Morning guys and Merry Christmas!!!!

Wow, what a fun night we had last night, we had our whole family over at our place last night, so we didn't get to go to sleep till 3am. Got alot of nice goodies including a new Corvette racing t-shirt (you can never have enough vette shirts) a mini california duster for the interior and a chrome underhood plate with my baby's model year, which was a total surprise by my wife. Its good to have a wife who understands and encourages your addiction. Now, I just gotta convince her about those Vette Essential seats I'm itching to get. Hope everyone had a fun and safe christmas.

Now back to the article, I read this on autoweek's site and was very surprised that Bob Lutz almost planned to cancel the HUD on the C6 since its been so popular on the C5. I love my HUD, I couldn't live without it now. I barely ever look at the instrument cluster anymore, yet GM's been reluctant to add this feature to other models. In a way, its a good thing because that makes it a bit more exclusive to the vette but its still surprising to know that not everyone in GM thinks its a great feature. I sure as heck do!




Head-up display gets mixed response; option proving popular on Corvette
JAMES B. TREECE | Automotive News
Posted Date: 12/24/04
NAGAOKA, Japan -- Corvette buyers love the sports car's optional head-up display.

Customers took the option 95 percent of the time on the previous-generation Chevrolet C5 Corvette. That has dropped to 80 percent with the redesigned 2005 C6 Corvette, which went on sale in the United States in the fall. But it "is fully expected to be at 95 percent as we move further into production," says Chevrolet spokeswoman Wendy Clark.

Not everyone at General Motors is enthused about the technology. Vice Chairman Robert Lutz once wanted to cancel the Corvette's head-up display option as too pricey.

Lutz no longer wants to ax the option. But neither he nor other executives are beating a path to Nippon Seiki Co., the Japanese supplier of head-up displays, whose headquarters is in this northern resort town.

The tale of head-up displays shows that customer likes and dislikes are not the only reason a technology thrives or dies in the auto industry. Corporate encouragement or resistance can play an equally large role.

A head-up display projects key information such as vehicle speed or fuel use onto the windshield, where it appears to hover above the hood. Drivers can see this information without taking their eyes off the road.



Blocking the view

3 obstacles to head-up displays

1. Price
2. Units are large, requiring a prime location in instrument panel
3. To reserve space, engineers must commit to installing unit in beginning of vehicle's development



Not inexpensive

The technology is not cheap. On the 2005 Corvette, a head-up display is part of two option packages that cost $1,200 to $3,700 over the base model.

Nippon Seiki makes about half of the world's head-up displays. Besides the Corvette, the company supplies the Pontiac Grand Prix and Cadillac XLR. It soon will begin supplying units for the Cadillac STS.

Nippon Seiki has three European automaker contracts in the works, including a 2006 model to be built in China.

Siemens VDO Automotive Corp., Denso Corp. and Delphi Corp. also make head-up displays.

Mitsuhiro Kawamata, Nippon Seiki's managing director for engineering, says, "The first barrier to installing the system is the size. Price is second."

Early commitment

A head-up display is installed high inside the instrument panel near the windshield.

Vehicle engineers must commit prime space within the instrument panel to the display units early. If they don't, it is prohibitively expensive to carve space later.

Next, the supplier must work closely with the windshield supplier.

Yoshiaki Yazawa, production managing director at Nippon Seiki, says, "In theory, it is quite easy" to match the display unit to a windshield, but in practice, "windshields are never the same."

The smallest warp in the glass will produce a distortion of the information.

With so many hurdles, it helps if the product planner believes in the technology.

That is one reason GM has embraced head-up displays to the extent it has and Japanese carmakers haven't.

Nippon Seiki President Shoji Nagai says, "No Japanese company has a HUD champion, like Steven Stringfellow at GM."

Stringfellow is lead displays engineer at GM's Technical Center in Warren, Mich.

Stringfellow says at Japanese carmakers, "Their focus is cost and product development time." As a result, they lag in offering head-up displays.

Toyota Motor Corp. offers a head-up display supplied by Denso on only one model in Japan.

Denso is working on expanded systems. In November, it showed a prototype of a version at the Tokyo Motor Show that projects an image across the entire windshield. But the system is far too large to be commercially viable.

Despite the hurdles, Nagai believes the feature eventually will take off. Citing aging drivers in the United States, Europe and Japan, he says, "HUD is suitable for aged eyes."

Nagai has put his money behind that belief. Although Nippon Seiki's head-up display output has ranged between 5,000 and 10,000 units a month, the company has built plants capable of building 10 times that many.

Says Nagai: "Beyond a certain point, the market will explode."

 

one of my favorite features in the vette. whenever my friends sit in the driver seat and see the hud they get a kick out of it , i love it.well if they want to discontinue it im not going to mind so much because c5 owners will have them and i certainly do, so for all who dont get the hud its a bummer. best advice is stick with your c5

 

I can't imagine how many tickets I might have gotten without the hud.

When I drive my wifes STS, I feel lost having to look under the steering wheel to see what my speed is.



Jay

 

I love having my HUD it is so awesome.
When I drive my parents car I really miss the HUD

 

I love my HUD, I find my self missing it when I drive other cars.

 

I use the hud all the time and almost never look at the dash. I wish my other cars had it.

 

Hi Alex,
sounds like it was a great xmas for ya, the best part is spending it with the family.

I love my HUD like all of the previous posters but I am not suprised to hear the bean counters considered not offering this in the C6, anything that adds to the cost substantially of a car might be considered as something that might put the vehicle out of reach of many prospective buyers. Its funny that someone who probably does not drive a vette and maybe never has was the impetitus for this.
Happy holidays to all

 

 

I don't know how I ever got through a School Zone without a ticket without a HUD.

Things happen too fast in a Vette not to have a HUD. Who has time to look down at gages with this car's capability?

 

I also love my HUD. I miss it when I have to drive my other car. When I bought my car it was two years old. It was listed as one of the big options. I can remember telling the sales guy he could take it out for all I cared about it. Of course not ever having one I didn't know how useful it was. Glad I have it now.

 

I love the HUD, when I drive my wifes car I keep having to re-train myself to look at the speedo. I'm surprised at the lower sales figures on the GIZMO ladden C6. I wonder if how sales would be if the C6 didn't offer the NAV, XM and Homelink features?

Don't post this over in the C6 section, else you'll be branded a BASHER.

Tom

 

I love the HUD and wish other cars I drive had it. It takes some getting used to as I've looked down at the speedo for years, not up at the HUD.

 

HUD....

 

Lutz is worthless (GM should send him and his gawd awful GTO packing), glad he didn't get his way this time. I believe a HUD is well worth the price.

 

When i first got my car i hated the hud but after awhile i got use to it and now i love it not having to look down at the gauges all the time to see my speed.

 

 

 

What we have gauges, Oh my gosh.Where are they. lol Use hud an nothing else. I was waiting on my girlfriend the other day sitting in the car looking around an looked at the gauges, started laughing out loud. I forgot what they looked like.

 

That's unfair...we won't be able to judge his true effect at GM for a couple of years. Certainly I would put the Solstice on his positive side, but I think the real gain from him will be in the interiors across the lines...

...oh, by the way, I love my HUD, too!

 

Surprising it has taken me a little while to get used to my HUD. I would glance at it and then back at my gages. Now after 6 months, I rarely look at the dash and rely on the HUD. The only time I have issues with it is when I'm in bright sunlight, then it's a little hard to see.