I once hired a BMW X1 in South Africa and damn... you could really feel how cheap it was. The dash was a disgusting plastic and even though I don't feel my dash all the time you really do notice that it is far less than premium. It made me feel like there was an extra low spec for the rental car market.
Why do car reviewers care so much about soft touch dashboards?
- Thread starter Skilid
- Start date
Caporegime
Have to agree here, when looking for my e38 I saw a couple of very tidy 740iL and 750iL models with extended leather dashboards and despite the cars themselves being in fine fettle, the leather on the top of the dash especially had noticeably aged and ruined the look, not an issue in newer cars I guess (both of these were ~15 years old) I’m quite happy with my non leather dashboard top.
Soldato
A spark is the equivalent of a hard plastic chair you get in school lunchrooms, the A6 is more like a nice comfortable desk chair.
An A6 is a very nice car to sit in and drive, comfortable, safe feeling and is easy to drive.
They have - my 1 Series has a 'soft touch' leather pad to rest my leg on.
Soldato
My GT86 has knee pads. That said it’s made by Subaru so probably doesn’t count
same thoughts exactly. pretty happy with how a dashboard looks, i am unlikely to be feeling or touching it while driving.
Soldato
Ive had a few cars in my almost 20 years driving but my car at the moment is a big step up from my others. Its an S-Max Titanium X with a very premium finish. The car handles and drives brilliantly. Very smooth and comfortable and the interior is just a very nice place to be. Infact took it to a ford dealership last year for a query on heated seats and the guy sat in it and say "ooh this is very nice isnt it" looking around the cabin as he said so.
And i think that is basically the point. Soft touch dash boards whilst you may not need to touch them its just knowing that it is which adds to how the drivers and passengers feel.
Maybe im rambling a bit but thats how i think of it!
And i think that is basically the point. Soft touch dash boards whilst you may not need to touch them its just knowing that it is which adds to how the drivers and passengers feel.
Maybe im rambling a bit but thats how i think of it!
Don
How it looks is more important to me. I’ve seen alcanterra offered as a premium upgrade to a leather dash.
It looked nasty.
It looked nasty.
Soldato
My seats are half alcantara (bum and back) and leather (the rest of the seats) Best of both worlds
AFAIK they were the first manufacturer to install knee pads
They are nice for hard cornering since you can use your legs to keep yourself upright.
Soldato
Not sure where people are getting the idea that hard plastics = rattle and noise. It has no real bearing, rattles and noises are related to overall build quality and fit of interior. Plenty of cars with 'hard' plastics that have no rattles or squeaks as the build quality and fit and finish is very high, the Toyota Yaris is a good example someone mentioned earlier. Mate has an old mk1 diesel with 200k, interior looks 20k rather than 200k and there's not a single rattle or noise.
Likewise I have experienced premium cars with so called soft touch plastic that have rattled or had poor fit and finish, such as an Audi A4.
The construction of the interior parts plays a huge role, to stop rattles manufacturers use damping mechanism, for example a bit of cloth within clips to stop one plastic part that connects to another from rattling when idle or squeaking when going over a brick layed road.
They all use plastics, just some cover the plastic with another type of material to attain the softer or premium feeling.
A lot of cars simply trade on perceived quality and give the aura of being higher quality rather than actual real quality.
Also the definition of quality has become somewhat twisted and diluted, we are told having a soft rubbery feeling dashboard is quality whilst the rest of the car is constantly breaking or has poor design. Use of the general term of 'quality' should be aligned with the car as a whole rather than just its dashboard material!
Likewise I have experienced premium cars with so called soft touch plastic that have rattled or had poor fit and finish, such as an Audi A4.
The construction of the interior parts plays a huge role, to stop rattles manufacturers use damping mechanism, for example a bit of cloth within clips to stop one plastic part that connects to another from rattling when idle or squeaking when going over a brick layed road.
They all use plastics, just some cover the plastic with another type of material to attain the softer or premium feeling.
A lot of cars simply trade on perceived quality and give the aura of being higher quality rather than actual real quality.
Also the definition of quality has become somewhat twisted and diluted, we are told having a soft rubbery feeling dashboard is quality whilst the rest of the car is constantly breaking or has poor design. Use of the general term of 'quality' should be aligned with the car as a whole rather than just its dashboard material!
I find it's normally where the edges of panels touch, poorly secured wires tapping against things or just poor quality clips etc not holding things together very tightly. In some of the expensive cars they put foam padding on the back of the interior panels to hold them in place. But in general most car interiors just aren't built as solidly as they used to be.
But if you want to stop something rattling use felt tape and foam.
But if you want to stop something rattling use felt tape and foam.
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Soldato
^ Those are more to do with construction methods and build quality rather than the quality or the hardness of the plastic itself, you can find cars built with nice materials but shoddy build which doesnt offset the nice material and rattling, luxury french and italian cars from the past are a good example. Felt around joints and foam are a common material for vibration and noise absorption and dampening.