Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Source

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

The Silverado has been panned for it's plastic interior. With what looks like the inclusion of SuperCruise, and better cluster and infotainment screens, hopefully these features see higher quality surrounding bezels.

coolsaber

Those screens galore need to get here asap. Rams eating their lunch with their techy interiors. Ford not really in their sights since even with the better interior the outgoing F150 was still #1.

mmarshall

I've never panned the Silverado's interior...I generally liked it, although I acknowledge that my view might have been in the minority here. And, although I'll withhold comment on this particular cluster until I see it, IMO, digital gauge-clusters are usually nothing but a quirk of a solution in search of a nonexistent problem. My Lacrosse, for example, has some analog-styled electronic gauges, but, in general, I'm happier with pure analogs.

ArmyofOne

GM interiors are getting better, but *gasp* Most FCA products are blowing them away...


I can't believe I just said that.

The bar was pretty low with GM interiors though. A 2005 Suburban has the same ****-show plastic garbage that a 1996 cavalier had, just in a different shape. GM has been getting steadily better since 2010, but they just aren't in the big leagues yet. The new Escalades are damn close but they still share too much interior with their GMC and Chevy cousins.

bagwell

SuperCruise - so it'll go Mach 1 without afterburner?? LOL, JK

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercruise

coolsaber

To each their own, but I see this moment in car clusters similar to the transition from the ole "steam gauges" to "glass cockpit" design of modern avionics.

Kira X

iTrader: (24)

I agree with you. They’ve gotten better over the years, but GM interiors were awful back in the day. I remember being so disappointed sitting inside a C5 Corvette and the last generation Trans Am back in the day. I couldn’t believe how ugly the interiors were in person. Those cars were some of my dream cars as a kid and I still want them despite that.

The new Escalade is a big jump in the right direction and I thought the C7/C8 Corvette interiors were solid. Hopefully they keep it up.

mmarshall

That was quite some time ago....in the 1990s and early 2000s. About 15 years ago, GM started a concerted effort to do better interiors and dump the dime-store plastic. The Tahoe, I believe, was the first beneficiary.

geko29

They certainly didn't move quickly on it then, as (for example) the $122k C6 ZR1 and the $17k Cobalt shared the same crappy steering wheel.

Back to this interior. WELL needed and overdue. The GM trucks haven't been competitive so far this generation, and upping the interior tech and finishes will go a long way towards correcting that. Then they just have to do something about that awful front end.

mmarshall

Well, I can't really argue with that one......they blew it on the 2020s.

bagwell

Lol, supposed to be a joke? if not - sorry you have no idea what you're talking about.

geko29

Not a joke, and it's not me who has no idea what he's talking about:

https://carbuzz.com/news/the-c6-corv...steering-wheel
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-pathetic.html
https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/2-0l...l-swap-256077/

https://www.vividracing.com/chevrole...152865765.html
(timecode may not work properly, advance to 2:50)

But if you want to be at least a little bit right, the C6 ZR1 comes with the leather-wrapped version of the wheel, which was indeed not standard equipment on the $17k base Cobalt. But it was available, and also standard on the $25k Cobalt SS. Just as bad.

Carmaker1

The GMT800 SUVs introduced in December 1999 (Texas only) and January 2000 based on the '99 pick-ups launched in September 1998, were utterly atrocious on the interior even if their cloth seats were some of the most comfortable in the business.

Shockingly enough, the predecessor GMT400's later interiors felt less cheap, despite being developed during the most economically turbulent eras in GM history of the early 90s.

1997 GM Press Photo - 1999 GMC Yukon Denali

Someone who used to work for GM said that since they're the most prized possession since they sell like wildfire spreads and the country's political elite have at times complained about interior quality, on fleet units.

The 2nd gen GMT800 Escalade & EXT sold from early 2001 to 2006, was an absolute joke of a luxury vehicle, sold based on celebrity appeal and buy 'Murican bronationalism of the 2000s.


It was plainly insulting to read on C5 introductions, the engineers & designers comment as if they had made the best interior in the world, based on some press announcements/interviews in 1996.

2002 GM Press Photo - 2003 50th Anniversary C5 Corvette

It was definitely an improvement over the 1983.5 C4 and C4.75 (1993-96), but hardly fantabulous. No, just no.

1982 GM Press Photo - 1984 MY C4 Corvette (launched March 1983)

1983.5 C4 Corvette Interior


1993 GM Press Photo - 1994 MY (C4 Mk III) Corvette, launched September 1993.

Same BS with C6 and even more boastful, which was unimpressive even next to a vinyl/leather-lined 2005 Mustang GT.

1993-97 Pontiac Trans Am still gives me a nightmare sitting inside of it and MY1998-02 updated models almost just the same, only curvier. Feels like sitting in a claustrophobic plastic ticking bomb, I can't wait to get out of. Don't even know how the HSer teens of the 90s accepted that. C5 was passable and C6 inoffensive, despite Bob Lutz trying to give it his magic touch.

1993MY Firebird Brochure (1992)

C7 interior is where the praise was deserved and I kick myself for proscrastinating and never building & buying a Z06 or ZR1 brand new. I don't really care for C8 personally, but greatly respect the effort undertaken. C7 was the first generation, that millennial car enthusiasts took notice of and bothered to buy new.




Anyway, GM was so afflicted by legacy costs of a massive staff, they lose sight of what's a good quality product all around in search of lowest cost to ensure a profitability target. And try to pull the wool over the buying public and media. No Corvette interior was worth a damn after 1972 C3 until C7. Even the 5th gen "2009" Camaro interior was more inspired than most Corvettes.

Very insightful comment, which many seem to miss. Under Bob Lutz, a lot of programs already in progress in mid-late 2001 upon his arrival, were left mostly unchanged due to "design freeze".

Many 2004-2005 GM models were affected in that sense. C6 Corvette if I recall was already finalized in 2001 and entered production in April 2004. He didn't have much say, but tried a bit.

The first vehicles fully improved, partly thanks to DMV politicos (LOL), was the GMT900 as you said.

The 2005 Escalade, was simply a 90s MTVized brotruck interior with maybe some wood trim. Overpriced nonsense, only there to keep GM afloat.

2000 GM Press Photo - 2002 Cadillac Escalade (GMT820), launched February 2001.


Ford's 2nd generation full-sizers ('03 Nav and Expedition) were leaps and bounds better on the interior, benefitting from the Ford PAG leadership of ex-BMW director Dr. Wolfgang Reitzle who cultivated modern BMW's strengths of the 1980s into early 2000s. Once he left though...(see 2007 Expy), it all went dead until 2017. Mulally didn't trust that market and couldn't be bothered until 2011ish to invest in the 2015 and 2018 BOF SUVs.


2001 Ford Premier Auto Group Press Photo - 2003 MY Lincoln Navigator (U222)

With GMT900, GM tried to do better under Bob Lutz heading R&D. It was in late 2002, that GM approved the final design of the 2007 model year SUVs, elevating them to flagship level in the GM hierarchy. Instead of just blowing up cheap Chevy crapbucket sedan interiors.


2005 GM Press Photo - 2007 MY Cadillac Escalade

I don't what anyone says, but the GMT900 interiors were a welcome vast improvement all around. Ford and the 2002 Ram forced them to get better for 2007. No longer something that had trailer park appeal/aspirations and forced upper trim level buyers to hold their noses.

The type of interiors that Americans blindly accept/accepted at times, says more than enough. Thankfully it is changing. Some of the dumbest excuses I've seen excusing crap interiors in some trucks (old and current GM Colorado) annoys the hell out of me, as well as over the top criticism against Ford on Raptor/F-150 and Ranger compared to trash like the Frontier today.

The original C6 didn't have that steering wheel in 2004 nor did Cobalt.

2003 GM Press Photo - 2005 Corvette Coupe

2005 Corvette Corvette Convertible (2004 Press Photo)

2003 GM Press Photo - 2005 Cobalt SS

2003 GM Press Photo - 2005 Cobalt LT Sedan

GM being GM at times, wanted to liven up other down market models and save costs, thought in 2004, "Hey, why not lower our costs on this 3-spoke for '06 Corvette and chuck it in as many sports cars and youth marketed cars as possible?


Newer Cobalt Steering Wheel (2007)

2005 Corvette had a more bespoke (ugly hairy chested dude magnet) steering wheel, which was gotten rid of in 2005 on 2006 models. Problem, is they spread it through on more downmarket cars globally by 2008.



Anyway, a steering wheel hardly means much of anything. On interiors as a whole, it generally started with anything signed off under Bob Lutz (after 2001), who helped transform Chrysler for the 1990s-early 2000s, during his 1986 to 1998 tenure. GM took 30 months to launch any final designs into the marketplace, so 2005 model = 2001-02 finishing date.

Look by comparison at what Chrysler interiors looked like in early 1995 (a 1991-92 design under Lee Iacocca+Lutz) compared to GM in 1996 (1993 design). Lutz tried honestly at GM, as he benchmarked Lexus for interior panel gaps when at Chrysler for 1995 vans.


1996 Chrysler Town & Country (launched May 1995)

1996 Chrysler Town & Country (launched May 1995)

1999 Oldsmobile Silhouette minivan (launched October 1996 as a 1997MY)


No matter how troubled the Cobalt was at the end, in 2004 it was leaps and bounds better than the agricultural Cavalier interiors.

2002 GM Press Photo - 2003 Chevy Cavalier "Sports Coupe"

2003 GM Press Photo - 2005 Cobalt SS Supercharged Coupe


I wanted to not believe it, but yes it's true. Also used by, Pontiac, Saturn and Opel from 2005-2006, as 2005 Corvette had a more bespoke steering wheel.

Knowing GM, they were not going to develop a bespoke steering wheel for one C6 halo trim level. Cost $$$, which wouldn't be made back on much fewer units like ZR-1.


C6 ZR-1

bagwell

sorry, my bad, I was thinking of the C7 not the C6 (owned an 06)