[Flybrian]

GM Design Center - Conceptual Interior Elements

In speaking of the future of interior design some months ago, General Motors stated that the black-tie radios seen in virtually every GM vehicle from the Aveo to the Lucerne were a "stepping stone" between the old, often clunky interior controls of the past and the fully-integrated designs coming in the near future. Today, GM released these computer-generated '2007 proposals' of radio/HVAC designs, instrument panels, and other interior design elements. Cars like the 2008 CTS are just the beginning of GM's future design language. And after seeing these, lets hope we caught a glimpse of it.

As a note, the captions below are part official captions and part our speculation.

2007 GM Design proposed Scroll Wheel Key Fob


2007 GM Design proposed Fullsize Truck/SUV MCE Center Stack


2007 GM Design proposed Fullsize Truck/SUV MCE Center Stack


2007 GM Design proposed BRX Center Stack


2007 GM Design proposed Chevy Reconfigurable Cluster


2007 GM Design proposed Pontiac Advanced Cluster


2007 GM Design proposed Cadillac Reconfigurable Cluster


Stalk Sketch


Ambient Lighting Theme Sketch

[PurdueGuy]

wow

[pow]

I see the iPhone has made it to car design..

[matt41]

wow

Wow is right........

[Northstar]

Those first two center stacks are clearly trucks/SUVs, it has 4wd or 2wd modes. But what? Colorado? Equinox?

The third center stack looks like a Buick. Much like the Chinese Park Ave and it has "stitching" on it. Needless to say, these look pretty good.

[Captainbooyah]

Those 'Reconfigurable Clusters' are a bit much for me, but other than that, I like what I see.

However, I'll be even happier to see them in some vehicles.

[VenSeattle]

The third center stack looks like a Buick. Much like the Chinese Park Ave and it has "stitching" on it. Needless to say, these look pretty good.

The third one says Cadillac BLS to me: retractable Navi above stack, symmetrical layout, satin finish surround (or chrome) air vents.

[bowtie_dude]

Just pipe dreams? Lets hope not.

[Sixty8panther]

As cool as this looks I'm going to be my usual self and remind everyone that NEWER =/= BETTER in every case.

I look at this and think, that's gorgeous, so progressive, until you get the blue screen of death.

[Sixty8panther]

Love the KNIGHT RIDER fob btw.

[jbartley]

iphone design? hardly, this stuff is light-years ahead of anything else. I love it. implement even 50% of this, and it will be amazing. the cadillac cluster is a little overdone and busy.

But the GM concept stacks, metal/plastic. plastic/wood. look really really good.

[bowtie_dude]

I'll believe the gauge cluster stuff when I see it.

[toesuf94]

*gasp* - Is this not a refreshing departure from EVERYTHING we have seen in the past 30-40 years at GM??? Not a BOX anywhere! Shapes! Color! Eye appeal! BEAUTY! Wow. Now please find a way to make these a reality and bring the inside of the car to speed!

[big blue]

Now that's the stuff I want to see out of GM. That Cadillac cluster is very futuristic looking, happy to have GM show off its design muscles. The truck center consoles are nice looking, but they should honestly be here sooner rather than later. The competition already has similar concepts being produced already or soon to be released. At least the bow-tie units don't look like cheap crap if they are surrounded by a nice interior, ie: Tahoe. I'm just glad the CTS isn't saddled with that unit.

[BuddyP]

Whooo! The future is now boys!

The cadillac instrament layout with the nav in corperated is very slick!

[bowtie_dude]

Now that's the stuff I want to see out of GM. That Cadillac cluster is very futuristic looking, happy to have GM show off its design muscles. The truck center consoles are nice looking, but they should honestly be here sooner rather than later. The competition already has similar concepts being produced already or soon to be released. At least the bow-tie units don't look like cheap crap if they are surrounded by a nice interior, ie: Tahoe. I'm just glad the CTS isn't saddled with that unit.

I wouldn't get too excited. The 2008 Malibu still has it, the 2009 Cobalt MCE will probably still have it, and we still have to look at it in the trucks and SUVs for at least 4 years.

[CSpec]

I would bet that's the interior of the Chevy Traverse. It looks very very similar to the Acadia interior.

[bowtie_dude]

Or maybe MCE Equinox?

[Cadillacfan]

Wow! Holy Crap. I can't believe how much effort GM is really putting into the interior design. We all heard that things were going to change, but not this drastically.


I'm going to refer to the photos in the first post and not post them because they're far to huge.

Photo #1) Cadillac key fob:
My opinion of the one on the left: Excellent design. High-Tech but realistic for GM. Cadillac should have something like this before BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, and Audi offer these on their new cars ( and you know that they're all probably already well into development with digital key-fobs like this)

Photo #2) Full Size Truck and SUV center stack:

Sure, it says Full Size, but if you look closely at the overall shape of it, you can see it's clearly a Lambda-based interior design.

As seen here in the first photo, the center stack for the Tahoe/Yukon is one solid shape from the top of the dash to the lower dash.




In this photo, you can see the similarities of the way the dash is shaped between this andthe design study.


Could GM be changing the overall interior design of the Full-sizers to match that of the Lambda interiors? Possibly. But I think we're looking at something we might see coming to the future from the Outlook or the Acadia.

A little drab looking and looks too similar to the interior of the new Focus and Escape and that prevents me from liking it as much.

Photo #3) The GM Proposed Center stack:

This is obviously a design study for the Malibu MCE(mid-cycle enhancement) or the Aura MCE, before the Vectra replacement comes to the US.

Reason: The shape of the dash is exactly the same.

My Opinion: Fixes the cheap look that the current radio/hvac design gives the Aura and new Malibu a good overall look.


Photo #4) Center stack:

Has strong design ties to the new CTS interior from the shape of the air vents to the design of the radio / hvac. There is a strong possibility we'll see this in the BRX and not the BLS as suggested. My reasoning behind this: It's overall appearance is a little more rugged then what you'd see in a sedan and it's positioned a bit higher then the CTS hinting that this belongs in a vehicle where the driver is sitting a little bit higher then in a sedan. I like it a lot.

Photo #5) Gauge cluster :

I have no clue about where this might go. Could end up in Buick, could end up in Chevrolets. I'm leaning a little more to the latter since it comes off as a little retro-ish in execution.

Photo #6) Gauge cluster 2 :

Pontiac anyone? Certainly looks like it could fit in the "excitement" division and the color scheme is similar.

Photo #7) Cadillac gauge cluster:

This has Cadillac ULS written all over it. GM better use it since digital speedometers are quickly becoming the new fad in luxury boats.. <sarcasm>Thanks Mercedes 7-class.</sarcasm>


All-in-all, a good show from GM. Hopefully, these are much more then concepts.

This post has been edited by Cadillacfan: 29 August 2007 - 08:36 PM