LA 2016: Trend - fake plastic trees
Did we just slip back 15 years to obviously plastic deco materials?
Remember Radiohead’s song, ‘Fake Plastic Trees’? Well, fake plastic trees (i.e. wood) appear to be making a comeback in cars. There’s been a trend towards the use of much more natural, open-grain wood in the interiors of recent concept cars, and also in premium production vehicles, recently. But do American customers want this? Or did someone within Volkswagen just not get the memo about the modern approach to wood deco? Because we can’t remember the last time we saw such obviously ‘fake’ and just plain plastic-looking wood trim as in the Volkswagen Atlas [above]. It’s in stark contrast to the crisply-pressed panels of the exterior.
Do two cars make a trend? Probably not, but over at Honda, the new CR-V [above] was trying to outdo the VW in the fakey-wood stakes. It made us ask what was going on. Is this just a European-eyed perspective? Are these very American-focused vehicles just providing their target market with what they want? Or did we just slip back 15 years? Answers on a postcard (or, preferably, via social media) please.