The modern car interior can be tough to get right. New cars have to accommodate buttons and switches for climate control systems, audio systems, safety systems and the now-de rigeur infotainment screen. Modern interiors are comfortable, and they’re filled with all the tech and toys you’d ever want. On the flip side, the car interiors of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s were much simpler; with fewer features to worry about, a clean aesthetic was easier to achieve. Simple as they may be, our favorite interiors from those decades are full of mid-century style — designs that have become retro wonders. These five reign supreme.
C1 Chevrolet Corvette
The original Corvette may have been inspired by the Jaguar XK120, but its interior upheld the early 20th-century American tradition of plush, well-designed interiors. The seats are big and cushy, the steering wheel is massive but thin and the shapely dash is home to a cluster of chrome gauges and switches. Red was a common interior color option (for the Corvette’s first year it was the only option), and looks best when paired with white interior trim. But the C1’s finest design feature was how the two seats were seamlessly molded into the rear deck of the car.
Citroën DS
In his 1957 book Mythologies, Roland Barthes described the Citroën DS’s interior thusly: “The dashboard looks more like the working surface of a modern kitchen than the control room of a factory; the slim panes of matt [sic] fluted metal, the small levers topped by a white ball, the very simple dials, the very discreetness of the nickel-work, all this signifies a kind of control exercised over motion rather than performance.” Barthes’s thesis was that the DS’s design (both inside and out) represented driving joy that did not necessitate performance. Barnes didn’t even mention the two finer points of the DS’s interior: the overstuffed, couch-like seats and the slim, single-spoke steering wheel, an iconic and elegant detail from designer Flaminio Bertoni.
