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I’ve been seeing stick-on wood for as long as I can remember, but this is a first: plastiwood around the Lexus logo on the steering wheel. I like wood trim in cars when it’s actually wood. At the point where you know it’s just a junky sticker, what’s the appeal of this crap?
28 Comments on “Stick-On Wood Trim Is Tacky...”
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I rarely like wood trim even when it’s real, including the big daddies of wood trim such as Bentley and RR.
Would you really forgive the general ugliness of that design if the inset were the real deal?
As manufacturers give more and more measurements to aftermarket companies, wood kit makers are able to produce kits without any regard for taste. If you MUST use a wood kit, it is OK not to use every part. My experience is the stuff that goes around the radio facia interferes with the buttons and knobs.
ALSO, the stuff really looks awful in three years when it starts to discolor and wear differently from the OEM stuff…
Just what everyone needs, more plastic. Ugh!
Kind of funny to see this title right on top of the “Latest news” secion :)
Wood looks horrible when it’s lining gray plastic. Black, cream or brown (especially leather) can work sometimes, but gray is plain UGLY.
I guess people use it for the same reason they use carbon-fiber trim… It’s damn ugly, but because it’s so friggin expensive pepople want to show it to the world that they aren’t the upper-class loosers they really are. Double looser points if it’s fake carbon-fiber.
I’ll admit it:
I bought a Chrysler 300 and it came with the stick on wood kit. I never removed it cause I thought it didn’t look bad.
My friend bought a Chrysler 300 before me and when he saw my stickers he really liked em and wanted them too.
To be perfectly honest, on those pre 2004 cars like the Ford expedition and Chryslers and the old cadillacs, its either stickers or you get to stare at miles of gray plastic and polyeurethane.
Plastic interiors are dissapearing though. Frankly, I don’t see the logic of wood in cars at all. Wood is always cold and they have to make steering wheel heaters in luxury cars to keep in warm in winter.
I was amaized to see how Audi built its S8 and Mercedes built its Benz s63AMG without it. That’s how cars should be. Plastic, metal and synthetic materials mimicking both plastic and wood.
The 1969 Ford Country Squire station wagon with its mighty 390 had the exquisite wood-like shelf paper slathered on the exterior sides, port and starboard, and some sort of faux wood plastic trim surrounding the shelf paper rising upwards at least 1/8th inch from the flat plane of the vertical surface.
We were surely the envy of the neighborhood.
Back when America was great and the world trembled before our sheer awesomeness.
Those were definitely Wonder Years.
Done well, wood trim, real wood in a car is quite nice in my opinion.
Fake wood, depends. I mean if the car is plastic, you can get the plastic fake wood finish or more plastic. In my opinion some of it looks good enough it certainly beats more plastic. It isn’t as good as real wood. But mimics the pleasing (to me at least) texture, and complexity of wood. Certainly a step up from more pebble textured plastic in maybe two shades of gray or something.
So, I don’t think it tacky. It is an improvement.
In the Lexus pictures, while very shiny and plasticky, it would be an improvement over more gray plastic. However in this case, the person who designed where to put it, and where to leave it off did a poor job. Even real wood in this pattern wouldn’t be nice in my opinion.
The base of the console would have been okay, all the rest was a bad idea. Most especially that on the logo in the center of the steering wheel. The stainless dead pedals are rather obnoxious too in this car. A real wood gear shift knob would have been a good idea.
I dunno, I can’t really tell between fake and real wood. I don’t like it when it’s ridiculous as the inset on the steering wheel in that picture, but I have to say the plastiwood, real or fake, looks great when done tastefully on luxury cars. Personally, I think the wood steering wheel on my Lexus ES300 is quite baller(it looks like: http://pics.hoobly.com/full/5MI9N13UIAE52JFMRO.jpg). Too bad it’s cold as a witch’s teat in the mornings.
The problem with wood is: splinters and car crashes do not mix. So for automotive purposes, wood is usually ground up, the resulting powder is compressed and mixed with polymers, coloring is added, and a protective laquer is painted on top. The result is a nasty, cold, hard material that you’d never use in your home. So why accept it in your car?
It looks tacky because it is fake. Really, we may be talking about wood, but that stuff is not wood. Unless you are talking about the really expensive, Rolls-level stuff. (OK, then there is the Mercedes kind of wood: a thin veneer best measured in micrometers behind a plastic covering. It may look better but the effect is the same.)
Some makers have managed to give wood the semblence of pores, so that at least it feels warm. Renault is good at this, as is Volvo. I can accept that stuff, just as I can accept hair transplants: it may be fake, but at least it makes an honorable effort. Plastiwood on the other hand is like a guy with a cheap wig, or with a combover.
Why is this Lexus idling at 1,100?
Remember H. L. Mencken’s quote – “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.”
The worst thing you can do to a car, especially a luxury car, is to put one of these cheap ass awful looking kits in it. Especially when the car already comes with some of the real stuff, because the plastic crap never matches right and it just looks horrible.
The worst one I’ve ever seen was in a previous generation A6. That car had best, most luxurious interior in its class, (I know, I’ve got one) and it was absolutely ruined by completely unmatched plastic crap on every switch and vent. They didn’t go so far as to put plastic wood between the rings on the steering wheel, but it still made me want to vomit. It was listed for sale – at about $4K less than other non mutilated A6s. Do this to your car, and kiss your resale goodbye.
Yeah, but I think you miss the wood for the trees.
Criticising the Lexus for the tackiness of it’s fake wood is like critising Liberace for his tasteless cuff-links.
Lexus’ are tacky all over – they are and always have been over the top composite characatures of the established prestige brands designed to instill farmiliarity in those who would otherwise buy German (or English).
I think this interior looks beautiful. I just asked some of my girls, and they all agree with the exception of Brandi and Bubbles who thought the “L” on the steering wheel could use some gold plating.
When the airbag goes off, the Lexus logo on the steering wheel will turn into a woody bullet and brain the driver.
I think that the Lexus is idling at 1100 because is it worked up about the BMW it is facing. Maybe it has a woody.
The wood on the console is factory, and it therefore real (no Lexus has ever used plastic wood). Everything else in this picture is probably aftermarket stick on plastic.
The wood used by Lexus (and most other car makers) is actually a wood veneer. These are thin sheets of wood (not much thicker than construction paper) with a heavy lacquer coating. This allows the “wood” to conform to all the elaborate curves and shape, and also eliminates any splintering in a crash.
Some of these (better) kits come with the option of real wood veneers. Click on “options” “material type”
http://www.wooddashexperts.com/customer/product.php?productid=61731&cat=18488&page=1
thalter: Right on!
The problem with these kits is that the makers of them never seem to know when enough is enough. Putting thin wood veneers on the flat surfaces of a console is nice, particularly if it’s applied before the vehicle is assembled. Unfortunately, when this thick, overly-plasticized stuff is stuck to the air vent, window switch and door handle bezels, it not only creates cheap-looking sharp edges, it also looks like crap.
One thing that amuses me about wood and leather used in the interior of today’s vehicles is that both materials are so processed that they are no more “genuine” than Di-Noc and vinyl. In fact, I’d prefer some of the high-quality vinyls available today over the cheap leather that I see in a lot of vehicles. Quite honestly, most buyers probably wouldn’t know the difference.
Have any of these companies gotten around to aping the Infiniti G’s rice paper stamped on aluminum look yet?
IS drivers have no taste. lol.
Lexus’ are tacky all over – they are and always have been over the top composite characatures of the established prestige brands designed to instill farmiliarity in those who would otherwise buy German (or English
You forgot to add “that don’t break down, leak fluid and/or randomly blink various lights after the first fifty miles” after “characatures”
People who rag on Lexus (or Infiniti, or Acura) for having no “soul” or “heritage” conveniently forget that said “heritage” was mainly leaking out of various gaskets, or spent waiting for parts to arrive, or just plain spent. If the choice is soulless but working (Lexus) versus soulful but glitch-ridden (Jaguar, Benz), most people will take the former.
Of course, stick-on or plastic wood trim is cheesy, regardless of what it’s stuck to. Maybe, just maybe, it works in the PT Cruiser, and even that’s pushing it.
We got a used 06 Lexus ES350 in last week. When I sat in it, I said “Ugh, who put this shitty stick on wood all over the dash.” Then I went to the autoshow and realized it was factory wood. Horrible.
Don’t sport non-factory wood… Period. I’ve noticed car dealers (Acura and Lincoln in particular) love slathering cars in the crap so that they can tack on extra $$$. Who knew people would pay extra to make their cars ugly?
What’s the appeal of having to pay $20,000 more for nothing but a Camry with more gadgets to break and a ride not unlike that of a Buick?
“Sheer awesomeness”…that is such a great and true description of that car, and also its sister, the Colony Park, which was even sheerer and awesomer!!!!!!!!
What’s the appeal of having to pay $20,000 more for nothing but a Camry with more gadgets to break and a ride not unlike that of a Buick?
If you mean the ES, that’s a good question. It really is just a Camry XXXLE. It’s also very smooth, very quiet and very well-trimmed. Most people who own them like them a lot.
The same applies to the RX (Highlander Ultra-Super-Limited with one row less seats), GX (4Runner Ultra-Super-Limited, sort of) and LX (Land Cruiser, although the price difference is not huge). Again, all very, very nice, but the fundamental bones are the same.
Of course, you could say the same about most Audis, but people don’t. Somehow, Audi avoids getting tarred with making what are, essentially, tarted up Passats at double-sticker. Must be that “heritage” thing again.
The IS, GS and LS, though, have nothing to do with a commodity American-market Toyota.
Of course, you could say the same about most Audis, but people don’t. Somehow, Audi avoids getting tarred with making what are, essentially, tarted up Passats at double-sticker. Must be that “heritage” thing again.
Wrong. This misconception just keeps on living, but the truth is that 90% of Audi’s have literally nothing to do with VW. The A3 and the TT are Golf based, and the Q7 is derived from Toureg/Cayenne. That’s it. A4, A5, A6, A8, and R8 are all unique Audi platforms. Audi’s 3.2, 3.0T, 4.2, and 5.2 engines are their own. Audi does not tart up VWs.