Thing is, these cars still have nice interiors. I rode in a coworker's 06 Corolla when we went to lunch last week while my BRZ was still in the shop, and THAT was a basic, no-frills interior. The 86 twins interiors (from base model FR-S to BRZ Limited) were ALL orders of magnitude nicer and more "luxurious." Compare that to similarly priced (allowing for inflation) 90's cars, even the nicer family sedans, and these vehicles that we say have "eco-box interiors" (I don't say that, as I'm not that arrogant and condescending about our cars) have nothing of the sort.
Even compared to domestics, we've got nicer interiors in these vehicles. Obviously the nicer german cars are nicer inside. That's part of the german charm
. But you also have to then pay german sports car pricing too
.