Why Are So Many Car Interiors The Same...?

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Judge Elvis

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I recently was given a Citroen C1 as a courtesy car, and it was nice enough. A bit plasticky, but no more than you would expect. Anyhow, what I've noticed since then is that a lot of the small city cars all seem to have the same dash and layout. The Toyota Ayeo is identical to the C1 for instance, and I've just checked that online. They are completely the same.

So the question is, are the interiors of cars manufactured separately by someone else, or is there another reason why two car manufacturers would install exactly the same dashboard and cockpit design in their cars?
Edit - The Peugeot 107 is also basically identical
 
The Toyota Aygo, Peugeot 107 and Citroën C1 are all rebadged versions of the same car, all built in Kolin, Czech Republic.
There are some "cosmetic" differences. I'd imagine they haven't bothered much as far as the interior is concerned.
 
Car interiors aren't usually the same.

However, the Citroën C1, Peugeot 107 and Toyota Aygo are essentially the same car, built in the same factory, so they have the same interior.

See http://www.tpca.cz/en/
 
The example you've given is one where 3 manufacturers pooled development costs to produce a car more cheaply, so the only major difference is the badges on the outside of the car.
Cost is the major problem, it can cost millions just to design a dashboard, so why do something different if there's a perfectly good one that fits?
There is also an element of fashion. Motoring journos will criticise anything that looks dated & that can lose a manufacturer lots of sales, so they all follow the same style. That way, there's nothing different from the rest of the pack for the journos to criticise.
The third reason is safety. Company & hire markets make up the majority of sales, therefore the cars will first be driven by people who switch from one car to another. They haven't got time to work out where the different controls & switches are, they just have to get on & drive. Therefore for this reason too it makes sense to have a fairly standard layout.
Likewise with exterior colour. Silver is the least likely to look dirty even when it is, so various versions of silver & metallic looking colours always top the bestsellers.
Still, I've found no reason yet why all the seats are blue/grey. At least you can buy decent colour seat covers. Some even fit & look quite nice too!
 
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