Well people like wood, just like they like leather - whats the difference between using wood for decorative purposes or CF or aluminum - when wood is used well, like in the Rolls-Royce Phantom, it can be very impressive and beautiful - when it's just used in an interior to appeal to clichéd preconceptions of prestige I think it is unnecessary and banal.

The Phantom's wood trim is genuine hand-crafted luxury and is exceptionally impressive.



In a more mass-produced interior like a Mercedes or Lexus, the wood trim completely lacks a feeling of craftsmanship, it looks very production-line ...and ultimately is only in there to make concessions to mediocre preconceptions of luxury and prestige - the Rolls-Royce is the real thing, it's not even comparable.

Alu/Chrome trim with leather for me.

Sure, but, if not leather, what would you use? Cheap, clod, hard plastic? I don think it depends on the car...I mean check out Maybach 57S's interior. It's carbon fiber, and the car is supposedly the ultimate luxury car, but it looks better than any wood trim. I think wood trims are just plain old-fashioned, old Jag XJ interiors looked more like house furniture than inside of a sports car...

I really like Phantom's exterior...but interior is simply horrible...it's like an 18th century drawer or some French commode...I like Bentley's interior much more...I think BMW messed up Rolls' interior...

I think even Rolls, if designed with more passion, could be furnished with anything else but wood and feel even more Luxurious...

Make it two!

Well, that's sort of my point. If wood is like house furniture, then isn't leather also like house furniture? I'm just trying to figure out what it is that you don't like about wood trim, whereas you still like leather.

I don't know what a good substitute could be - these fake leathers, made from polymers? Or, just cloth of some sort? Synthetic material? (to be honest, I actually like the feel of decent cloth seats better than leather)

Oh yeah, and where you say the 57S's carbon fibre interior looks better than any wood trim - you forgot to add, "IMO"

Sure but carbon fiber and aluminum are still only being used to "decorate" the cabin, also I don't think wood trim always looks old-fashioned.

Have you seen the stainless steel trim in the Bentley Arnage T - it looks ridiculous.

Totally agree with everything said...so what is it that we don’t like about wood?...hmmm...imagine a bright sunny day, you feel like driving your CL65...you see the perfectly styled exterior, the perfectly manufacture/engineered monster engine under the hood, and you are filled with joy and passion...then you get in the car...and what a horrible surprise!...u see yourself surrounded by big chunks of rosewood, with those crazy grains, and that reflection of your disappointment on the shiny, polished surface...It simply doesn’t feel right...it doesn't flow...I can't explain it but it's simply wrong…

I like it...!

Somehow St. Merc, that doesn't surprise me.