Valerie: the seats in your car are trimmed in Alcantara and LEATHER, not vinyl. You might say that the leather is so good that it looks like vinyl.
Mercedes does the opposite: they use vinyl that is so good that they call it “Artico Leather.” It fools a lot of people.

The F-Types with the full leather interior have leather virtually everywhere, every part of the seats, headliner, dash, grab handle, armrests, door panel inserts…beautiful.

A further point: the quilted leather (which I cannot stand but others like) is on the most recent models only.

 

I have a '18 v6 base with a couple of mods and it's pretty special [as everybody who sees it agrees]. These are special cars without any of the extra stuff. Drive one and see for yourself.

Great cars are like great women...the adornments are not what it is.

 

I can totally see why you don't want a displacement over 2 litres in Belgium. You guys do have crazy taxes. You miss out on a large part of what the F-Type is all about in a car with the four banger but it's still a nice and fun car.

As said, the issue seems to be that you've been looking at poverty specced cars which the P300 ones unfortunately tend to be. I've seen quite a few P300s with black base interiors which definitely can look very bland and uninspiring especially in cars without the pano roof. The door button surrounds and door handles in later cars have a matte black plasticky surface which does look a bit crap, unless you have the interior black pack. The materials aside the interior build quality is overall very good. Only earlier cars had some cheap interior parts - buttons and plastic surfaces that got sticky over time - but none of the P300 cars suffer from that.

Don't know if you thought about it but the pano roof option also makes a huge difference to the interior feeling.

Try to check out a car with a properly specced up interior in a proper color and it's a different story. IMHO it doesn't get better than the interior I have in mine - the facelift performance seats, extended leather all in Sienna tan, even the centre tunnel in Sienna tan, the interior black pack, carbon centre console, flat bottomed steering wheel and the must have pano roof.

 

I have a 2018 F Type R that has been very reliable. I recently had an O2 sensor replaced under warranty but that's been it.

WRT the interior fit and finish issue, I don't get it. I've been around some comparable cars and the F Type is competitive. This isn't a humble brag, there are a BUNCH of posters on this board with garages full of exotics which I couldn't ever afford but....

My brother has had a 2023 Z4 with the bigger engine for about 6 months that I've driven several times. It's nice, but at most maybe 10% better on the inside (materials and fit and finish) than the Jaguar.

My wife has had a 2022 430i convertible for about a year and I'd rate the Jaguar as 10% better than it. It's not built as solidly (not just because it's a convertible) and the materials are good not great.

That brother also has a 2019 C53AMG which is actually head and shoulders above the other cars. Rock solid, whisper quiet, fantastic materials.

 

I have a 2016 R model and it has red seat belts.

 

Having just toured Castle Bromwich (where the car is made) I can attest to a very high quality build. There is quite a bit of automation (robots and the like). More important, however than that to assure quality are the large number of QC checks during construction of parts (upon receipt) and sections of assembly (where either precision robotic measurement devices do their analysis or trained humans carefully scrutinize). I have experienced where some of the parts are deficient (my 2016 has had the headliner replaced twice [the original factory unit suffered from bad glue as did the replacement, the plastic coolant pipe BS, and the short life of the polymer busings in the suspension struts). The build quality, however is, IMHO top notch.