Chevrolet Blames Stacked Silverado Grill On Focus Groups

When Chevrolet revealed the new 2020 Silverado HD in early December last year, almost everyone on the internet was shocked by its front end design. The tough look wasn’t warmly welcomed, to say the least, but it turns out people who are actually going to buy the new Heavy Duty truck find the double stacked headlight design attractive. How so? Chevy’s marketing managers know the answer.

More precisely, Hugh Milne, Silverado’s marketing manager, who spoke to Autoblog.com at the Chicago Auto Show earlier this month. When asked by our colleagues what the automaker thinks of the outcry about the Silverado HD’s design on the internet, he had a pretty solid argument:

countguy - 2/19/2019 2:48:20 PM

+4 Boost

Really? Trying to blame your failures on another group. Sounds vaguely familiar.

zlives - 2/20/2019 3:17:02 PM

+2 Boost

hers a mgmt group that could use the 10% mgmt reduction

PUGPROUD - 2/19/2019 2:57:29 PM

+5 Boost

When it all goes wrong blame it on your customers...a winning strategy for sure!

greGARYous1 - 2/19/2019 4:22:06 PM

+6 Boost

They blamed it on design-by-committee and blind focus groups... Same mgmt that approved the Aztek... Yup... They're still at GM.

Dexter1 - 2/19/2019 5:45:54 PM

+2 Boost

If this abortion was the winning design, what on earth could the ones rejected by the focus groups look like?

dumpsty - 2/20/2019 1:06:49 PM

+2 Boost

better-looking fascia designs...

malba2367 - 2/19/2019 6:23:45 PM

+4 Boost

I would love to see the other options they offered the focus group. Also, did they accidentally recruit Ford/Ram moles to be on their focus group?

CANADIANCOMMENTS - 2/19/2019 9:28:05 PM

+2 Boost

Talking car features were also rated highly in focus groups. Sometimes you need to rely on common sense. If you have none, ask your Mom.

MDarringer - 2/19/2019 10:01:06 PM

+3 Boost

Yeah because no one at GM had the brains to say "Damn! That's ugly!!!"

bmw7er - 2/19/2019 10:13:00 PM

+2 Boost

Do they realize that looking at this thing makes me not like Chevrolet? And has he seen the interior?

skytop - 2/20/2019 1:11:51 AM

+2 Boost

Hugh Milne is clueless. He does NOT have the qualifications necessary for the marketing manager job. Blaming the public is a poor explanation.
I am going to purchase a Ram 1500 since the Chevy Silverado is hideous on the exterior and has a low quality, unacceptable interior.

Ram wipes up the floor with Hugh Milne's sad excuse Silverado.

skytop - 2/20/2019 1:29:13 AM

0 Boost

So Hugh Milne is saying that customers who actually buy the Silverado have no sense of design and are dumb dolts that Chevy can manipulate.

I never thought of Chevy truck buyers as being devoid of style and taste as Hugh Milne claims they must be to stomach the lamentable appearance of the Silverado.

MDarringer - 2/20/2019 8:41:57 AM

+1 Boost

The entire styling division of GM cannot seem to get styling right. The ugly chrome bar across the face was one of the worst styling directions Chevy ever took and they just won't let it go. Now Chevy cars have a two-grille look but the two grilles do not relate to each other in any way. It's perplexing to me that GM cannot see that their styling is a major issue across the board.

dumpsty - 2/20/2019 1:17:28 PM

+2 Boost

there's probably hundreds of other design features on hundreds of other past vehicles that focus groups have been the blame for. head designers create the overall design, but then focus groups weigh-in on much of the details - fog lamps, chrome, rounded edges, ergonomics, etc

why do you think many of the latest vehicles from Toyota, Honda, Lexus dont have autoshow "concept" phases. they just show up as the "next" version of said vehicle - either take it or pass. when's the last time we saw an actual Camry or Accord or Civic or RX concept? We just get the memo about when they'll be released. they have focus groups giving them all the feedback they need.

MrEE - 2/20/2019 7:08:14 PM

+2 Boost

Point seems to look like commercial vehicle, which are rarely stylized. Ford's oversized headlight assembly is equally gaudy.

snowboard7 - 2/24/2019 11:05:51 PM

+1 Boost

Displacing the blame...

skytop - 3/21/2019 4:18:15 PM

+1 Boost

Bad News for Chevy about safety:

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety just completed the passenger-side small overlap front test for pickups sold in the U.S. The test replicates what happens when the front passenger corner of a truck strikes another vehicle or an object such as a tree or utility pole.