Seriously, can you think of weirder dashboard than the one found in our second-generation Scion xB? This isn't what the inside of a car is supposed to look like. The huge monolithic slab of plastic that stretches from door to door. The center console that juts out like a urinal. The gauges that look like the Audi emblem that are placed toward the center for no particular reason. The touchscreen and its tiny icons. The jumbo airvents placed asymetrically all over the place. The faraway upright windshield. The steering wheel that almost looks out of place. Come to think of it, with that green mood lighting, I sorta feel like I'm piloting a Borg cube rather than a car.
This is truly weird. Is there anything weirder?
James Riswick, Automotive Editor @ 20,459 miles
crowb says:
10:12 AM, 07/10/08
+1 for the Star Trek reference, James. Way to nerd out!
Maybe Dr. Who's phone booth could be worse...
txmatt1 says:
10:35 AM, 07/10/08
Weird for the sake of being weird. The xB saves the Mini from having the dash I'd least like to own.
So much for the importance of location, location, location. The prime dash real estate directly in front of the driver gets not a single gauge or display. Brilliant!
johnmarco says:
10:41 AM, 07/10/08
Ha ha "juts out like a urinal." Very funny. No I don't think it does get any weirder. Very disgusting interior, no doubt about that. They should it rename it the Scion wtF.
thedoctor29 says:
12:44 PM, 07/10/08
Not to say they're on the same level of ugly.. but does anyone recall the Ford Focus 00-04? Not exactly the best design choices either.
stingray454 says:
01:10 PM, 07/10/08
As if the thing wasn't ugly enough on the outside, they had to make it hideous inside too. Toyota should be slapped for moving all of the gauges AWAY from the driver. This is not the first time they've done this either. If GM created a dash like that, people would be complaining about how stupid it was for decades. Toyota does it, and its merely called "weird".
James Riswick says:
01:29 PM, 07/10/08
GM did create a dash like that, the Saturn Ion. It sucked, too.
And please, we've bitched and complained about the centrally located gauges in everything -- included the beloved Mini. This isn't the first description of Toyota's offenses with centrally located gauges found in the Echo (barf), Yaris, original Scions, etc. They're weird and they suck. Better?
desmolicious says:
01:41 PM, 07/10/08
New Fiat 500 is an economy car with a sweet interior.
bgw says:
02:00 PM, 07/10/08
Check out the 2002 Fiat Multipla dash here
http://img.infocoches.com/img/fiat/2002-Multipla/fiat_2002-Multipla-023_2.jpg
I kinda like it though.
James Riswick says:
02:15 PM, 07/10/08
^^Ok, so that's pretty flippin' weird. Looks like someone put a bunch of dashboard elements into a bucket, doused them in glue then threw them onto the dash. Then covered it in a suit previously worn by Prince.
misterfusion says:
04:00 PM, 07/10/08
"'Borg'? Sounds Swedish." (Alfre Woodard, Star Trek: First Contact)
I love the *idea* of the xB, but that interior would just suck the life out of me -- another similarity to the Borg.
cx7lover says:
01:42 AM, 07/11/08
They could have at least tried to align the HVAC controls and vents/navi for a better look.
dougtheeng says:
05:50 AM, 07/11/08
That Fiat dash is hideous!
bemanix88 says:
07:00 AM, 07/11/08
Meh. I like interesting interiors better than boring ones, as long as it's still functional. Just because the gauges are center-mounted doesn't exactly mean people are going around crashing into things.
carfreak8394 says:
09:09 AM, 07/11/08
Has anyone noticed the comments on the main page are off ? Like on this blog, it says 21 comments, even though there are only 13 (14 including me). And what happened to the "New comments" thing ?! I was dependant on that status. Oh, and yeah, the Scion's dash is pretty messed up, but that Fiat's dash is just plain crazy.
Tim.
James Riswick says:
09:53 AM, 07/11/08
We're working on the comments being off thing -- we noticed it too this morning. Karl had something like 173 comments on one blog.
As for New Comments, you'll have to live without it. We're disappointed too, although it was one of the trade-offs with the new software. Again, to all our beloved blog readers, please bare with us as we work out the kinks with this new blog program.
desmolicious says:
01:25 PM, 07/11/08
"please bare with us as we work out the kinks"
it is casual Friday, so what the heck... Oh, did you mean "bear with us"?
James Riswick says:
02:19 PM, 07/11/08
The following editor makes no claims as to proper spelling and/or grammar.
tinyelvis says:
05:30 PM, 07/12/08
The only caveat for the fiat is it is a 7 year-old design.
The Scion management team must have traded contact lenses the day they approved this, or is their CEO's last name Dali?