Oh, I wasn't blaming the engineer. I was just making fun of how silly it COULD sound to propose $3500 seats.

I realize the reality of the situation is someone at GM figured they could get away with selling $3500 seats, so they did. Its just like charging way too much for crappy navigation. Its so easy for the buyer to just roll that price into the loan without fretting over the value of each individual option.

As for the torque tube thing; I don't see how that would influence shoulder support.

Perhaps this will be addressed in the C7. They probably could make the center tunnel narrower and figure out a way to keep stiffness somewhere else.

 

With the C6, here is my understanding:

Due to the torque tube, standard Recaro seats do not optimally fit in the C6. In other words, to use Recaro seats, they would have to be designed specifically to fit in the C6. Obviously, this is not an option GM is currently offering.

The CTS-V does not have a torque tube, and thus has more space to eliminate this as being an issue. Apparently, standard Recaro seats fit, so they offer that as an option, albeit a very expensive option.

That said, there is no reason that GM cannot negotiate with Recaro to create a custom seat for the Corvette, or maybe GM can even make their own seat with suitable side support.

The issue they face is that their typical buyer is up in age, and may or may not have a significant middle section. They want the seats to fit all buyers, be it a 110 lb. lady or a 550 lb. fat dude. The fat dude will not fit in a Recaro. Nonetheless, if the side bolstered seat is just an option, well the fat dude can forego that option.

 

I see.

So it is not in the cards to offer a standard model of Recaro, they would have to make a custom one that fits Corvette. But that is where I think they should just have their regular seat supplier make a sport seat. There is simply nothing magical about designing a seat with side support. If we need to make it fit the fat guys, give them the fat option seat (current "no support" model). I am not making fun of fat guys, I used to be one. I just don't see omitting performance seats from all Corvettes as the solution to selling cars to large people.

I guess that is one of the many potential reasons I'm not making decisions for GM.

 

Expectations from some exotic Import owners will never change. A local group of Ferarri owners invited us Corvette owners for a meet and greet at Starbucks. Most of the Ferarri owners and some of the Porshe owners were respectful of the Corvette's reputation. However, there were a few Ferarri owners who were smug and were not up to date on the Corvette's capabilities. One particular Ferarri 328 owner claimed he did not understand why someone would pay over 100,00 grand for a Vette that did not handle like a Ferarri. The owner of the ZR1 quickly outlined the abilities of his ZR1 and the 328 owner basically said he was not aware of it and that shut him up.

On a side note when we went out to the parking lot and started looking at the cars, the owner of the 328 was asking another Ferarri owner about the problems he was having with his car. A 360 Modena would not start when we were ready to leave. Sometimes you have to throw in the towel and accept that sometimes opinions will never change. We just got in our plastic chevys and drove away. I enjoyed hanging out with them because I enjoy Ferarri, Porshe Caymans, Lambos, etc.

Chevy has a hard road to hoe if they want to change perseptions on the Corvette. They ahve been trying since the C4 came out and I wonder if it has been successful or not.

 

Corvette needs to be sold and serviced by Cadillac dealers as a seperate GM line, that would help image and customer satisfaction would go way up. I read somewhere that GM is benchmarking Audi for the C7 interior.

 

Well, compared to an excellent sport seat from an unnamed supplier...

GM could charge a lot more for a seat with the Recaro name on it.

Magazine hacks would be hesitant to step out and slam a seat with the Recaro name on it.

And early-adopters would be more willing to order a C7 with a Recaro seat in it, sight-unseen. (People believe that Recaro won't put their name on a crappy seat. We already know Corvette will.)

But I doubt GM will go the brand-name route.

I wonder... was the 2012 optional seat supposed to be the C7 seat?

 

If ford can put in fully electronically adjustable leather wrapped Recaro's in the gt500 as a $1500 option, then i see no reason the c7 cant follow...

Im already itching to trade my c6 in on a c7, i just hope they have recaros as an option and they don't charge 3x what they are actually worth.

 

And Cadillac charges more that twice that in their CTS-V. Where does the line stop? At $1,500, I would jump on that seat option. At $3.400, not so.

 

Does anyone remember the Sport Seat Option that was on the C4? I think when the C4 came out, there was nothing bad to say about the interior, except for people who didn't like Digital Display and even this was improved on the 85 and further upgraded on the 1990 Cars.

 

I remember. And I liked the interior on the 1990 and up (specifically the 1994 and up) C4s.
I had a '95 and I loved how those cars sort of encapsulated you when you sat in them.

 

Have any of gone to the Porsche or Ferrari sites and seen what the base interiors of the
cars is? Have you looked at the interior option prices?! Those of you that complain about plastic of the Vette interior and rave about Alcantara, do your know that Alcantara is plastic? Fuzzy plastic, but plastic none the less.

I would love to see a true perfomance seat. They could make it in fabric, or Alcantara or Kevlar. Maybe they would have to put a disclaimer on it stating it would only fit the 90% weight person of someone with 40 hips of less, whatever. Maybe they could list the seat option with a width rating like I have seen for another car.

Maybe we don't need so many adjustments. I had an Elise and the seat went forward and back, no rake, height, base tilt, oh.... and no power ( I know, the horror of it all) and it worked just fine for me and I was not a thin man that the time (call it 5'10" and 200 pounds and it was not muscle).

 

once again...if I could've ordered my Corvette with entirely manual seat adjustments I certainly would've. As it is my passenger seat is that way, light and simple.
I ordered my Camaro Z28 with not only manual seats but also manual windows and door locks (and no cruise control, and no rear window defogger etc) as well! And now my combination is actually quite rare among the 4th gen F-bodies.
Now I'm not saying that Corvettes could ever be optioned/equipped that way as they'd sell about 10 of them per year LOL but the likes of Porsche, BMW and even Ferrari (Stradale/Scuderia) have offered 'club sport' versions of their cars in the past and sold every single one of them (at a premium of course).
Sometimes less, is more.

 

I would like to see more sound deadening and thermal insulation.

For me, buttons to operate the doors are fine.

 

I see what your saying and I can kinda agree with it, but I think you should not be buying a vette then if your "fun" factor is your minimal standard. Because with 55kish you can buy an upcoming Camaro ZL1 which has plenty of fun to it. 3.9 0-60 and 12 flat 1/4 on stock tires. See what I'm saying?

The person buying a Z06 or a ZR1 knows exactly what they're wanting, world class performance, because if they wanted a eye candy(like someone else posted), they could of bought a base for 50k. I agree that you shouldn't need to compromise good interior w/ good performance, but let's not get carried away with trying to have a Ferrari interior.

With that said, someone else also mentioned that interiors are a HUGE deal now these days(and I totally agree), and they are evolving everyday and becoming fancier and fancier. Lexus's LSh(I think) is coming with 12inch screen in the front(industries biggest). I'm NOT saying lets compete with that BUT the current CTS interior debuted 08, when is this vette supposed to come out? 2015? So it'll be an interior that came out 7yrs ago? That isn't too brilliant ether IMO.

Personally I'd like to see the halo car of GM have an interior unique of it's own, not something shared with some other platform, but I don't think GM's budget allows them that, I might be doing doing too much wishful thinking But certainly sharing a 120k steering wheel with a cobalt is not acceptable in my eyes :/ but as of 2012(right now) am certainly satisfied with having a shared CTS-V interior, but 2015... 3yrs down the line with who knows what could be in the market then... the CTS-V might not seem too eye-catching by then. We should not be playing catch up games, that's all I'm saying

 

I very very very much agree with this. I feel like the higher percentage of corvette folks will be taking their cars out on a nice saturday cruise with their significant other next to them, than there are track day folks. I don't doubt that there plenty of track day folks are out there, but it's a much smaller percentage compared to the weekend cruisers

With that said, I don't think it'll be too hard for GM to find a happy-medium in there somewhere

 

This is what your wish would look like about your seat holding you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an51Do20X-Q

P.S. excuse my multiple posts, I have to learn to quote multiple people and post one lol

 

Hahaha this made lol "If your fat, you should get the "no support" model" haha lol

Kinda like if your fat you should not try on skinny-jeans lol I'm not making fun of fat-people(by no means I have a 6pack lol), it's just that you can't blame the purpose built car for having snug seats, but yea, there should be the "big-people friendly" aka "no support" option if needed

 

Well I've read the whole thread and there are some good points made. here's what I got out of the thread so far.

You want a C4 interior but can't get yourself to say anything good about a C4. For it's time the C4 interior was leaps and bounds ahead of the interior of the C5 or C6 in comparable timetables. In 90 when they redesigned the interior it was awesome and the whole car felt like you were in a fighter jet. Little things like accent lighting shining on the interior doors and down to the console made the interior feel like luxury sitting room but yet the leather was masculine and had the looks of toughness. The seats are exactly what many of you are saying you want in the new C7. To be honest I had to feel the door panels on my C5 to know they were leather as they look plastic to me.

It's also obvious some are more interested in luxury than performance and some are interested in performance but yet still want luxury. Really? Is a Nav unit that important and do we put that ahead of other things like value, and quality?

GM made the FRC in 99 to satisfy the true performance nut who didn't need or want all of the luxury items others do. They should learn from that undertaking and produce a C7 that considers that. But budget issues will most likely win the day because they don't want another production line as the payroll and legacy costs won't allow it, IMO. That's a conversation for PR&C.

But IMO you can make a nice interior without breaking the bank, styling is the most important aspect and the styling of the interior of the C5 is terrible, and the C6 isn't much better. I recall the first thing my nephew sai when he got in my C5, as he sat there with a dumb look on his face I asked what, he stated the interior looks like any GM family car. I can tell in the C6 they tried to mimic european styling as well, and well, I don't care for euro styling myself. Yeah I know to some people they believe it says "money" look at me. So go buy a euro car then.

I don't need Italian leather but I would like it to at least be presentable. And from what I've seen American manufacturers are trying to copy european designs because everyone seems to be stuck on Europe for whatever reason. hell we have a POTUS that wants us to be Europe. So what the hell?

Some of you say you want this and want that and compare the vette to the european cars and then bitch about it when the mags compare them to Europe? What's up with that?

As long as the C7 is styled correctly, it performs well, it's affordable to those who have a job, and THE QUALITY IS BETTER THAN PAST VETTES. I don't care. But they need to focus on quality over bling if they want the vette to be the vette it deserves to be.

 

 

I fully agree. The CTS is an example of a GM car with what I think is a very nice interior at a moderate price.

I don't think the CTS interior copies European design. It is unique. Personally, I like it better than the interiors of BMWs and Porches I have sat in (last BMW was a 2011 3 series and the last Porsche was a 2007 Porche 911), but it is not quite on par with the current Jaguar interiors, though the CTS is quite a bit less expensive than the Jag.

The pics of the new ATS interior look reminiscent of the CTS, but with some nice upgrades. If the C7 is that nice, I think it will be a winner in the eyes of the consumer.

Even if consumers like it, the authors in the various car magazines still will find reason to complain just because it is not from a European manufacturer. On that note, twice I have test driven BMWs, and both times found the interior sub-par to another equivalently priced vehicle - in 2003 I purchased a G35 over the BMW, at least in part because IMO the 2003 G35 had a nicer interior, and in 2008 I reached the same conclusion with the purchase of my wife's CTS. Of course, we looked at other features, but when you read the magazine reviews, they seem to rave about BMW interiors. I don't get it.