[07CR]

I am always fascinated about how a car's interior would look at night. More the switches with backlit, tastefully done ambient lighting etc. makes a good factor in my buying decision. That is one of the main reasons I was considering Kia Carens recently even though I did not have a need of 6 seater MPV (Went with the Seltos GT line DCT instead).

Here I invite you to post your car's interior pics at night. This will also help other fellow buyers like me who appreciate the car's interior at night.

Sharing below few guidelines to provide best pics, however, if you do not have a pic in the mentioned guideline, you can post whichever pic you have which makes the interior look good!

1) Try to share atleast one pic from the 2nd row of the car, where in the your camera would be positioned at the middle position and would cover the both front seats and dashboard and all the possible switches around these areas. Since generally most of the ambient lighting/switches are reserved for forward two seats, make sure you try to share this pic.

2) Try to click a pic, wherein you don't have much incoming glare from opposite side.

3) Try to click the pics in a dimly lit/dark enviornment.

Here is mine-

Sonet HTX iMT Turbo P (July 2021)-




Ecosport S TDCI (June 2018)



Seltos GT Line DCT (Dec 2023)

[Small Bot]

Voted No.

I wouldn't exactly call it a key factor.

I like it when I'm able to reduce the brightness of the ICE and MID such that it doesn't hurt my eyes while driving in the night. The system does this automatically when I switch on automatic headlights. It senses absence of sunlight and becomes darker.

But other than that, it's more of layout of the buttons and stalks (are they reachable enough without stretching) and the comfort of seats that matter. Especially when I return home after a long day's work.

[fhdowntheline]

I voted No but the Verna's snazzy ambient lights are eye catching in the all black cabin. Whoever sat in the car asked me if this is a sports car or an EV . I would like to believe it has characteristics of both in some ways!

[headbanger]

I will feel good if the car has character in internal ambience but it can't be a purchase factor. At the very max, it can be an influence with other parameters being same in the options.

[IshaanIan]

This is something that I would not base my car buying decision on, but that does not go unnoticed from my end. I personally prefer interiors with yellow cabin lights and footwell lighting (none of that multi color ambient lighting nonsense), and the switches for me have to be either yellow, green, orange, or red. Fiats, VWs, Suzukis all are to my taste whereas Hyundais and unfortunately even some Hondas, annoy me with the ammount of blue backlighting.

[Osteon206]

Voted No.

I keep the ambient lights off most of the time during night driving. Also I keep the console brightness in the minimum position, and sometimes keep the infotainment screen also off - this is on known roads during night driving - I just like the cabin as dark as possible. Only within city limits ambient lights are left on - this is also just because it’s available.

[Shreyans_Jain]

Interior ambiance matters!

If the cabin looks premium, especially when lit up, it makes you feel good about your purchase. The modern and good looking cabin of new Nexon EV was one of the factors that made me pick it above the ZS EV base variant.

Another way of looking at this is that a Fortuner cabin looks worse than a Kodiaq cabin in daylight. But it looks absolutely cheap and poverty spec in comparison at night.

[bblost]

My 2023 Verna has a very beautiful console and ambient light setup. It was not even a factor in the purchasing decision.

However, I am very happy it is there.

[self_driven]

Voted no. If this was asked 10 years back, when we actually had options in terms of cabin ambiance, my answer would've been different.

Skoda's green backlight on the cluster and switches had great appeal back in the day. Volkswagen's red theme on the earlier Polos also deserves a mention. As much as I love the understated elegance of the Germans, the old Civic's futuristic cabin still remains among my favourites! Those were the times when every car had a distinct theme, from the Micra's all-things-round cabin to the super-cool cockpit of the Cruze, and not just flat displays spread across the dashboard.

It's good to see manufacturers ditching amber backlights in favour of white. But the trend of multiple displays with colourful graphics and animations is too much for my old-school self to accept. So there's literally not a single budget car that I can name with an interior that can influence buying decisions, especially at night when the floating displays become more of an annoyance than a delight.

[ShivrajG]

I believe these ambient lightings and LED's are more of gimmicks and don't consider these while purchasing a car. As a person who drives his cars and not used to be chauffeured around my liking is simple modern lights which light up necessary elements during your drive should do the trick. One of my friend had all the after market LED's installed like Diwali lights in his Tiguan, I call him a truck driver now jokes aside its my personal opinion that Ambient lightings distract me and it will not be a consideration during the purchase.

Thankfully XUV 700 provides only a small overhead light which i keep turned off.

[shancz]

Voted No as it does matter to me but wouldn't go with the intent of this thread.

This leads me to another question :
How many of us checked the internal illumination in dark and played around with with brightness settings before buying including ambient lighting ?
I guess not a lot of us and I think probably because most of us have become used to the presence of a bright screen around us. Also because I've seen some folks don't even know that such an option exists. I had someone complain about the "too bright" white backlighting on their Elite i20 during their highway drives especially on unlit roads. I lowered the brightness to minimum, they were unaware such an option existed.

Earlier Saab cars had a button on the dashboard of their cars which switched off all backlighting except the speedo to avoid distraction while driving in the night. Something which they carried over from their fighter planes
I prefer the amber/subtle lighting too and incidentally both vehicles I currently drive have amber backlighting. If I switch on the indicator on the Access the bright green instrument signal lamp blinks which in turn reflects off the helmet visor and I have to say is quite a distraction on an otherwise serene ride at night.
I can live with a different colour provided I get to dial down the brightness.

Here's a pic of our wagonR's console, at standstill(hence the bright seatbelt unfastened sign below the tachometer, attracting attention as it should), some might say as boring as the car

[AKTransAM]

I've always been a fan of the old school 80's digital dashboards, even though they can sometimes be a pain to maintain and fix. Not the best pic, but my 1988 Trans-Am GTA has what I always thought is the best designed digital dash. Trust me, looks way better than this pic, especially when driving in complete darkness.



Here's another one I dug up from another car I owned in the past (1984 Corvette). I changed the bulbs in this from the multicolor bulbs to blue LEDs which I thought were better. Pretty cool digital dash in this one as well.

[sumeethaldankar]

While how the car interior looks at night is not really a key factor in buying decisions I think having an attractive night illumination does helps in increasing the appeal of the car. I loved the way my now sold Civic interior looked at night. I always wish that TBHP official reviews should post a pic of how the car dashboard looks at night with all the buttons illuminated .

[NomadSK]

Voted - No

It has never influenced my decision in car buying. As a driver I would be least bothered how the interior of my car is lit up at night. In fact, on my long drives during completely dark nights, generally outside of city limits, I would prefer as little light in the cabin as possible, in my old Pajero/Montero, there's a knob to dim the dashboard/cluster lights, I switch off the lights for the music system too and also for the central display. Even the mobile navigation system goes in sleep mode, once I know the Route. So, the cabin is as dark as possible.

All these internal lights stress my eyes during night drives and creates a distraction if not dimmed and these will interfere with my field of vision. While the dashboard/interior lights are not that particularly bright, they cause the pupils to contract and let less light into eyes, hence reducing the ability to see the finer details in the darkness outside and would require more concentration on the roads which would lead to more tiredness.

However, though during the city night driving, it doesn’t bother me as the outside ambient lighting is enough to create a balance and negate the effects of the interior lighting.

Pro-Tip - I got from a South African Guy, who generally drives through the reserve parks/forests at night. According to him its MUST to keep the cabin lights switched on at nights while driving, in order for the deer/antelopes to jump across the roof. With only headlights on, they will try to cross the front light beam only and might crash with your windshield.

[UD17]

Voted No.

My night driving is so rare that I can even count the instances in finger. Even though i would have used my car during night (for some marriage functions or so), i don't remember, i have even paid attention to ambience lights or so.

For me engine, other mechanicals, reliability are more important than the ambience light.