I've been called back to a small focus group with next-gen Corvette interior designers tomorrow. Any comments you guys want me to convey to them?

 

no fake aluminum (plastic) or fake carbon fiber please...don't waste money on designing seats, just use recaros

 

Do you work in car design or are you a respected repeat Corvette buyer that they ask for your input? It is a pretty nice honor to be in the company of designers for such a iconic car as the corvette and to be able to give them input.

As far as input I would like in the interior I would suggest starting from scratch or if they are looking for inspiration look toward the Porsche 911, Ferrari 458, Aston Martin, or Porsche Panamera. I know due to price concerns and suppliers they can't match the quality and materials of those cars but they can take some inspiration and they definitely need to up the quality of materials. The interior should look nothing like any current GM interior although if it were similar to a Cadillac CTS that is not so bad. The Corvette definitely needs better more supportive seats, a big tach and speedometer, and a healthy dose of real aluminum trim would be nice. The interior needs to be something that can hold its own against the 911 and other European sports cars or at least come very close. The interior should no longer be something Corvette owners should be embarrassed of or something constantly criticized by the press.

 

1) We've been promised a better interior for three generations now... still lagging. Just spend the money on some Audis and copy their formula, including material sources.
2) Hide the dash air vents. They are an eye sore and shaped opposite of the dash curve/cut.
3) Give the front airdam and bumper some style! It's no sportier than a Cavalier.
4) Keep the price down. This is supposed to be a bang for the buck car.
5) Bring back the digital dash of 1991 (j/k).

 

Interior +3!!!

 

update the interior. center console looks really cheap and outdated. especially the plastic trim and the outdated navi+climate control

 

^^Hey, that's the exact same steering wheel in a $14,000 Cobalt!

 

Thanks for the replies. I want to give the designers as good of feedback as I can as a better Covette is win-win for everybody.

I really, really wish I could say more, but there's a confidentiality agreement in place for that first meeting. Seems they bought in a couple hundred people initially and now about 10 of us were asked to come back for further comment. Many of those people in the first group could not tell a Corvette from Godzilla. Seriously. Just a bunch of retirees with free time on their hands who wanted the participation money. I was likely the youngest one there and I took a pay cut to get in my two cents! I care about the Corvette quite a bit and I look forward to the next iteration.

I've made it my goal to stop a particular act of lunacy the designers have proposed.

 

They have designed a car with world class performance. You would assume that would be the hard part. The interior issue can not be unseen by them. I think they have destroyed the interior of the car to slash costs. They really need to get it together. In fact the first cat I looked at out of grad school was a 1 yr used C5 convertible vette. My wife and I sat in it and that was it. As soon as I saw the buttons on the dash that looked like my brother in laws SUV I was like hell no.

I am surprised that they even need a focus group for this issue considering it is soooooooo obvious. They need to stop acting like they cant hear their loyal customers and get it right. If Cadillac can do it with the CTS interior the vette guys can do the same

 

This act of lunacy would not be putting a v6 or a hybrid in the new Vette is it?

 

I still cant believe that the steering wheel in the vette is the same as the cobalt. GHETTTO!!! Its stuff like this that makes the euro guys laugh at the vette guys. The vette guys are usually under the impression that the euro guys are throwing their money in the trash. Obviously not.

If the ZR1 had an interior like a Porsche or Bimmer the car would sell far better. Its one thing to pay for performance but you are not going to use it all of the time. What you utilize every second of driving the car is the interior

 

I've served on focus groups myself (most notably for the Cadillac CTS), so I have some idea of what you'll be going through.


As far as the Corvette interior, I've driven 'Vettes, but never owned one. In general, I agree with many of the other comments here. Toss the stock seats and put in Recaros. Also toss some of the GM-bin plastic interior parts. But, unlike some posters, I don't see any problem with the steering wheel, even if it is the same one as in cheaper Chevys. It's a proper 3-spoke design properly sport-oriented, and generally comfortable to hold.

While you are there, see if you can find out when (or if) they are ever going to do the mid-engine Vette. Bob Lutz recently said that, had it not been for GM's bankrupcy, we would have seen it on the upcoming model. And a mid-engine dsign, of course, would probably affect the interior because, with that big V8 (or turbo V6) right back behind the driver's head, the interior will probably need some additional soundproofing.

 

The C7 needs better side bolstering in the seats


C7 discussion link:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c7-g...iscussion-142/

 

have the car be better proportioned with shorter front overhang and less bulky 'butt'.

 

Well, I went yesterday. They had some interesting people there with me. In particular, a guy who owned both a 911 GT3 RS and a Kia Soul. That has to be one of the weirdest car combos I've ever heard. They also had a SC430 owner there. I'm sorry, but the Lexus SC buyer is not in the same market as a Corvette buyer. Sure enough, when we were talking about how the engine/exhaust should sound, you heard her comment, "Excuse me, but why would you ever want to hear your engine?"

They were very strict on security. In fact, they never at any point conceded that we were looking at a prototype Corvette interior, but it was obvious.

While I can't comment on what I saw in the six hours I spent looking at car interiors, I think I can say I went home sad over how clueless/tacky/out-of-style/possibly insane GM designers are. I'm pretty sure I used the words "really dangerous" if not "crazy" to describe one of their proposals. I think I should have been more forceful though because I really do think they shouldn't do it. But I guess everyone wants to be polite and not insulting at one of these things.