Interior Exterior
Q:
I've been searching for the overhead photo of a bunch of Elises in all the 2006 colors and have not been able to find the thread where it was posted.
The reason I was looking for that thread is that someone noticed that a couple of the cars had light color door panels with dark seats and commented on the new two-tone interior option that they were not aware of.
Well, I found out today what that is. The non-touring cars now have all cloth seats...no leather, which we knew. But the door panels on these cars, have silver panels where the cloth/leather panel is on the '05 models. I forgot to go back and look at it and see exactly what it was made of and how it looked up close and get a picture of it . Maybe I'll do that on the way home tonight.
A:
OK, I made the sacrifice and went back to get more information and pictures.
The silver piece is plastic and not a bad looking silver finish. It's what they should have done with the center console (no, they still didn't). The silver plastic piece takes the place of the cloth area on the '05 base interior cars. The piece that is leather on the '05 base interior, is now cloth on the base '06 interior. The silver plastic is fairly large and flat and I would be concerned about the acoustic effects that might result from that. It looked like it might be prone to drumming.
When I first heard that the '06 base interior was going to be all cloth, I sighed that I was glad I got the '05. Kind of like getting the base suspension while they still had two oil coolers. However, after looking at the '06 interior, I think I like it better. The mix of two different cloths and the leather on the '05 looks a little funny to me now after looking at the all cloth interior on the '06. The cloth is really darker than the picture looks because the flash lightened it up too much.
I was also concerned about the lack of a lumbar support on the '06. Although seat comfort is very subjective and dependent on the individual body, I found the '06 seats to be a perfect fit for me. I don't think I would need the lumbar support with this seat.
A:
Wow, that's pretty terrible. I couldhandle the seats though I prefer the '05 leather/cloth, but those door panels would be almost enough to push me to buy the touring pack. Actually, maybe that's their intention...