That dazzling picture above, seemingly inspired by a kickier version of a Lutheran Church basement rec room sofa upholstery, show the seat textiles used on a 1976 Fiat 128 3P “Berlinetta,” which was a two-door hatchback family/everyday use sort of car. As you can see, the upholstery is plaid, which was once fairly common in cars from all over the world. Today, it’s vanishingly rare, and I don’t know why, but I think it’s a bad move. Why not have more plaid seats?
Plaids, as you probably know, seem to be technically “tartans,” which refers to the pattern, as “plaid” seems to have originally referred to the physical textile itself. I mean, nobody today uses the words like that, but according to the Scottish Tartans Museum, which seems to be in my own state of North Carolina, that’s the deal. It even says North Carolina is the state with the highest concentration of Scottish people? I had no idea. It’s not like there’s haggis food trucks on every corner.
Plaid is fun! The nature of plaid means it can be adapted to be bright and bold, like our Fiat here, or more subtle, as one of the lone remaining new-car plaids you can get, on a Volkswagen Golf GTI, is:
Plaid is now pretty much only available on a few performance-focused cars that have some sort of history with plaid. Plaid as an option on mainstream cars, like a minivan or crossover, is just not a thing. I don’t get this. Plaids still show up in clothing, in furniture, and while, sure, it’s really easy to get painfully ’70s with it, you’d think some interesting plaid upholstery would be available on some mainstream cars, right?
Really, I’d make the same argument for almost any textured fabrics, like houndstooth or, hell, even crazy casino carpet patterns that look like the aftermath of a unicorn vomiting up a bunch of elves and clowns.
Also, that Fiat is s a great example of how to make three same-shaped light units into some really compelling taillights.
‘Plaid’, as in adding texture and coordinated color to an otherwise monotonous surface sounds great.
‘Plaid’ as in that Berlinetta? Eh . . . not so great.
I’m normally fine with Americanisms, ally of them make sense compared to the ‘proper’ English, but for some reason I hate plaid, IT’S TARTAN!!!
I don’t know why, I think it’s at least in part because I don’t know how to say it, is it Plad? or Played? It looks like it’s played, as like aid, braid, etc, but the few times I’ve heard it spoken it seems to be plad?
And why is it a joke that the fastest Teslas are Plaid? Is plaid seen the same as tartan in the UK, the preferred pattern for knee blankets for old giffers in the Honda Jazzes (Fits)?
Many, not ally!!
Watch the movie “Spaceballs”.
The Plaid joke comes from Mel Brooks’ Star Wars parody movie Spaceballs – but mocking the Star Trek practice of having stars stretch out into long white stripes when spaceships went to warp speed. In the movie, “plaid” is the speed setting above warp, and it causes the stars to create a tartan pattern effect when the ship accelerates
The Mexican blanket upholstery option was popular in the days of bench seats.
So many crimes against fashion and color were committed from 1964 to 1984. Oh the humanity.
GIS Geo Tracker seats for some awesome colorful patterns. Loved the 90’s color infatuation.
I had an 84 Jetta with a sort of tweed plaid seat fabric made of some sort of synthetic fibre, If I wore a wool suit the two rubbing against each other would allow me to send lightning bolts of static electricity off my fingertips
So now you got me thinking about what cars were ever built in Scotland. I’m surprised how short the list is. It seems the only real volume car was the Hilman Imp. There was a cool looking sportscar from AC that was assembled in Scotland. Other than that just a handful of weird little mini cars and something called a Albion Dogcart.
Alas, I bet none of them had tartan upholstery.
Ah yes, the plaid seats on the Tercel wagons were amazing. They need to bring those patterns back.
Those seats in the SR5 were super solid but great on a long trip or off road with the ‘holy shit’ grab handles.
JDM version had speakers built in for the body sonic music vibrations! Because JDM
I am seriously considering plaid insets on my Corvair seats. Yes, the 60s were a bit early for tartan but I like to troll the Porsche people at every opportunity.
I’m most upset that the Tesla “Plaid” models don’t come with plaid interiors.
“What Happened To Plaid”
It stayed in the past, where it belongs.
Even the GTI plaid has gotten a bit to tame for me. It just doesn’t have the pop or contrast of previous generations, so it manages to be kinda hard to see.
The MK8 in general is a total snoozefest. I’m sure some VW fanboy will be here any minute to say HEY YOU’RE WRONG I LOVE MINE but they really screwed the pooch on the redesign, between the odd styling choices, colors (the “cool” color is piss yellow in person), the tech dystopia interior, the downgraded interior which includes more tame plaid…the whole thing is just so mid and I traded in my 7.5 because I was bored with it after a couple months.
I love the GTI as a concept and an institution but I feel like it’s just one of those cars you outgrow. If you’re experience with sporty cars is limited you’ll drive it and be blown away but once you move on to more interesting stuff it just doesn’t hold up as well.
I agree with you on some level, but it’s a hot-hatch, not a sportscar. It walks the line between being handy for daily use for a family person, while also being fun to drive. So, yeah, obviously there’s going to be more fun cars out there, but they aren’t going to be as daily friendly.
“Lutheran Church basement” is the best descriptor of that interior I ever heard. As a Midwesterner, it’s very accurate and very real.
Leased a Mercury Zephyr in 1980. It had a brown plaid interior.
It, too, looked like rec room furniture.
That plaid would pair well with my shit-brown corduroy bell-bottoms. And The Bay City Rollers playing 24/7. Dante Alighieri couldn’t even figure what circle of hell that is.
I LOVED the plaid seats in my MK V Jetta GLI. The world needs more plaid
Look at this interior of a 1977 Dodge Monaco…
https://barnfinds.com/plaid-brougham-1977-dodge-monaco/
I’m going to say that plaid went the way of the Malaise Era and hopefully never to return 🙁
That is a fantabulously awesome interior.
The Herb Tarlek Jr. Edition.
Believe me your wife will never let you have it
Wow That Monaco really is an eyeful! But I do remember black houndstooth over white in a 1975 Cordoba I spotted in a wrecking yard about 25 years ago.
And Mercedes offered plaid upholstery in the Eurospec R107 SL roadsters. I saw one in green once, it was great.
I always thought VW missed out by not offering a tied dyed seat fabric option on the bug. And maybe a batik option for the convertible top.
I owned a MK7.5 and naturally I got it with the plaid seats. I’m a big fan of all things plaid and also wish it was more widely available in cars. Dodge put together a one off Challenger for one of the shows recently that had similar plaid to the one pictured here. It was absolutely amazing, so of course they never made it.
The Golf R can be spec’d with incredible blue plaid seats in Europe, but not here. Which sucks…an actual base trim on that car would be a game changer. If they offered one that’s similar to the GTI S for around 40k I’d go buy it tomorrow. I don’t need all the fancy near luxury features, 99 different drive modes, bigger screen, etc. I just want the powertrain. But VAG are some of the best in the business when it comes to forcing you into higher spec cars…oh you want the LED headlights? You’ll have to spend $3500 for the p r e m i u m p l u s package.
Porsche and Mercedes also have a history with plaid seats. The CLK GTR of all things had them to pay homage to the iconic 300 SL. They should bring it back. Let us spec plaid on AMGs you cowards. How cool would that be?!?
…all this being said, I do want to mention that keeping plaid seats clean is a nightmare. It’s a compromise I’m willing to make, but it should be noted. The driver’s side seat of my GTI looked pretty lousy after 2 years, and I keep my cars very clean. But who cares. PLAID!
The Mk. I VW Scirocco had some pretty bodacious plaid/tartan inserts for the seats, IIRC. Don’t know about later versions, but a couple of Mk. IIs I drove had plain ol’ leather seats. Boring (the seats, not the cars).
But my all-time favorite use of plaid/tartan (I couldn’t tell you the difference) was on the seat of the Mercedes-Benz W196 F-1 car. I got to sit in one one time at the M-B Museum, but was too busy imaging I was Fangio to pay much attention to the upholstery.
I always loved those plaid seats in the old VW Wolfsburg editions. That’s turtleneck with a sportcoat level class.
It seems like the decline of plaid accompanied the idea of affordable cars as fun & desirable in their own right. Plaid means fabric, and fabric has become the Trim That Shall Not Be Named.
Even the most basic transportation now has CarPlay, fake stitching on the dash, alloy wheels, and power seats. Everything has to be aspirational and filled with features. We lost the time when a cheap car tried to keep things fun with plaid seats, tape stripes, and cheeky color names like “Freudian Gilt” or “Thanks Vermillion.”
Maybe we could get more plaid if “cheap & cheerful” made a comeback.
I hate injection molded fake plastic stitching so much. Is it there just to shove it in the face of the car owner, every single day, that they’re too poor to afford real leather dashboards? thats the only function I can think of
The only problem I really have with the fake-stitch dash on my Honda Fit is that they spent what was a clearly limited soft-touch-material budget on it and I’d have much preferred it gone to the armrests molded into the (hard plastic) door panels.
Automakers have also cheapened out fabric seats considerably over the years, using the crummiest, scratchiest material this side of a Woolworths Halloween costume. I suspect it’s to push people into paying more for leather or vinyl (the latter now successfully rebranded as “vegan leather” so it can be up-charged), and also to constantly remind owners who opt for cloth of how much they cheaped out, so maybe they’ll pay to upgrade next time.
At one time, cloth was the more desirable choice – sit in an ’80s Lincoln or Cadillac with leather, then sit in another with the soft velour or heathercloth they used back then, and tell me which one seems more comfortable and luxurious
Not just at Lincoln or Caddy, the top trim level Chevys had really nice velour at a time when the Fourteenth Floor probably had an edict that Chevrolet Division could put leather only in Corvettes.
Maybe someday cloth will be rebranded as “organic” “sustainable” or “cruelty free” covering.
Fabric (good fabric) is such a far superior seating material than vinyl. Sure, decent vinyl is easy to clean and lasts forever, but fabric isn’t too hot or too cold, is breathable, has a bit of grip without being sticky, and looks so much better.
The only exception is if the vinyl is MB-Tex…
“Maybe we could get more plaid if “cheap & cheerful” made a comeback.”
I think this take is the best take. Instead of doing fun things to make a less expensive car fun, we’re now in the habit of lying to ourselves about what we drive with fake leather, fake stitching, crap touchscreens, and it’s honestly pretty sad. Plaid seats are both cheaper and a lot more fun
I was really hoping one of the final special edition Challengers/Chargers was going to be a Mod Top with a floral-print roof and seats.
There’s still time!
Currently driving a CX-3, black interior with some tasteful red accents. Now I want those GTI seats in it.
The Southern Appalachia region is jammed full of folks with Scots ancestry (see my avi). Western North Carolina, East Tennessee, and SW Virginia. These are the same people responsible for the Americana music which we all know and love. And yes, tartans are awsome and we need more plaid everywhere.
Yes, the Scots settlers were the pioneers, always wanting to move on to a new, more wild/rugged area when where they had been living got too developed. They were the ones that pushed into the Appalachian mountains in the 18th century, which was the frontier at the edge of the British settlements. Also meant that they were some of the most enthusiastic supporters of independence, since the British were trying to restrict further white settlement beyond the mountains in an effort to leave that area to the Native Americans (and thereby reduce military defense costs)
Yeah, the Union of Crowns in 1706 really screwed the Scots over, so a lot of them left. Thanks Queen Anne!
Many years ago I had a 86 Mercury Capri (last of the V8s) and I tried fruitlessly to get plaid inserts for the seat and door cards.
I went to about 7 different upholstery shops to get a quote. Responses ranged from uhh, no. We don’t do that here. To have you been drinking? To get out.
Now the one that told me to get out had a mid 70s Cadillac that the entire interior and half roof was being redone in neon alligator skin (think late 90s donk) so it wasn’t a question of taste.