Isn’t it strange that when choosing a car we take so much time fixating on the way it looks on the outside and what people will think when they see it but spend all of our time actually using the car staring at the inside? Car interior design should be right up there when it comes to test drives and expert opinions. Forget power outputs, performance stats or how good the suspension is - interior styling is surely the most important feature!
With that in mind here’s our carefully curated list of the most stunning car interiors out there right now. Remember, it’s all about manifesting. Choose your car, imagine driving it, and it WILL be yours. We promise. Sort of.
Bentley Flying Spur Odyssean Edition
This unbelievable, unimpeachable statement of British luxury craftsmanship tops the list. It actually brings a tear to our eyes, it’s so blindingly perfect. Bentley’s Odyssean label is its sustainability sub-brand, and uses tweed and open-pore wood in its veneers. Run your finger lovingly along the surface, and you can feel the Koa grain breathe.
The colours in the one we tested were varying hues of cream and beige, casting a softly glowing light across the interior. A sustainable leather called Autumn is used (leather is a good-news story for sustainable motoring, because it’s a waste product from the beef industry) in a three-way colour scheme with Bentley’s linen hide and a third hue of the customer’s choice. There are deep lambswool rugs, plus thread colours in the embroidery blending into one another. A quilted diamond design is stitched into the seats and is mirrored across the moulded leather in the doors, before fading away to a blank surface in a contemporary take on surface patterns. There are cool, knurled aluminium traces where your finger touches the dials. The smell of all those expensive materials is sublime, and like entering the right hotel in Saint Paul de Vence. If you know, you know. Start manifesting.Read the review Watch the video Search for a Bentley Bentayga on Auto Trader!
Rolls-Royce Spectre
A very close second in our list is the new Spectre electric super coupe from Rolls-Royce which, like Ghost and Phantom, follows the ethereal name plating. In contrast to the serenity of the Bentley Flying Spur, the excellence of Spectre comes from its gregarious, cutting-edge use of colour and light.
Joining the starlit ceiling from previous models are starlit doors, with thousands of tiny holes cut by hand and pierced by a minuscule LED from behind, creating any constellation owners specify. The effect at night is beguiling, a sparkling, fairytale ending for each day. The car we drove on the launch used a bold palette of ice white, crimson and a green-gold on its leather, but owners can choose from 20 primary colours and 21 secondary hues. The art gallery also deserves a mention, this being a glass surface running the length of the dash able to display any artwork on almost any surface that the client wishes.Read the review Search for a Rolls-Royce Spectre on Auto Trader!
Honda E
Digital fish tank, with moving fish and swaying seaweed, anyone? The imaginative little Honda E electric car has so much to offer its inhabitants, from the modern take on grey fabric on the seats, to the wood across the dash and – go with us here - the brown seatbelts. The vibe is easy-sustainable, rather than in-your-face virtue signalling. The whole car just makes you smile. You can turn one of the screens into a huge clock, or a blue sunny day, or the aforementioned fish tank, so that the tropical little nippers swim across your car towards the wheel. Or maybe you prefer the lush greenery of a forest? There are tonnes of creative displays on offer. It really reminds us of London’s epic Treehouse Hotel with its cuckoo clocks, birch tree trunks in the bathroom and birds on the wall. Fun, friendly and functional.
Read the review Search for a Honda E on Auto Trader!
Peugeot e-208 GT
This pocket-sized French plaything is a little electric flash of inspiration. The digital display is 3D, with red, blue and green dials and graphics twirling prettily before your eyes. It’s beguiling, fun, unusual and designed with a lot of thought and care so that it’s both helpful and entertaining. Lime green piping trims the grey tweed seats, echoing the practical and playful theme. The final brilliant innovation is the “i-co*ckpit”, this being a driver’s display positioned above the steering wheel not behind it, so it’s in line with your eyes as they look at the road.
Read more about the recently updated Peugeot e-208 Search for a Peugeot e-208 on Auto Trader!
Range Rover Autobiography
Cream leather on the seats, cream and black two-tone leather steering wheel with hidden stitching, cream pillars and roof lining, and the softest, warmest pools of yellow lighting at night in the footwells and front and rear door pockets. The rear seats recline, the centre squab pulls down to reveal a glossy touch-screen for passengers to control music and temperature. All, in other words, is right with the world when you travel First Class in this slice of British engineering excellence. Such a light, precious interior is so obviously a snub to anything resembling mud, and we love it even more for that. And when that ceiling disappears to reveal a glass roof, it’s nature inside and out.
Read the review Watch the video Search for a Range Rover on Auto Trader!
Mini Cooper S Resolute Edition
For the urban warriors amongst you, this is a full-on four-wheeled, style-led, bespoke artwork. Embossed leather head rests with Mini emblem? Tick. Six different colours for your ambient lighting, and backlit LED ring round the central display screen which changes colour with driving speed? Tick. Decorative, backlit strips on the doors and footwells, “waterfall” lighting in the front and rear, and puddle lighting in the front and rear complete the picture. Also, there’s a bonkers fabric seat option called “light chequered” which gives you yellow and white checks, plus black synthetic leather. Sounds gross, but works. Check it out on the configurator.
Read the review Search for a Mini Hatch on Auto Trader!
Volvo EX90
There’s a beautiful zinc tailored wool blend in charcoal for you to option when designing your electric SUV from this perfect Scandi style haven. It feels a little rough to touch but that’s part of the authenticity of the material, which is all the better for it. It comes with a contrasting pale textile on the headrests, which is really smart. Or you can choose a bio-attributed black Nordic synthetic leather and a weird but wonderful birch veneer that wraps around the dash, with a black lattice framework overlaying it. Add in the little Swedish flag tag on the seats and you have a lovely interior theme flowing through this glassy home from home.
Read more about the Volvo EX90
Maserati Grecale Trofeo
The only way to spec this Italian stallion is to go all-out black, with red stitching. Few family SUVs are so unapologetically dark and moody inside, and it just works. It’s like stepping into some Mayfair club, swathed in expensive materials that swallow the light but feel majestic. The seats and doors are covered in the softest black leather that’s tucked and sewn out of sight, and streaks of carbon fibre remind you that there’s a raging V6 engine under the bonnet. The shifter paddles behind the steering wheel to change gear are massive, their brushed aluminium is cold to the touch, providing a shiver of excitement every time you tug them. It’s incredibly sexy stuff from the maestros of sensual driving experiences, the Italians.
Read the review Search for a Maserati Grecale on Auto Trader!
BMW iX
A massive and fantastic departure for BMW in interior design. Out goes cold, Teutonic minimalism represented through sharp edges, streaks of metal and hard surfaces. In comes a return to nature, with futuristic twists on tech. One surface of warm, bleached wood is actually a touch-screen backlit to house functions with haptic feedback. There’s a crystal glass rotary dial hovering over the wood, also lit, and the textile voices include pale hues. The side bolsters on the seats are cosseting, and their diamond stitching echoes in the rear seats. It’s sublime.
Read the review Watch the video Search for a BMW iX on Auto Trader!
Tesla Model X
Like the BMW iX, the beauty of this electric seven- or six-seater is all on the inside. No longer configurable from new in right-hand drive, sadly, you should search for a used example that has the ice-white seats. This incredible synthetic leather really is wipe-clean, meaning that large families with young, muddy children, really can co-exist peacefully alongside house-proud parents. The six-seat version gives you an actual aisle between rows, creating a business-flight sense of premium living for passengers. And then there’s that futuristic, minimal design up front, with one large touch-screen for every single function, cleansing the surrounding area of any buttons. The result is peace, even with those kids in the back.
Read the review Search for a (right-hand drive!) Tesla Model X on Auto Trader!
