Mustang interiors are no good

Interiors mentioned below and briefly critiqued or commended in one car's case (E90 & F30 3 series, Mk6 GTI, and 2018 Mustang).

I have not posted on in this forum in years...I hope I see some familiar faces and the wit to go with.

I rented a 2018 mustang (again), having rented a 2016 or so mustang years ago. What struck me this time was how big the interior felt, let alone the whole car with its big hood. I had an eco-boost convertible. The whole car almost feels SUV-ish, which is nuts considering that its a low-slung coupe. The left and right halves of the dash are just big with their overhangs, and the new LCD cluster is not sporty. It just feels mini-van like. I was bored driving the car on top of the disappointment of the interior. The 4 cylinder ecoboost has some oomph, but the steering is numb even on the sport setting. Boring car and literally would regret buying this within 1 hour.

I also remember I never could love my MK6 GTI interior. The center console where the shifter was always felt a bit low. That and the I never liked the lower cubby hole (i stuck a large GPS unit in there) but it never really fixes the eye sore. See my sig for the GPS unit stuffed into the cubby.

The absolute best interior I have personally driven as a daily is the E90 sedan without the GPS hump. It blows away even its successor, the F30 which is a confused interior with its lines and also has the ugly gaping hole between the shifter and the climate controls. They fixed it a bit on the 2019 3 series but then they added some half-circle gauges for speed and RPM. I have to sit in one and drive it to know if I like it.

When the mk6 gti first came out, you gotta admit that the interior was A1 for its class. It almost felt like a more expensive car than it was.

Yakuzi said:

When the mk6 gti first came out, you gotta admit that the interior was A1 for its class. It almost felt like a more expensive car than it was.

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Now it almost feels as cheap as my old mk4s interior.

sterkrazzy said:

Now it almost feels as cheap as my old mk4s interior.

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I disagree, I think after 6.5 years the GTI interior still feels upscale. Granted, my cupholders are covered in pink glitter (thanks to my 5year old)

I had this same issue with my mk4, except the cause for that one was from a leaky sunroof drain. I don't even have a sunroof on my mk6 and the problem was even worse.



This is also another problem I had with my mk4. Except in my mk4 it was just a thin layer that would peel and the plastic underneath looked fine. Again, it's worse in my mk6 and will require the entire panel to be replaced.



I've also had a panel on my doorcard basically split apart, but that was a pretty cheap and easy fix.

The last thing I can remember right now is the window switch I've had to replace...which is a pretty common issue with these cars too.

There's no way I can say VW makes a good interior lol

Damn!

Mine has held up a lot better. The only glaring issue is a sagging headliner that I haven’t fixed yet. Otherwise everything still looks great at 9 years and 130k miles, if slightly worn around common touch points.

I’ll be getting to the headliner sooner than later as I work through refreshing the car now that I’m not driving it to work every day.

I think the new Mustang interiors are great, honestly better than the MK6 interiors. I've only driven high spec GT models and a co-workers GT350 which are definitely spruced up compared to the entry level rental car Mustang you drove.
This probably isn't going to be a popular opinion to be shared on a VW board but I think the domestics have moved forward in leaps and bounds in the last decade while VW has just kind of inched along.

MMKAY6 said:

This probably isn't going to be a popular opinion to be shared on a VW board but I think the domestics have moved forward in leaps and bounds in the last decade while VW has just kind of inched along.

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This is true in every aspect, domestics have made a huge leap in their interior game.

Yakuzi said:

When the mk6 gti first came out, you gotta admit that the interior was A1 for its class. It almost felt like a more expensive car than it was.

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That is a good point, and easy to forget in 2018. But I personally take issue with how low the center console feels and how the dashboard therefore feels very tall. Versus a higher center console (where the shifter is) that is higher than the height of the kneecap.

MMKAY6 said:

I think the new Mustang interiors are great, honestly better than the MK6 interiors. I've only driven high spec GT models and a co-workers GT350 which are definitely spruced up compared to the entry level rental car Mustang you drove.
This probably isn't going to be a popular opinion to be shared on a VW board but I think the domestics have moved forward in leaps and bounds in the last decade while VW has just kind of inched along.

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While the GT350 interior probably has a better steering wheel, materials, etc., it has the same dimensions. After a day with the mustang, the interior just felt huge and cavernous. Quite the mind-trip because it is a 2 door coupe. Just a boring interior that feels nothing like a sports car.

On another note....I think the new Hyundai G70 is maybe the best interior for 2019!

rokketman said:

On another note....I think the new Hyundai G70 is maybe the best interior for 2019!

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I think just about any new Audi interior blows it away.

With that said, a lot of cars have stepped it up over the years. There is nothing really specific that stands out anymore to own a VW over another car other than preferences, brand favorite-ing.

Going from older Japanese (2000, 2006) and American cars (2004) to a 2014 VW, I immediately saw an improvement in the feel of the parts with the VW. However seeing the newer cars and how they've been designed, a lot of them are similar if not better than VW. It was just such a large year gap from what I had seen to now that the VW interior change was that much more dramatic.

Holy crap that headliner.....

My headliner in my mk6 has not shown any signs of that. My mk5 rabbit on the other hand has a completely saggy headliner. It's just barely holding together.

jay745 said:

Holy crap that headliner.....

My headliner in my mk6 has not shown any signs of that. My mk5 rabbit on the other hand has a completely saggy headliner. It's just barely holding together.

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lol...To be fair I left it alone for a long time, so it had quite a while to get to that point. Probably a couple years between the first time I noticed my headliner coming undone by the glasses holder to the pic I posted. For a while I'd be going down the interstate with my windows down and foam would just be flying all over the place.

The grab handles held it in place pretty good, but once I removed those the headliner really fell.

SnailPower said:

I think just about any new Audi interior blows it away.

With that said, a lot of cars have stepped it up over the years. There is nothing really specific that stands out anymore to own a VW over another car other than preferences, brand favorite-ing.

Going from older Japanese (2000, 2006) and American cars (2004) to a 2014 VW, I immediately saw an improvement in the feel of the parts with the VW. However seeing the newer cars and how they've been designed, a lot of them are similar if not better than VW. It was just such a large year gap from what I had seen to now that the VW interior change was that much more dramatic.

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good point - many including myself found the interior a substantial reason to take the plunge into buying an MK6.

I disagree with the Audi interior comment. While interiors likes/dislikes can be subjective, I try to make the 330i E90 the standard. If everyone ( i mean everyone including soccer moms, tall peoplel short people, etc) can agree it is the most inviting and driver focused interior, then we have a baseline to go from.

I have sat in a new 2019 Audi S5. It has the same problem the F30 has - namely a significant break between the shifter console and the dashboard. This is very van or SUV like. I did not feel the S5 was driver oriented. The ONLY way you will know yourself is to go and sit in one and then an E90 right after LOL

Yes, I know I am going hard on the E90 and raving like it is the gold standard- but it truly is.

When we were checking out cars for my mom, I sat in the 15 Passat, and I felt like I was sitting in my mk6 GTI. felt so dated for 2015. We ended up going with an almost fully loaded Hyundai Sonata. The interior aesthetics felt so much better, and it almost felt luxury car like, less the cheesy digital clock on the dash.

The worst interiors I've seen is GM interiors. the interior on the 2002 Grand prix was pretty nice for that era, but they went downhill from there. The 15 Impala looked like it took the interior from some rental fleet panel van. Even the Cruze had a better interior, probably because it was a global spec car.