Porsche has a customization program called “Porsche Exclusive,” which is “exclusive” in the same way that buying a normal Porsche is “exclusive.” Basically, you just pay a bunch of money, and you’re admitted to the club automatically – unlike some automakers. To show it off, they mostly put a bunch of wood on a convertible.
Technically, the car is a Porsche 911 Carrera S Cabriolet with some additional exterior bits, and technically, the “wood” is a rich mahogany with many brown leather-bound seats, but just look at it. And now, just look at a 2002 Lexus SC430, which also dabbled in copious amounts of dead trees and pulled the look off better with a high-contrast aesthetic:
Now I know that wood has its place in lightweight sports cars – the Porsche Carrera GT paid homage to that, with its balsa wood shifter – but this is just, well, a bit ugly, if we’re being honest. Wood styling has moved beyond high-gloss medium brown chestnut or walnut or maple or whatever. It doesn’t necessarily look cheap anymore, like the sort of finishing you’d never actually have on any home furnishings.
Good wood nowadays looks like this, in cars like the Volvo XC90:
Mmmm, yeah. That’s great wood. Stylish, classy, full of fiber.
Contact the author at ballaban@jalopnik.com.
Public PGP key
PGP fingerprint: 0D03 F37B 4C96 021E 4292 7B12 E080 0D0B 5968 F14E