Are Screens Making Our Cars Look Old?
Are Screens Making Our Cars Look Old?
Sit inside almost any new car today and there is one thing manufacturers want you to notice: the screen.
Whether it is one large display in the center of the dashboard or multiple screens stretching from one side of the cabin to the other, screens have become the centerpiece of the modern automotive interior. In some cars, nearly everything is controlled through them. Climate control, heated seats, drive modes, lighting, navigation, and basic vehicle settings have all slowly migrated behind a piece of glass.
There is no denying that the technology is impressive. Modern infotainment systems give us navigation, cameras, smartphone connectivity, entertainment, and access to more vehicle information than ever before. I use and appreciate many of those features just like everyone else.
What I question is why the entire interior needs to be designed around them.
Think about the best smartphone or television you could buy ten years ago. At the time, it looked cutting edge. Turn it on today and its age is immediately apparent. The resolution, graphics, speed, and interface all belong to another generation of technology. Screens simply do not age particularly well.
That is fine when we are talking about a phone that gets replaced every few years. A car is different. A quality automobile should be able to remain desirable for decades, especially when we are talking about enthusiast, luxury, and collector vehicles.
So why are we designing these long-lasting machines around one of the fastest-aging components inside them?
When the Interior Was the Experience
Look back at some of the interiors we still admire today. The Porsche 993 has its unmistakable five-gauge cluster. The BMW E38 7 Series combined plenty of technology for its time with a dashboard that was still centered around physical controls and materials. Older Jaguars used leather, wood, traditional instrumentation, and small details to create an environment that immediately felt special.
None of these interiors are timeless because they hide their age. You can tell what eras they came from. What makes them special is that their appeal does not depend on technology that was cutting edge when the cars were new.
The technology was incorporated into the design. It was not the design itself.
Automotive interiors have obviously changed dramatically over the years. What started as relatively simple cabins eventually gained radios, climate control, increasingly sophisticated instrumentation, navigation, digital displays, and the connected systems we have today (“Evolution of Car Interior”). That progress has made cars more comfortable, capable, and easier to live with.
Somewhere along the way, though, we went from adding technology to interiors to designing interiors around technology.
That distinction matters because when the screen becomes the dashboard, the screen also determines how the dashboard ages.
Bugatti Took a Different Approach
The Bugatti Tourbillon might be the best modern example of another way to do it.
Bugatti could have filled the Tourbillon with enormous displays. It is a multi-million-dollar hypercar with some of the most advanced engineering in the automotive world. A completely digital interior would not have surprised anyone.
Instead, Bugatti deliberately went in the opposite direction.
The Tourbillon uses an intricate mechanical instrument cluster developed with Swiss watchmakers. According to Bugatti, the cluster consists of more than 600 individual components, including titanium pieces and gemstones. There is still a digital display for functions that benefit from having one, but the screen remains hidden until the driver actually needs it (Bugatti Automobiles).
The reasoning behind that decision is more interesting than the cluster itself. Bugatti wanted an interior that would remain desirable decades from now. The company recognized that digital technology progresses so quickly that something impressive today can become one of the clearest indicators of a vehicle's age in the future.
That is why the comparison to mechanical watches works so well.
Nobody looks at a beautiful 50-year-old mechanical watch and complains that it cannot display a text message. Its value comes from something completely different. The movement, materials, engineering, and craftsmanship are what make it desirable.
There is something refreshing about applying that philosophy to a car.
The Tourbillon is not lacking technology. Far from it. Bugatti simply decided that technology did not need to visually dominate the interior.
Bentley May Have Found the Best Compromise
Bentley took a different approach with its Rotating Display, and I think it remains one of the smartest solutions to this problem.
The system gives the owner three choices. One side contains a 12.3-inch touchscreen with all of the modern functionality expected in a Bentley. Rotate the display and three analog gauges appear. Rotate it again and both disappear, leaving an uninterrupted section of handcrafted veneer across the dashboard (Bentley Motors).
I love that idea because nothing is really sacrificed.
If you want navigation, media, or vehicle information, the screen is right there. When you do not need it, it goes away. What remains is the part of the interior that should age well: the leather, wood, metal, gauges, stitching, and craftsmanship.
Bentley managed to include modern technology without allowing it to become the identity of the cabin.
That is how I would like to see more manufacturers approach screens. Technology should serve the interior, not become the interior.
When Did Screen Size Become Luxury?
There was a time when spending more money on a car meant getting noticeably better materials and craftsmanship. Better leather, real wood, metal switchgear, intricate gauges, thicker carpeting, better seats, and small details that reminded you where the additional money had gone every time you opened the door.
Today, one of the easiest ways to make an interior look “premium” seems to be adding another screen or making the existing one larger.
I am not against screens, navigation belongs on a screen. Backup and surround-view cameras need one. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are incredibly useful. There are simply too many functions in modern cars to give everything its own dedicated control.
My issue is when the screen becomes the main attraction.
If I am sitting in a $70,000, $100,000, or $150,000 vehicle, I want more than a large display to remind me where the money went. Give me better leather. Give me real metal and interesting materials. Give me gauges that are worth looking at and switches that actually feel good to use. Give me seats and stitching that someone clearly spent time thinking about.
Give me an interior that still feels expensive when every screen is turned off.
That is the part I think we are slowly losing.
There Is Also a Practical Side to It
Screens do not only age visually. As more vehicle functions become dependent on infotainment systems, they also introduce another layer of complexity.
J.D. Power's 2026 U.S. Initial Quality Study found that overall new-vehicle quality improved from 192 problems per 100 vehicles in 2025 to 175 in 2026. Nine of the ten categories measured improved. Infotainment was the exception. The study also found that among owners who reported a distraction-related problem, 46 percent identified the infotainment system or touchscreen as the source (J.D. Power).
Road & Track's coverage of the study also highlighted just how significant multimedia problems have become in modern vehicles. The publication reported that infotainment-related issues accounted for roughly a quarter of the problems recorded in the study and occupied the five most frequently reported problem areas (Smith).
That does not mean we should start ripping screens out of new cars. It does suggest that moving more and more basic functions into them is not necessarily progress.
There are certain things physical controls still do extremely well. A good knob is easy to find without taking your eyes off the road. A switch gives immediate feedback. Neither needs to load, update, or take you through three menus before doing what you asked.
And ten years from now, a beautifully made metal switch will work and look pretty much the same way it did when it was new.
What Do We Actually Want From a Great Interior?
This is not an argument for going backward. Modern cars are extraordinary, and I would not want to give up the cameras, connectivity, safety systems, navigation, and other technology we now take for granted.
I just do not think technology and craftsmanship have to compete with each other.
The best interiors should combine both.
Give us the screen when we need it, but do not make it the entire dashboard. Give us the latest technology, but surround it with materials that will still look good when that technology is outdated. Put some effort back into the gauges, controls, materials, and small details that make one manufacturer's interior feel completely different from another.
Bugatti understands that. Bentley understands it. Hopefully more manufacturers begin thinking the same way.
For most people, a vehicle is one of the largest purchases they will make. When you move into enthusiast, performance, luxury, and collector cars, the amount of money involved only gets more serious.
A car should not feel old before you have finished paying for it simply because the dashboard now has the graphics and responsiveness of an old tablet.
That is what I find so interesting about the Tourbillon. Bugatti was not only asking what would impress someone sitting in the car today. The company was thinking about what someone might feel when they open that same door decades from now.
More manufacturers should be asking that question.
We do not need every new interior to have a larger screen than the one that came before it. We need better materials, better craftsmanship, better controls, better proportions, and more character.
Give us all the technology a modern automobile needs. Just do not let that technology become the automobile.
Because five or ten years from now, today's massive touchscreen will show its age.
Great design does not have to.
Works Cited
Bentley Motors. “Flying Spur in Detail: The Bentley Rotating Display.” Bentley Media, 17 June 2020, www.bentleymedia.com/en/newsitem/1112-flying-spur-in-detail-the-bentley-rotating-display.
Bugatti Automobiles. “Exploring the Interior Concept of the Bugatti Tourbillon.” Bugatti Newsroom, newsroom.bugatti.com/en/press-releases/bugatti-tourbillon-interior.
“Evolution of Car Interior: From Basic to High-Tech.” Pedal Commander, pedalcommander.com/blogs/backyard/the-evolution-of-car-interior.
J.D. Power. “Connectivity Problems Hamper Major Improvements in New-Vehicle Quality, J.D. Power Finds.” J.D. Power, 25 June 2026, www.jdpower.com/business/press-releases/2026-us-initial-quality-study-pr.
Smith, Fred. “Complicated Infotainment Screens Are Involved in 25% of New Vehicle Problems, Study Suggests.” Road & Track, 15 Sept. 2026, www.roadandtrack.com/news/a73745551/complicated-screen-interfaces-25-percent-new-vehicle-problems-study/.
“The Most Timeless Car Interiors That Still Impress Today.” Yahoo Autos, autos.yahoo.com/articles/timeless-car-interiors-still-impress-140106117.html.
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