That's like saying that because we live in a modern era, wearing silk clothing or wool suits is outdated; that polyester should rule the world. It's absurd.

Wood, and real wood, not the plastic garbage that comes in most cars, is a touch of elegance. -- Anyone referring to wood looking "cheap" now has in mind the plastic woods of the Orient or the pathetic (and quite hideous) wood layouts of "luxury" car makers such as Cadillac and Lincoln.

If you take a look at the wood detailing on a Bentley Arnage, or even a Continental for that matter, there is nothing else in the world that can compare to it, much less beat it.

It has to do with the wood quality, texture, styling and placement. "Wood" accents around air-vents is not classy. Wood accents around parchment faced dials and throughout door welling is, however, beautiful.

And it also depends, in a very large part, on the car itself. What you showed above is a Rolls-Royce that, hopefully, would never have carbon fiber in it; a BMW, which has sporting pretensions, that should not have "luxury" amenities to belie its function; and a Ferrari that should have neither plastic or wood (unlike some of the Ferraris of yesteryear.)

The Phantom's interior, and I'm not a fan of the car by any means, is incredible. When you sit in it (the front, not the back) it feels almost perfect because there's nothing more luxurious than wood. That's the reason why dining tables are made out of it and picnic tables are made out of aluminum.

The only thing detracting from the Rolls is its use, in one spot, of modern materials: and that is on the foot plate that is made out of aluminum and rubber. It feels like something from a truck.

The natural always supercedes the artificial.

I kinda agree, but in some other ways I don't.

I like Hondas for the way that they've become a celebration of the artificial, mass manufactured world we live in. There's no traditional luxury pretentions to be found in a Honda, and the cars are none the worse for it. They've taken a path that strictly and unapologetically modern, and it works.

In the middle we have mass luxury brands that cater to our traditional beliefs about luxury, and here things get a bit murky. There's really nothing better or worse about how you trim your cabin, it's about the selection of colors and materials. However, the lower you go down the product totem pole the more careful one must be so as not to step on a cowpie of bad taste.

What I've griped alot about is how very modern luxury cars are still being trimmed with colors and materials that are very staid and old-fashioned. The E90 3er is modern as can be, but you'll find many with the same old man gray and brown motif that's been common for over 20 years.

In any case, I forget what I was getting at or what I was sorta disagreeing with...

I guess it's the assertion that natural always trumps the artificial if cost is no object. There's a level of "luxury content" that, even in a car as magnificant as the Phantom, becomes absolutely crass. You get that sense of overload like you would sitting in a Rococo style bedroom. I don't see why on earth a footplate should be made of... I dunno... wood?

I guess what I'm getting at is that I value quality more than I do specific materials. It's for that reason that I can extract a certain level of appreciation out a Honda interior and at the same time find Jaguar's cabin absolutely putrid. Quality isn't just about abundance of luxurious materials - it's also about informed design choices.

Osna ..I couldn't agree with you more. 100 years ago we would probably be having a similar argument over hand-made vs. machine-made products. But today we accept high quality machine-made products and judge them on other criteria -- like design quality and durability. If we take ceramic tableware as an example, you can still buy traditional hand-made Meissen or Sèvres tableware and it is all very nice and very traditional ..but the quality of machine-made porcelain objects from companies like Rosenthal or Villeroy & Boch is extremely high and they are both excellent and revered manufacturers.

The Honda interior you referred to is far more indicative of contemporary culture at it's most general level ....it serves the practical requirements of modern transportation ...it is not a status symbol or a design-object ...as you said, there is no pretense.

That really was a great post Josh ..karma to you

Tacky or tasteless combos ain't something new. The Bentley CGT is probably one of the most customizable cars out there since you could make thousands of unique combinations which inculdes ugly ones as well like the one below. The choice of wood is my main problem since it just doesn't look good with the blue and creme leather.



And here is an exemple of how the right choice of wood and make the car look luxurious instead of vulgar.



The reason why people want wood panels in their cars is because they cars are hard, and cold metal objects. Therefor they want to domesticate it by putting wood panels in them.

Great example Lu. Those photos illustrate your point to a tee.