7 Classic Car Dashboards That Are Gone For Good

A car's interior design is one of the most fundamental elements that provides its personality. Think about it: when you're driving, what do you spend the vast majority of the time staring at besides the road? Creating an interior aesthetic as unique as possible helped automakers in differentiating the individual experience of the automobile. This gave customers something tangible to point to and say, "Wow, that's neat!" during the test drive.

Enter the art of the interior: the process of crafting an atmosphere that's instantly recognizable and unique to that car. Many vehicles feature a level of work that goes above and beyond in any number of ways. Take, for example, the Toyota 2000GT's hand-built dashboard by Yamaha using grand piano wood, or the Lexus IS/Toyota Altezza with its wristwatch-styled instrument cluster. Then you have confusing ergonomics that we'll never see again, such as the distinctive umbrella-handle shifter of the Citroën 2CV or the fighter cockpit-worthy steering wheel of the Maserati Boomerang concept car. In general, a lot of interiors designed in the last century were quite distinctive, for better or worse.

Modern automakers largely ditched these characteristics in favor of touchscreens and minimalist digital displays. These certainly have their place and for the most part represent upgrades over their vintage counterparts. Many current cars feature beautiful, well-made interiors, but with the modernization of the interior came the loss of many of these older, unique-looking creations. Due to practicality, changing sensibilities, and simple aesthetics, we'll likely never see these designs again. Let's have a look at some of these interesting dashboard layouts, from the gorgeous to the downright weird.

Best known for being the only production vehicle to utilize a three-rotor 20B powerplant, the fourth-generation Cosmo debuted as the flagship of Mazda's new luxury Eunos marque. Much like Toyota's Lexus division, Eunos catered to a more refined, upscale market, and the interior largely reflected this. The 1990 Cosmo utilized all the latest technology of the era, the capstone being a prominently-mounted touchscreen cathode-ray tube (CRT) television screen in the center console. This was the first ever GPS touchscreen mounted in a production vehicle. Other cars had navigation systems before, but they operated on different principles such as dead reckoning and map-based guidance.

Aside from this novel addition, the Cosmo's entire interior was exceptionally well-appointed, befitting one of Japan's most collectible classic sports cars. The Cosmo featured an LCD digital instrument cluster, a leather self-adjusting steering wheel with multi-function buttons, customizable wraparound gauge displays, and a built-in early infotainment suite with integrated climate control in the touchscreen. As far as pure retro-futurism goes, absolutely nothing in the early 1990s could touch a Eunos Cosmo. And while its design was unquestionably pioneering, the outdated technology used to make it happen will likely never be seen again in an automobile.

The first-generation Pontiac GTO is largely credited for kick-starting the muscle car era. Its early design perfectly captured what defines a muscle car: a lightweight body with a distinctive design language fitted with a powerful engine. By the mid-1960s, GM faced stiff competition in the segment. From the Mustang to the Charger, pony cars and muscle cars grew bolder and more distinctive with every passing year. Pontiac's cars were no exception, with bright colors, intimidating grilles, and more. But what really made the GTO distinct was an option that was first available in 1967 — the hood-mounted tachometer. 

The muscle car era was reaching its peak at that point, and Pontiac decided to take the tach and bolt it right to the hood. This bizarre decision actually predates a modern concept: it's a primitive, early version of a modern heads-up display. With its placement in the center of the driver's vision, the hood-mounted tach was a genuinely useful tool and seldom copied. Granted, it's debatable whether it's still a dashboard component if it's bolted to the exterior, but that's by the by. The hood-mounted tach is still absolutely cool regardless, and it's a shame it'll likely never return.

Digital instrumentation was all the rage in the 1980s. Many major manufacturers dabbled in it across the world, and the feature appeared in cars as varied as the C4 Corvette, Audi Quattro, and Z31 Nissan Fairlady / 300ZX. By the modular nature of the digital layout, each automaker had their own concept of "innovative" and "ergonomic," but arguably none pulled it off quite as cleanly as Nissan. It was officially called the "Optional Electronic Equipment Package," and checking off this box meant your 300ZX came with a fully-digital gauge cluster, 80-watt AM/FM stereo, and microprocessor-controlled air conditioning. It wasn't exactly the Z's most reliable component, but it was definitely one of the coolest.

Just what made this package so special in comparison to similar ones in cars like the Corvette, though? Put simply, it's the most quintessentially retro-1980s dashboard that's actually functional, easy to read, and pleasing to look at. It's not just the digital dash; the 300ZX's entire interior design philosophy is worth noting. To begin, the car greets you with a characteristic analog door chime that also activates at speeds over 100 km/h (62 mph) in some JDM Fairlady Zs. The package also included an analog solenoid-activated voice box which verbally explained when a door is ajar or the handbrake was on. The 300ZX even sported a digital compass and accelerometer with estimated MPG in the middle of the dash. This car's interior was as 1980s as a Walkman playing a new wave mixtape. While the technology is fascinating, it's also very much a product of its time.

There's something to be said about the feel of a positively-clicking switch. You can never truly replicate it by touching a finger to a screen, most of which lack satisfying mechanical feedback. Very few vehicles truly pulled off the heavy in-cockpit switch like classic 1960s Jaguars. The E-Type's dashboard evokes purposeful refinement at every turn, from the large prominent gauges to the early-model classic aluminum centerpiece insert. But this gorgeous dashboard isn't just pleasing to look at, it's also a joy to operate.

The original Series 1 E-Type featured a total of nine distinct elements on the central dashboard, all of which conform to the same design philosophy. These include six prominent switches controlling the car's accessories such as wipers, washer, lights, and ventilation. In between you have the keyed switch, a cigarette lighter, and a push-button starter. An assortment of gauges sit above this bank, using the rest of the available space.

And sure, many modern cars still feature tactile switches and analog gauges. But none truly replicate that feel one gets from operating one of these large, silver units. It doesn't feel like a switch belonging to a car, more like something you'd find in a piston-engine airliner from the early Cold War. There's clearly something mechanical on the other end — you don't press this switch in, you flip it up or down like an old light switch. That sort of feeling is something we'll likely never experience again in a modern car.

Speaking of classic Jaguars, let's look at the twin-turbo V6-powered XJ220. With a top speed of 217 miles per hour, this beast was the fastest production car in the world for over a year, and arguably Britain's first true hypercar. The XJ220 debuted as a concept and saw a limited production run of 282 units between 1992 and 1994. However, demand for supercars dried up during the early '90s recession, and Jaguar's decision to change from a V12 to a V6 didn't earn the company any new fans when the McLaren F1 was on the market. And while the McLaren is widely-known for its own bizarre interior with a central driving position, Jaguar's own hypercar featured its own unique quirk: gauges in the doors.

The XJ220's interior ventilation system eats up most of the real estate beside the steering wheel. The instrument cluster features prominent vital gauges in the style of the E-Type, with four smaller gauges sharing the real estate. And now for the main attraction: a second instrument binnacle mounted in the driver's door sporting a clock plus gauges for boost, gearbox temperature, and battery voltage. It's a bizarre-looking design, but it's undeniably functional. The gauges are placed well within the driver's cone of visibility — just not where people are used to seeing them. These days, hypercars are certainly well-known for their bombastic design language, and their interiors are no exception. Back then, however, things were noticeably more grounded, racing-inspired, and designed for function over form. This trend is likely never to return in modern hypercars.

We've looked at some exquisite dashboards to be sure. But nothing here quite matches the Citroën GSA's instrument cluster. You know when you go to a diner and order a "one of everything" dish? That's this car's dashboard — it incorporates so many eccentric design choices that it's tough to know where to begin. Designed by Michel Harmand in the 1970s, the GSA moved controls for things like lights and wipers from the steering column to two banks of switches just behind the wheel. By many accounts, this non-standard arrangement became quite intuitive to use after some time, and these oddball controls weren't the only strange features of the GSA's interior.

The central dash itself was made up of a primitive digital graphic interface. Front and center sat a stylized blueprint that lit up to display various error messages, like low fuel, battery, or oil. Below all that is by far the coolest feature: a rotating drum speedometer and tachometer. This pair of upright cylinders with numbers painted around them spun clockwise and served as your speed and rev indicators. There are so many of these nifty little features dotted around the exterior; at a glance, it might look hideous to some people and novel to others. But it absolutely grows on the driver, and we will likely never again see a speedometer/tachometer combination like this or barrel-shaped control stalks.

In short, the Dome Zero was a futuristic model that never quite made it to the finish line. While this car might look like something out of a Tron-inspired fever dream, its designer pushed for the production green light for years. Just like its exterior, the interior of the Dome Zero was distinctive and wholly unique.

The Zero underwent two major phases, each with its own interior layout. The concept 1978 P1 variant had its shifter mounted prominently in the driver's entryway and a boxy instrument cluster. The later pre-production P2 featured a center-mounted shift lever and an angular cluster with a more traditional button layout.Whether it's the Star Trek-like look of the whole package or the strange individual components, almost nothing about this interior looks orthodox by any standard. That said, the Dome Zero was quite well-appointed. It featured thick grey carpet, ergonomic suede seats, and an all-digital instrument panel.

If this vehicle were remade today, almost nothing on the interior would remain because most of this technology has long since been supplanted. It's precisely the use of this now-archaic technology that defined the Dome's character. This interior likely could only have ever existed in this specific timeframe when such features were still considered pioneering and cutting edge.