Cars are essential for our family, personal, and workplace needs. We use cars for transportation, which is necessary for our day-to-day routines. However, most cars are luxurious. All cars consist of several exterior and interior components.
All these components perform a specific role in the proper functioning of the vehicle. Most of these components work together to achieve a common goal. Therefore, if any of them malfunctions, it’ll affect others.
This article will discuss the car interior parts you should know. And if you read this article to the end, you will learn the interior parts of a car and their functions.
What Is a Car Interior?
The car interior is the inner components inside a vehicle that drivers and passengers feel when they sit inside a car. They are major safety features. They are also offering incentives for the right decision. These components include the steering wheel, seats, carpets, radios, air vents, etc.
Car Interior Parts Name
- Seat fabric
- Sun visor
- Assists grip
- Luggage trim
- Rear shelf
- Toolbox
- Box for underfloor storage
- Tonneau cover
- Dashboard silencer
- Hardwood floor
- Floor carpet
- Door trim
- Headliner
- Door weatherstrip
- Door opening trim
- Scuff plate ornament
- Tibia pad
- Injection-molded baffle
- Steering wheel
- Paddle shifter
- Temperature gauge
- Fuel gauge
- Clutch pedal
- Brake pedal
- Gas pedal
- Parking or emergency brake
- Cup or beverage holder
- Glove compartment
- Turn Signal indicator
- Speedometer
- Airbag
- Gear selector
- Vehicle audio system
- Assist Grip
Car Interior Parts Name And Short Descriptions
Assist Grip
This is a handheld component mounted beside the does. Passengers hold it when entering or exiting the vehicle and when the car is jolting.
Injection-molded baffle
These are foam materials filling inside spaces like pillars. It halts noise from getting into the vehicle’s interiors and offers a quiet space.
Scuff Plate Ornaments
This is a plastic material that covers the steeled-step area. Various manufacturers have different scuff plate ornament designs. In some vehicles, it illuminates the vehicle’s name.
Door Weatherstrips
This is a safety component that automakers install on both sides of windows that prevents raindrops from entering inside the vehicle when the window is rolled down or up. It stops the door pane from vibrating when traveling.
Door Opening Trim
This component is found around the door areas. Its main purpose is to absorb shock and improve the appearance and sealing of the interior.
Door Trim
This interior vehicle component links to the door. It improves the vehicle’s interior aesthetic feeling. It is an essential component that makes the interior comfortable by providing multiple functions.
Hardwood Floor
This is traditional carpeting in a car created using hardwood. It evokes the home appearance in our cars.
Tibia Pad
The manufacturer placed the tibia pad between the floor mat and the vehicle floor. The polystyrene resin product absorbs the impacts on the legs of the driver and passengers. Some tibia pads in high-performance cars have noise-absorbing properties.
Floor Carpets
Like the foot mats in our homes, the floor carpets collect the dirt on our shoes for easier disposal. This prevents an unhygienic environment that may lead to a foul smell. With good floor carpets, you can prevent the accumulation of water and dirt in the vehicle interiors.
Floor carpets or mats are one of the custom car interior parts that can add a touch of beauty to the vehicle. This is one of the major car interior replacement components that most folks search in the market for custom beautification.
Headliner
A headliner, also known as car roof lining, is the cover on the car ceiling. In some newer vehicles, headliners have been modularised and feature many functions.
Dashboard Silencer
As the name suggests, a dashboard silencer is a noise-absorbing component that prevents vibrations. It is also a heat insulator. It is between the dashboard and the steel plate on the vehicle frame.
Toolbox
This differs from the normal mechanic toolbox that you can find in a garage. It is a molded plastic compartment in the luggage area that has a small space. In most vehicles, it contains the jack and wheel lug spanner.
Tonneau Cover
A tonneau cover will save you some bucks from theft, damaged/lost cargo, and poor gas mileage. It also protects the truck bed and prevents severe system damages that will need expensive repairs.
Rear Shelf
The rear shelf is the tray that sits between the rear window and the back seats. In most vehicles, automakers mount audio speakers on the rear shelf.
Sun Visor
As the name implies, this serves as a sun visor. However, some sun visors in newer vehicles have noise-absorbing properties. This helps to minimize or prevent outside noise from getting inside the car’s interior.
Seat Fabrics
Most seat fabrics in cars are nylons or polyester. Nylons are pretty inexpensive and look like fabrics. If you have kids or pets, you won’t have to dig a hole in your pocket to keep the nylon seat fabrics new at all times.
Luggage Trim
Luggage trim is an inexpensive cover for the luggage area. Designs vary from vehicle to vehicle. Some also add a magnificent look to the luggage area.
Gear Selector
The gear selector is known as a stick shift in manual transmissions. It is what the driver uses to engage the gears. In manual transmissions, the driver had to shift the gear lever into each gear.
Whereas, in automatic transmissions, the tranny unit and the PCM changes the gear range depending on how the driver accelerates or decelerates.
The gear lever connects to the transmission directly in manual cars. But automatic transmissions have a connecting rod that connects the gear selector to the transmission unit.
Poor window or door lock controls
A power window is an automatic control lock that powers all the windows. It is used to lock and unlock the doors. And it is on the driver’s door. This feature is available on newer cars.
Temperature Gauge
The temperature gauge works in harmony with your vehicle temp sensor to measure the temperature of the engine coolant and projects it on the dashboard. This prevents the engine from overheating.
Rear-view Mirror
The rearview mirror is a part of a car inside the cabin that is mounted on the windshield. It allows the driver to see behind him.
The rear mirrors have accompanying side mirrors that allow the driver to see the coming vehicles. Bicycles, motorcycles, and some trucks use only side mirrors.
Emergency or Parking Brakes
This is a brake lever mounted on the center console. Drivers use it to stop cars instantly during a collision.
It connects to the rear wheels via a brake cable. Motorists mostly use it when parking a vehicle. It prevents the car from moving forward or backward.
Air Vents
Newer cars have air conditioning systems. The function of this system is to send cool air into the cabin during hot weather conditions according to the driver’s requirement.
The HVAC system either continuously recirculates the air inside the cabin to cool it, or sends cooled ambient air into the cabin. Whichever way the AC system works, it sends the cooled air into the cabin through the air vents or air ducts.
Audio system
When naming parts of a car and describing their functions, you don’t have to exclude the audio system. It is one of the most important car parts of a car. It provides information and entertainment. The driver can play songs when cruising on the highway.
In the 1950s, vehicles had only AM radios. However, as the automotive industry evolves, manufacturers convert AM radio into record players, CD players, DVD players, 8-track cassette players, cassette players, and Blu-ray players. Modern car audio systems now feature navigational systems and smartphone controllers, such as Android and CarPlay Auto.
Glove or Storage Box
The glove box is a plastic compartment built on the passenger side dashboard. The manufacturers built it to enable the driver to store various things like photocopied car papers, owner’s booklet, and many other things.
This compartment is likely built for storing driving gloves. Therefore, it is called a glove box. It is located on the front passenger seat above the footwell.
Beverage or Cupholder
The beverage or cup holder serves as the table in restaurants when traveling. It is highly sustainable, durable, and easy to operate. It is used to store important things like food and beverages when driving.
Many trucks, ships, buses, cars, trains, and airplanes have cup holders. They are also available in some passenger buses.
Fuel Gauge
The fuel gauge is an essential fuel system component that measures the level of gas in the fuel tank and displays it on the instrument cluster.
The fuel gauge is a vital component for every driver. It keeps the driver updated so that he won’t run out of gas when driving.
Speedometer
The speedometer, also known as a speed meter, is an important component that projects the speed at which a vehicle travels on the dashboard. It is mounted on the vehicle dashboard.
The speed meter has several names on other vehicles and several means of detecting speed. It is called a pit log in boats and an airspeed indicator in airplanes.
Brake Pedal
Manufacturers place the brake pedal on the floor of the driver’s seat next to the gas pedal. It connects to the brakes in the wheels, and it’s used in controlling the brakes.
A driver will have to depress the brake pedal to slow down or stop a moving vehicle. Like the gas pedal, the driver applies the brake pedal with his right foot.
Gas Pedal
The gas pedal, also known as the accelerator pedal, is located close to the brake pedal beneath the dashboard on the driver’s side. It is used to feed gas to the engine to increase the speed of a car.
As the car is moving, slowly depress the gas pedal to increase the speed. Always maintain the speed you can control.
Clutch Pedal
This component is only seen in manual transmission cars. It is installed next to the brake pedal. As the driver depresses the clutch pedal, it disconnects the engine from the transmission, ending engine power transfer to the transmission.
As you remove your foot from it, it permits the power transfer to continue. A driver has to depress it when changing gears on manual transmissions.
Airbags
The airbag is one of the most important safety features in car interiors. It comprises bags that can inflate and deflate in case of collisions. The airbags have impact sensors, inflatable modules, airbag cushions, and flexible fabrics.
The main purpose of the airbag is to prevent the passenger and the driver from flipping out of the car in case of a collision. It also minimizes the injury the passengers or driver may sustain.
Steering Wheel
A steering wheel is a wheel on the driver’s seat that is used to control the movement of a vehicle. The steering wheel is also called the driving wheel or handheld wheel.
A steering wheel connects to the rack and pinion, which has a direct connection with the front wheels. It is used to steer the wheels. The driver controls the steering wheel manually.
A steering wheel can either be a mechanical power steering system or an electric power steering system.
The steering wheel contains a horn contact unit that makes a loud audible noise when pressed to notify other vehicles and pedestrians of an oncoming vehicle. It also has other features like volume buttons, cruise control buttons, and paddle shifters.
Paddle Shifters
Paddle shifters allow the driver to change gears while holding the steering wheels without having to shift the gear lever. They are the switches behind the steering wheels that make gear shifting safer and quicker. They are common in racing and high-performance cars.
FAQs
Q: What are all the interior parts of a car called?
Interior parts of a car have their individual names that separate one from the other. However, they’re called interior parts of a car when classifying them based on their locations in the car – interior and exterior.
Q: What is an interior panel in a car?
The Interior car panel is a covering for the door from the inside. They are much more than this – they cover electrical wiring and motors for door and window locks.
Some interior panels have noise-absorbing compounds. They reduce the outside noise from getting inside the vehicle.
Q: Can you replace the interior of a car?
If you have the cash, expertise, and time, you can upgrade all parts of your car interior. There are several ways to customize the dashboard, seats, carpets, and steering wheels.
Browse car interior parts for sale or car interior parts near me to get the best idea on what to upgrade.
Q: What is the interior top part of the car called?
The top part of the car interior is called the headliner. It covers the metal ceiling of a car with nice color design fabrics. The headliner hides electrical wiring on the ceiling, and electrical hardware components, and prevents heat from entering the cabin. It also reduces noise from getting into the vehicle.
Q: How much does it cost to change a car interior?
It all depends on what car interior you wish to change. If you decide to get a reupholster kit, it’ll cost around $800. This is just for the kit alone. It’ll cost an extra $500 to $750 to have an expert fix it. Custom upholstery will cost around $2,500 to change your car’s interior look.
Final Words
So, there are many car interior parts in a vehicle. Each of them serves its specific purpose and differing function; the most common include safety, design, or protective purposes.
It’s important to note that this is not an interior car parts list A-Z. It contains the basic ones. So don’t be surprised if we have not mentioned your favorite in this piece.
