These Otherwise Good Cars Have Terrible Interiors

It’s hard to argue that a car’s interior isn’t one of the most important things about it. Looks, performance, the way it makes you feel — all of those things mean a lot, but at the end of the day, the interior of a car is where you’re spending your time. For a lot of cars, the cabin is a make or break aspect. A bad interior in an otherwise good car can be more than enough to turn people away, and that idea is what led me to the question I asked you fine folks last week.

I wanted to know what otherwise good cars were saddled with terrible interiors, and you folks delivered. We’ve got a little bit of everything. Of course, there’s a ton of early-aughts American crap on here, but you’re still going to find plenty of modern cars across the price spectrum and even a few controversial surprises I don’t think everyone is going to take too kindly to.

That’s enough yapping out of me, though. How about you all head on down below and check out some good cars that were stuck with terrible interiors? If your car ended up on the list, please be sure to tell us how you live with yourself.

The mid-aughts Dodge Magnum is the first car that comes to mind. Imagine it is 2006 and you have the opportunity to buy a 425hp RWD V8 wagon (a lot of power for the day), but you must live with this afterthought of an interior.

Submitted by: Stephen.

I think this is a bigger deal than the Corvette. At least with the ‘Vette, you could hit the go pedal and forget all about plastic when you hear V8.

The Solstice is a great looking car (Sky is also great…same issues). A RWD open top sports car that’s affordable is very appealing. Until you get inside. If it came out a decade before it did, it might have gotten away with an interior that was both cheap and ugly. I made a specific point of looking at this car at the local car show when that event came around – and the cheap unfinished plastics around the door handle cut my finger when I exited. I remember the staff at the show attempting to blame me for the gash in my finger until I showed them the piece that did the job. It went from a car I was interested in buying to a car that had serious quality issues inside and just didn’t look its price. There’s no amount of “driving dynamics” that would get over the feeling of sadness that would hit when I saw the quality of what I was driving in each day, so I never considered the car again and eventually bought a Miata.

Submitted by: dolsh

5th generation Camaro.

When a $20k Kia had a nicer interior than a Camaro that cost twice as much, GM missed the mark.

Submitted by: MustangIIMatt

I’ll say it: The 986/996 generation of Porsches.

The original Boxster was a revelation. The 996 was a controversial, but critical move away from tradition for the company.

TONS have been said about the “runny yolk” headlights, but the only thing that really bothers me about those cars are the cheap plastics with “blobby” switchgear. It was as if Porsche was trying to make the buttons on the inside look the way a Ford Taurus of the time looked on the outside. Shudder.

Personally, I spend a lot more time inside the car, looking at and interacting with the dash and switchgear, than I ever spend outside a car I own. It’s nice when your car earns “the look back”, but it’s even better when the driving experience itself is good.

Submitted by: Herbie555

The new MK8 VW GTI would have to be up there. Not just for the downgrade in plastics from the MK 7/7.5 but for the hollow feeling and sound when you run your fingers across the dash and door cards. Also, the ergonomic mistakes of using sliders – that aren’t lit for nighttime – several other car companies already reverted back to knobs and buttons. The base models with the knobs helped, but the capacitive touch buttons on the wheels could be inadvertently activated just be having your hands at the normal 3 and 9 positions. And finally, while the dimpled shift knob is visually cool, the feel in hand just feels wrong.

Submitted by: LarriveeC05

Practically anything domestic sadly. Looking at the C5 Corvette, the Mustang (you could maybe argue 2015 was decent), anything Dodge…..lots of cool cars I could not fall in love with because I could not stand the interior. The C5 Z06 pulls at my heart. The right size, great power, handles like a go kart with big power, and yet, the interior is dreadful. Why does it feel like my 1994 RX-7 and Miata have nicer interiors than a 2004 Corvette?

Submitted by: Andrew William

I’d say most Toyota interiors from the mid ’00s to about 2020. They are so boring and cheap looking. Camry, Corolla, 4Runner, Highlander. They all looked the same. The outsides of the vehicles, not too bad. Prevents me to even look at those cars as an option.

Submitted by: Marc Villanova

My Fiesta ST. Ford did an amazing job with the key hardware on this thing and it’s such an incredibly amazing and rewarding car to drive that I can’t even imagine what I’d get after this thing eventually dies (hopefully a long, long way in the future). The Recaro seats are amazing, but otherwise the interior is so cut-rate that you have no option but to focus on how much fun you’re having just going to the grocery store.

Submitted by: angryasian

Amazing car that is brought down completely by its terrible interior. Haptics on the steering wheel, faux-H pattern plastic gear selector, digital dash, still an ergonomic nightmare, fussy UI, haptic start button that has all the pomp and circumstance of sending an emoji. There is more character in one scratched up shift knob in a 328gts than the entirety of the 296.

Submitted by: Mike Poster

The underlying electric car part of the vehicle is great; the range is decent, charging is plentiful and easy, the performance models haul ass, they’re broadly affordable, the exterior design is fine (excluding the cyber truck, obviously). But the interior is a mess: minimalism taken to its illogical cost-cutting extreme to the point of making the vehicles unusable.

Submitted by: Sparky

Pretty much all Vipers until the last gen are woefully bad. I don’t really care too much about the interior, just give me a good sound system and a manual, and I’m all set…But they really couldn’t have put SOME color in there?

Submitted by: Agon Targeryan