Plastic Fantastic: The Joy of Buttons
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll have heard all about—or experienced—carmakers’ rush toward touch-screen technology.
There has been much wailing about it in the motoring press, and frustration via social media. However, to give manufacturers some credit, the modern car is so full of technology that condensing it all into easy-to-reach touch points is near impossible. In one modern car I borrowed this year, finding the button to alter the mirrors meant issuing a plea for guidance on social media.
Corralling all the functions onto one tablet makes sense—at least in principle—because you can pack more functionality into a small space. Well, in principle.
Just like those non-removable bottle caps that suddenly appeared this year, the concept behind them made sense, but the execution lagged behind—which is usually why I end up arriving for meetings wearing more of my in-car beverage than I’ve imbibed. Much in the same way, the touch screen technology in its current form doesn’t offer the instant response you might get from, say, twisting a knob or pressing some buttons.
Not only can you do this without having to take your eyes off the road to search through menus at 70 mph, but there’s a much more pleasant tactile feeling. Aston Martin has recently upgraded its interior to look and feel like high-end audio equipment.
However, there’s a joy to 1980s buttons that we love. This was an era of All The Technology, All At Once, which meant buttons and sliders for all sorts of functions sprouted up all over the dashboard and binnacles like a rampaging fungus. Add in hard black plastic and it all seems very Tonka Truck–style cool now—another way to feel at one with your car, other than driving, braking, steering, and swapping ratios.
We’ve pulled out some pretty amazing driving environments of the past—by no means comprehensive—but this list will certainly have you scouting out dashboard delight in the old cars around you.
Porsche 928
For many years, the 911’s interior was probably the least exciting part of the car. Indeed, it was often a criticism that for all the money you’d waxed on a 911 Turbo, the ambience wasn’t much more swish than a Carrera—or worse.
The 928 was different. Not only does it feel like you’re ensconced in a spaceship, all swoopy lines and multi-colored finishes, but the steering column moved. Other than the automatic shifter—which looked and felt like a Starship Enterprise thrust lever—our favorite part of the interior has to be the big twistable knobs to active lamps and windshield wipers. They’re comedically outsized for their function, but with a satisfying thunk to each movement. You could spend all day in there without turning the engine on, just interacting with it all.
Toyota MR2 Mk1
Japanese manufacturers really got on board with binnacle-mounted functionality. The MR2’s dashboard is fairly simple—we love the green-tinged wording, for example. However, the enormous rotary switches, with little levers attached, that sprout from the binnacle surround rather than conventionally behind the steering wheel itself, just feel magnificent to use. Add in buttons for the de-mister and the washer jets and it all feels far more immediate for any MR2 maestro to use. With the comically large gearshift handle and handbrake (relative to the rest of the car), the MR2 is memorable even before you fire it up.
Nissan 300ZX (Z32)
Choosing just one car to demonstrate the Japanese appetite for binnacle-mounted button overload is hard—the Subaru XT offers up an intriguingly unconventional offset three-spoke steering wheel with more buttons on top, for example. However, we’ve gone for the Z32 300ZX because, as Nissan’s top-of-the-range two-door, it was festooned with all sorts of technology to tempt people out of their Porsches.
Of course, condensing all this into the dashboard was an almighty challenge—it even had a mini-LCD screen!—and you could spend a day trying to work out where everything was. What makes it even more special is that it still has stalks for the lamps and washers and all the functions on top. By rights this could all be annoying on the move but just look how cool it is, and how satisfying it must be when you finally stop setting off the foglight by mistake during quick cornering.
Alfa Romeo 164
For all of Alfa Romeo’s exterior flair, not all interiors to wear the hallowed badge are quite as stylish. The 164, however, was button overload, with a bonus LCD display. It was very much like driving around with a high-end stereo in the front of the car. One for the nostalgic person who spent many an evening staring at their dad’s graphic equalizer.
Renault 25
Marcello Gandini had a knack for bringing the majestic to the mundane—even his least exotic projects have the odd flash of magic to them. Now, the Renault 25 was anything but mundane from behind the wheel, even if the exterior wasn’t quite as exciting as other Renaults of the era. This luxurious cruiser was great for eating up autoroutes—but we would struggle not to get distracted by this magnificent interior from Gandini himself. It looks like it’s come straight from the Alien ship Nostromo, but with a center console from Giorgio Moroder’s living room. Even the door handles look like a haptic delight, and the steering wheel even gets in on the button action. A masterpiece.
Lancia Trevi
The Trevi is an unconventional-looking car, even from the outside. The true delight is when you get inside. CAR magazine memorably described it as having a “Swiss cheese Beta” dashboard. It was designed by Mario Bellini, who had made his name designing homewares and typewriters. He found himself with a very small space to get a lot of information, and his reasoning for the design was that it was purely structural.
He was pilloried at the time—it was roundly criticized for being ugly. Now though? It hangs like a magnificent piece of outsider art, especially when you take in the two-spoke steering wheel. It’s certainly a daring design—and wouldn’t you rather stare at this for a long journey, rather than a touch screen?
Not one of these interiors impress me at all. None offer a feeling of well being. They are all plastic environments that have little in the way of logical control placement But then, I am a pilot, and used to flying numerous aircraft, from Cherokees to Jets. In aircraft, there is an order to things. No hidden controls. Labels. No tricks.
I owned a 911 SC that I purchased new. The control layout was as though the car was invented prior to the discovery of electricity (Well, it was a 911). The sunroof button hidden under the instrument binnacle, and other hidden switches.
Of the cars that I really loved, the twin nacelles for the speedo and tach in my ’74 Alfa Spider was memorable, as was the tach in front of the driver in my Alfetta, with the comprehensive center mounted speedo/instrument display. The flat dashes, often painted, with instruments grouped and switches unlabeled was always a look I loved, although it was often a hit or miss if you were in a Lancia or Ferrari, with a row of identical knobs, unlabeled but looking stunning.
Maseratis always made me feel good to sit in, and I could find the important controls without having to visit the manual just to set the clock.
Beltleys are also good in this area (maybe the best), and the Rolls Royce Ghost was almost too simple, and supremely comfortable and free of complex interior switch tech. Very simple controls, very low stress.
Among the worse… My Mercedes W211 E500. While the primary controls are relatively easy to find, the rest of the “features” require a 400 page “owners manual”. Adjusting the clock or checking the oil means paging through several pages of screen menus to find the basic clock settings. Figure half an hour… to set the clock. Don’t get me started on the entry/exit seat protocols.
Ain’t no stinkin touch screen in a 88 vette
But plenty of buttons and gadgets. I love the digital dash in my ’89 Vette.
Probably many don’t remember some of the dashes in the 50,s but I alway thought the 1957 olds 98 was
Extremely attractive.
I do think that the tactile aspect of finding controls is highly underrated! Not only from a “satisfying” aspect, but from the safety aspect as well. Touch screens are all the rage now and probably easier and cheaper to manufacture, but I just don’t think that interior designers take the safety aspect into account enough.
The E31 BMW 850i is worth remembering as well. Its centre console carried a feast of buttons and knobs.
I am not sure you hammered us with enough foreign cars.
Slip behind the wheel of a LINCOLN MARK VIII at night and behold the greatest spectacle in illuminated buttons. An airplane cockpit worth of push buttons and soft green glow. I miss my 1995.
My favorite dashboard was the first gen XKE with all the toggle switches. Not as many buttons as other cars but per poetry of function.
Camaro Berlinetta from the mid 80’s. Digital dash… push button everything including the turn signals.. movable dash pods.. pedestal mounted cassette player..
Prediction- touch screens, being a distraction when you’re driving, are just a step along the way to all voice commands.
It used to be that all car radios were the same-volume knob on the left, tuner knob on the right. But I have driven cars that had a stereo that made no sense at all! I can’t find the volume, how to change stations, or even how to turn it off! Why? Is it a status symbol to have a stereo that has secret controls?
I used to work at a Pontiac/Buick/GMC dealerships years ago – yeah the SSEI Bonneville’s where overloaded with buttons, especially for the seats! I always likes the Reatta’s (not sure on spelling), these where cool little cars that have the CRT screen with a ton of buttons as well. Not sure why these were never that popular.
How in the name of our good lord was this list made, approved, editorially checked, and published without the inclusion of the pontiac grand prix STE or pontiac bonneville SSEi? Im now doubting everything I read at hagerty…
How about the 1976 Pontiac Grand Prix? The first time I saw the cockpit, I was amazed!
My wife’s newish Audi Q3 not only relegates an unconscionable number of functions to its touchscreen, it also suffers from early Alzheimer’s. Every inconvenient so often all the settings in memory including radio stations, addresses, phone numbers etc. simply vanish. Per Audi a software fix will be coming soon. And after three years of hearing about the forthcoming fix, it appears it always will be.
And speaking of buttons that I wish weren’t there or at least did something useful, low on the console her car has a button to change the drive mode. To switch from normal to sport, you push the button and then select which mode you want on the touchscreen. So you’re driving along, the road gets twisty, you think sport mode is just the thing, and Audi expects you to take your eyes off the road , somehow find and press the drive mode button, then start poking at the screen trying to hit the “dynamic” setting so it actually actualizes (which changes the indicator in front of you to “S” for Sport not “D” for Dynamic but whatever) all while twisting and turning and somehow managing not to drive off a cliff. It’s pretty much a two person operation to avoid that whole driving off a cliff thing. True, the change to Sport or Dynamic or Whatever is close to imperceptible but hey, I’m driving on a curvy mountain road and I should be in Sport or Dynamic or Whatever mode, right? I’d suggest that Audi let you change driving mode using the verbal command button on the steering wheel but given the car’s limited grasp of spoken English I assume that would simply result in the Q3 giving me directions to Davenport Road.