. They are also some of the best seats I have ever sat in.

If a cars interior was in bad condition or I didn't like the colors I would still buy the car. It is easy enough to install new upholstery and door panels that it wouldn't change me wanting the car or not. My drivers side seat bun has a lot of tears on it so I have a blue towel over it and I'm just waiting to find one for sale. The condition of a cars interior would effect how much I would pay for a car though. If both seats need reupholstered and the car needs a headliner I would expect to pay less then if it was perfect.

Everybody is crazy. That interior is awesome!

aeronca65t wrote: When ever I think of bad interiors, I think of the TR7 and TR8 plaid seats.

I don't usually like red interiors, or black and red for that matter. Actually, I pretty much stick with black, tan and grey. But that looks downright awesome

In reply to bamalama:

interesting... I want to do my the top part of my door, doesn't that stuff chip off?

Thanks for the info.

It didn't for the year or so I had the car. I was surprised.

When I drive my eyes are fixed on the road so the interior doesn't matter, I don't care if it is ugly. My car right now has ripped seats without a rear seat installed so I must have the ugliest interior, doesn't stop me! If an interior is in good shape leather/vinyl can be recolored with a bit of work.

I have seen a couple really weird one, but I dont really have any dislike of certain interior colors or whatever. I think those porsche ones are awesome. The things I dont like though are really dirty or damaged interior pieces, or uncomfortable seats, lack of headroom (see peugeot 505 with sunroof), and probably the worst of all, the antisubmarine knee bolsters in late 80s and early -mid 90s euro cars, mercedes w201 190e being the worst. As long as it is comfortable, and in decent shape its fine with me.

Travis_K wrote: lack of headroom (see peugeot 505 with sunroof)

I like sunroofs in a daily driver. Unfortunately, about 1/4 of all cars with a sunroof don't have enough headroom for me. Especially with a helmet.

maybe they forgot to arrange their interior.LoL

Had a parts car not to long ago to fix a Z24 Cavalier my daughter learned about hydroplaning in. It was a 88 Z24 Cavalier former DARE car confiscated from a drug dealer. Had the most gawdawful ugly interior I have ever seen. Blue and hot pink, yeh hot pink with an embossed "D" in the headliner. Seats were blue with hot pink inserts, door panels the same.

Travis_K wrote: the worst of all, the antisubmarine knee bolsters in late 80s and early -mid 90s euro cars, mercedes w201 190e being the worst. As long as it is comfortable, and in decent shape its fine with me.

My sister just bought a 190e... I HATE that car. It looks nice, it goes nice.. but takes the prize for THE most uncomfortible seats I have ever sat on.. not in.. on. The seats in my vintage beetles were more comfy and held you in place better than the slick 'texas" leather seats in her 190.

My experience with 2 different cars with a blue interior:

1st car, a mid/late 70s Firebird. I MIGHT have bought it but the medium blue velour seats looked like they were covered in old bath towels....I passed.

2nd car, an '82 Pontiac J2000. When I bought it (new) the interior was a medium blue vinyl. Since the outside was a medium blue metallic, I thought it looked pretty sharp. Over time, all the plastic panels faded to different shades of blue/grey, and any scratches turned white.

Me? I sometimes pass on a car with an ugly interior (remember those lovely GREEN interiors from the '60s and '70s?), but it really depends on what is making it ugly. Afterall, when you are driving, you only see the interior and some of the exterior. An ugly outside MIGHT be easier to live with than an ugly inside....goes for people, too.

aeronca65t wrote: When ever I think of bad interiors, I think of the TR7 and TR8 plaid seats.

That interior is sweet. I love it. I'm kind of digging the retro interiors these days, though. My 1977 Carrera 3.0 had avacado green leather interior, that color really grew on me! I used to call it "period correct" because my parents had a refrigerator and stove from about the same year when I was a kid.

I was thinking of doing my Fiat in Porshe Gray with polaris silver stripes.. I wonder if going with red plaid seats would be overload?

I have owned 12 FB RX7s, nuff said

The color of the interior is not important to me. I am more concerned about how the interior is laid out (seating position, contol layout, etc) than the color.

As long as the interior is comfortable/usable and all the controls makes sense I don't care otherwise.

I can not handle crappy interior colors. My LT1 Trans Am had all gray interior and I couldn't stand it, not as much as I hate Tan interiors, but it was fully of suck. I put my artistic capabilities to work and did some work to the panels, design the re-upholstery, and unfortuneatly never got to finish thanks to some old farts in a Lincoln Town Car and an asshat in a Chevy Malibu 2002.

EDIT: Sorry for the post whore lol just showing what I did. Yes I know it was teenager-esque, but I was 19 at that time....so I had an excuse lol.

Here are all the pics I have, test fit of seats before new carpet install, after carpet install, and the never finished door panels, etc.

Wow, what did you use to finish the rear plastics? I don't normally approve of shine, but DAMN that is some sweet stuff. Piano black is always a good idea in interiors. Almost as good as that interior being in a Miata.

I'd rather have any of those 1980s plaid interiors pictured above than the usual mouse fur grey you get in today's cars.

I'm another one of the guys who doesn't really care about the colors of an interior, as long as the ergonomics is good. Although seeing something like what wlkelley3 described might change my mind..

I have a weird thing about steering wheels, though. I haven't seen an attractive steering wheel since airbags became mandatory in the US. I'm lucky enough that all my cars are older than that. Do people still put aftermarket steering wheels on modern cars?

In reply to ratghia:

rat, I still say there are people over at vwvortex that would do some strange things to find a set of those in that condition..

For the Alfa, I'm still looking for a set of those crazy striped Recaros like Luke posted the picture of. BTW: I've still got one of Oscar Koleveski's old "Auto World" (it's a Seppo thing, Luke! ) catalogues from about 1983, and he was selling them new for slightly less than $1k a seat.

aussiesmg wrote: I have owned 12 FB RX7s, nuff said

84-85 interiors are great, the early ones not so much.

friedgreencorrado wrote: I'm another one of the guys who doesn't really care about the colors of an interior, as long as the ergonomics is good. Although seeing something like what wlkelley3 described might change my mind.. I have a weird thing about steering wheels, though. I haven't seen an attractive steering wheel since airbags became mandatory in the US. I'm lucky enough that all my cars are older than that. Do people still put aftermarket steering wheels on modern cars?

i completely agreed with you on the steering wheel thing with airbags until the S197 mustang came out....sorry for the cropped pic, fixed 50mm lens while sitting in seat, hard to get whole thing in frame lol.

mndsm: I did a lot of work actually lol. I did a lot of sanding on the bare panel, then SEM plastic adhesive spray, then sandable primer, sanded primer til it was smooth, spray with GM Onyx black, then a couple coats of clear, let it cure, then polished the crap out of it. Close to 45 hours for each panel, but it was well worth it in the end, plus it was wicked easy to clean lol. Here is a pic of the during process with a panel in primer

I'm diggin the techno color 911's