Interior Schminterior: Why Is The CTS So Nice When The Vette Disappoints?

The vette's interior smells of donky poo. The CTS-V is like sweet wine and roses.

I mean, seriously. Look at the picture above. Does it not look like the designers at PlaySkool designed that?

Not Play School silly ... Fisher Price!!

the vette's interior gets ripped on for being simple looking and plastic. However they do have carbon center consoles, leather wrapped dashes, and touch screen displays... if they had a revised steering wheel and shifter knob I'm sure the vast majority of opinions would change.

Hey Joe... love your thoughts on this board but your comment speaks to your mind for engineering. You can take all the best materials and components in the world but without a good designer with a vision for how they should be used, it's all for naught.

I feel Cadillac's resurgence in recent years has been because they embraced bold design choices and executed them with tight tolerances. There is no mistaking a new caddy: they are defined by their design language, from sports coupe to SUV. I could throw a corvette, volt and impala in the same room and the only thing tying them together might be that they all have the same door lock toggle and vent louvres (i.e. parts bin materials). There is no synergy to the brand.

What Chevy needs to do is hire some young ballsy lead designer and let him loose on the lineup. Have the same guy oversee all design and give him some freedom. Right now it seems as if there are a bunch of accountants heading up a team of designers borrowed from the federal government. It's sad.

There is a simple explanation for this. The current Corvette hasn't benefited from the design language that currently exists at GM because it was designed pretty much BEFORE the transition took place. I believe GM is still learning a lot and will likely do much better with it (including the poor seats) in the next generation. I really don't see what the bitching is about though. I mean, the car already outperforms pretty much EVERYTHING south of $100,000 (admit it or not, the GT-R gives it good competition for the money but is fragile and doesn't come with the manual transmission that some of us here profess to love so dearly).

You beat me to it tango..... to sum it all up the Vette is ancient, it was designed to be a budget power racer and the interior was sacrificed to help keep the low price, I promise from what i have seen at work many of you will be much happier with the next vette.

Honestly though compared to previous corvettes the current Vette is a huge leap forward at least the plastics arent shiny and hard all over the place like the last vettes. Realistically given the Vettes performance they would have to charge more to give it a "luxury car" interior that people here sound like they are expecting....,which is one of the things that keeps its price alot lower than the competition and offering performance that can rival cars 3 times its price. One has to think would a vette that starts at what well over $60,000 erode some of its value proposition this would place the top end models even further beyond $100,000. Oddly enough the vettes interior is substandard yet no one knocks the 911 which for years has just as much plastic all over the place and until recently just got a 2 tone desighn. The non leather wrapped 911s look cheap on the inside yet start at what $78,000 if you stuck that same interior in a vette people trash it for it being way to expensive to be covered with so much run of the mill plastic and all of the same color..lol it comes with no power seats and partial leather seats for Gods sake, yet know hear dares knock the 911 for its low cost interior at a high price I guess im just not drinking the Porsche water but I just say if you call out one sports car call out the other.......

The Vette is meant to be a drivers car, not a let's get comfy Porsche. Granted they are subpar to others in it's performance range. But at the price point, the owners don't really care. I wouldn't buy a Vette so people could sit in it and go "Oooh it's so nice and cozy". I'd buy it so they can look at me fly by and be taken on a seat of your pants ride for under 100k. I drove a convertible Vette in Vegas last year for a day and it was awesome. The power is amazing and being someone who doesn't get the pleasure everyday I can fully appreciate what that car embodies.

It's simple, in a vehicle that's meant to be driven hard; what's the big damn deal. It looks far better than that hideous crap interior in the z and gtr.

Not as simple as you think, tattedtwice. You cant simply excuse a car's interior just because it is meant to be a performance vehicle. While I understand that the Vette hasnt undergone a major refresh, it's interior is laughable. Yes, the car has amazing performance characteristics but what about the 90% of the time that owners arent slamming the pedal to the metal, or the off-chance that you want to take your date in the Vette---it should have a more impressive interior.

And by the way, have you been inside a GTR? It kills the Vette interior HANDS DOWN.

the irony of your statement is that your name is G35 lol a car that used silver paint instead of real aluminum, low grade leather, cheap vinyl on the doors and cheap plastics everywhere and was frequently knocked for its low interior quality...lol, hmmm whats your excuse there??? Besides I would love to see where you got the 90% figure from is that a personal test you conducted? Come back next week with LEGIT information and without the bias...talking quality g35??? please

I don't think you know what you are talking about. I just bought the new G37 and it has one of the best interiors in it's class. My wife has the C-Class and she gets in my car and is jealous. 7-inch color display. The leather is uber-soft compared to what is in the C and 3-series. There is the same soft leather over the center console, shifter, steering wheel and door panels; it's a pleasure to rest your arms on. Sure they have a few painted chrome plastic parts, but they honestly look quite nice. The blue backlighting is elegant, the tolerances are tight, and the overall feel of everything is rock solid. I think this and the Audi A4 have the two nicest interiors in their class and the G37 wins hands down if you are only comparing the base models.

Funny - the only thing uglier than the GTR's exterior is its interior (or maybe they're tied). The GTR's interior is a joke- a horrid mishmash of shapes,textures and homage to gamebois. At least the vette' interior is straighforward, if not slightly retro.

I bought the current gen Vette in 05 and sold it a couple years ago. Back then the interior was a big step up and about the same quality as a 996. But everyone has stepped up quality substantially since then but the Vette hasn't changed with exception of the upgraded leather option. The 997 interior now blows the Vette away and so does about everything else including M3 and CTS. Its way past time for a substantial upgrade.
IMO its the only thing left substandard in a great car.

The Vette's interior is horribly cheap. The Vette as a whole needs to be re-designed, how about making it an AWD in its next generation? Make it be a real sport car, not just a cheap sport car. Event the ZR1, which costs $100k has the same cheap interior.

And btw GM, this goes to all GM cars, when will they start having a push button start/stop in their cars? By the time they do that feature will be old school. I mean, simple things to make you competitive and up to date.

Try finding an AWD system that can handle 500+ pounds of torque with an engine mounted that far back...the only one that I can think of is the Bespoke Nissan GTR and that thing is expensive!

I looked at a new CTS Coupe yesterday. The interior is NOT first class. Stick-on piece over the cluster and the materials looked cheap to me. Uncomfortable seats which my wife complained about immediately. If you think this is a great interior, your taste is suspect. By the way, the Corvette interior is crude.

I told myself I wasnt going to ever say this again but you made me relapse: "Shut your lying *ss up".

The CTS' interior may not be the best in its class but it probably ranks near the top three in its segment and its going on four years old. Had you been talking about the first generation CTS, I would have to DEFINITELY agree with you. Please, leave biased opinions at the door and give credit where its due...

One word... Kentucky

Vette was done before CTS. Next Gen will be the tell.

Everyone please see Tango's comment above... (this discussion is pointless)

The Cadillac is going against the Axis powers and has to have a nicer interior...However the vette's demographic is going after 55 year old Painters and Pizza Parlor owners and burned out Americana muscle car posers and has a crappier interior than a GMC Sierra. When a mustang that costs half as much has a nicer interior that is a problem, when a redesigned 2011 Jeep wrangler has a nicer interior that is an even bigger problem!

GM is still a one-show pony in the CTS. By the time the "design language" flows down to other models, GM will be, once again, at least a generation behind.

Let's not only forget the current Vette is older than the new CTS so I would predict the next Vette to be upgraded heavily on the interior.

Is there a company in canada that can custom update my vetts interior????