What Car Has Your Favorite Dashboard?

Your car is your castle. Or your horse. Or...maybe it's more like...wait a minute. Okay. Much like a horse, this metaphor got away from me. What I'm trying to say is a car is like an extension of yourself, and its layout and design are important not just for function, but form. Why make something workable and ugly if you can make it both workable and beautiful? Take one of the most basic, functional parts of the car, the dashboard. Plenty of automakers have found a way to make their cockpit of dials and buttons shine, but which is your favorite? 

Obviously the most important part of a dash is communicating information clearly and quickly to the driver. This mission has become muddled in the last two decades with the rise of touchscreens and the demise of the real button. Displays in cars have gotten so convoluted that I added a new car testing metric to my repertoire–the time test. I count the seconds it takes for me to locate what time it is at a glance while on the road. 

Do you think it sounds too easy? Guess again. The Volvo EX30 I drove took a full ten seconds (it was in the corner of the center stack touchscreen.) It looks like the button is coming back, as it turns out function is still way, way more important than pretty glowing screens with tons of graphics and options to scroll through when you should be keeping your eyes on the road.

This opinion isn't going to shake the world from its foundations, I will admit, but it's constantly said because it's true: The Honda S2000 has a fantastic dash set up. I've always loved it. It feels so close to a video game read out, especially with the way the speed visually races up and down the speedometer. It's so simple and elegant while still being engaging. 

Of course, a zippy sports car from the early 2000s is a heartthrob to my rapidly aging millennial eyes,  but it's an easy answer. What I want to hear is cars that maybe aren't celebrated for the beauty of their dashboards as often as the S2000. This is Jalopnik, so fortunately the readers are all smarter and have better opinions than me (as I hear so often in the comments) so bring your best. I'll feature my favorites later this week in a rundown of the most beautiful dashes according to you.