Where's that new steering wheel at now?

[dutchnrican]

Originally Posted by snizzle

I have visions of the Mustang guys lurking "look at these guys, we don't even have to post anymore!"

^ lol.

[RScamaro30]

Originally Posted by xXSilencerXx

New one is ugly, old one is fine. If you can't grip it, or find it uncomfortable you'll never be pleased with anything.

simply stated. took 5 pages to get somewhere :bangdesk:

[Number 3]

Originally Posted by Caspers2SSRS

We're not talking every company.....nor do you represent them. I can't find any evidence that supports your postiion that "The old wheel is a piece of crap". In fact that position defies logic. The available time frame ........measured from the point from which the car was introduced to the retail market place and that very short point in time of the changes on the 12' model year reintroduction. We're only looking a two years...................

It you guys honestly believe that anyone would believe GM had enough time to collect and collate mounds of extraordinary evidence of steering wheel complaints from a near infant aged market purchasing a particular model car, your assumptions that it's believable are blindly formulated.

If not, please explain how long it takes from the time an idea "of change for the better" .........becomes a thought, to the point it is validated ( Using the science of function and safety"), through the entire production process (engineering, retooling, material acquatition, and machining) and finally is made available to the consumer in the products being sold...................surely not over night, and two model years of automobiles introduction, is nearly overnight.

It appears all the bantering offered by those speaking for GM's reasoning in open forum here is..........The original steering wheel was deemed a failure by GM long before it ever hit dealers inventories. The planning process for the replacement wheel, began...........long before the first original one was ever installed in a Camaro on the assembly line........ It was neccessary to use all the old ones up ( Those aforementioned Crappy One's) that had been contracted for from the supplier as well those in the production process and GM on hand inventory. GM hadn't any problem admittingly using inferior products and releasing them into the marketplace........

Finally....................whether or not the new wheel is supposively more comfortable and user friendly, I hope GM canned everyone on the original steering wheel design team, as mentioned by someone official earlier........." form over function", failed. More importantly yesterday failures......are tommorrows consumers costs.

GM actually has huge amounts of data immediately after cars get into production. It starts with GM employees driving the CTF cars, and gets right to valid survey data as soon as cars are purchased by customers. Combine that with the comments from evaluators at Consumer Reports, enthusiast magazines with trusted evaluators to JD Power survey data.

Ok now for general comments:

I've posted many times, we tend to cocoon ourselves here in Camaro5 and forget there are many more customers that simply bought Camaros because they were a cool car. They had no loyalty to any particular brand. They are simply judging the car and how it is operated to their own experiences. They couldn't care less about the effort to provide a unique, old school, deep dish looking steering wheel or even that it said Camaro on it.

The data didn't show that the original wheel "sucked". It simply showed that it was one of the major complaints by a significant number of customers. Not all customers, but enough for GM to realize a change needed to be made. So the quickest change was to go with a wheel that GM knew had good customer feedback and had little investment in the armature and switches.

Also, not mentioned much, was simply the size of the wheel. The magazine guys hammered the original wheel simply for it's diameter, not just the ergonomics of the steering wheel controls.

So you guys have to stop acting like there is a right or wrong answer. GM just responded quickly to a major customer complaint. Even if you weren't one of the complainers, you were out numbered.

And btw, there were a lot of people that had a say so in that wheel. Bob Lutz still worked at GM at the time and I'm pretty sure even he had a say so in the wheel.

There are a lot of times that form wins out over function. This was one of those examples where some people inside GM thought that the investment and piece cost for the unique wheel was worth the overall theme of the car being "retro".

JMO

[fbodfather]

Originally Posted by Number 3

GM actually has huge amounts of data immediately after cars get into production. It starts with GM employees driving the CTF cars, and gets right to valid survey data as soon as cars are purchased by customers. Combine that with the comments from evaluators at Consumer Reports, enthusiast magazines with trusted evaluators to JD Power survey data.

Ok now for general comments:

I've posted many times, we tend to cocoon ourselves here in Camaro5 and forget there are many more customers that simply bought Camaros because they were a cool car. They had no loyalty to any particular brand. They are simply judging the car and how it is operated to their own experiences. They couldn't care less about the effort to provide a unique, old school, deep dish looking steering wheel or even that it said Camaro on it.

The data didn't show that the original wheel "sucked". It simply showed that it was one of the major complaints by a significant number of customers. Not all customers, but enough for GM to realize a change needed to be made. So the quickest change was to go with a wheel that GM knew had good customer feedback and had little investment in the armature and switches.

Also, not mentioned much, was simply the size of the wheel. The magazine guys hammered the original wheel simply for it's diameter, not just the ergonomics of the steering wheel controls.

So you guys have to stop acting like there is a right or wrong answer. GM just responded quickly to a major customer complaint. Even if you weren't one of the complainers, you were out numbered.

And btw, there were a lot of people that had a say so in that wheel. Bob Lutz still worked at GM at the time and I'm pretty sure even he had a say so in the wheel.

There are a lot of times that form wins out over function. This was one of those examples where some people inside GM thought that the investment and piece cost for the unique wheel was worth the overall theme of the car being "retro".

JMO

And THIS is why more people need to listen to Number3.........absolutely correct.

[JoshBobGuptaMarley]

[mhood]

Originally Posted by Number 3

So you guys have to stop acting like there is a right or wrong answer. GM just responded quickly to a major customer complaint. Even if you weren't one of the complainers, you were out numbered.

...like the cup holders and the visors?

[mhood]

Originally Posted by JoshBobGuptaMarley

I'll answer those.


1.If you have a manual sports car there is no need for drinks. The cup holders are just for looks.

2.Try getting a tint shop to put a front strip on the windshield. It will go lower than the visor and solve you problem. Make sure you get 15% or 5% to really block those rays.

Your welcome

Solution to poorly designed cup holders = don't use them.

Solution to poorly designed visors = tint the windshield.

[Three of Swords]

The real answer for the 'worthless' sun visors:

Originally Posted by fbodfather

This issue comes up with regularity.

It has to do with Head Impact standards.

Nothing we'd like better than to be able to use one of the larger "corporate" sunvisors with lights in them....(and they would cost us less!...)

However, putting the larger ones in caused problems with head impact - (crash testing) - and thus we developed a smaller sunvisor.

Source: http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showth...t=84441&page=4

[greenrail]

Everyone is an expert on design and engineering. WOW!

GM responded to the criticism of the original steering wheel design. They changed it.

I for one have no issues with the original design. It set the car apart from everything else out there. Hate to sound harsh, but, dayum, can't please everyone all the time.

As an old college buddy of mine used to say: "KWITCHYOURBITCHIN'!"

Enjoy the car......

[Supercamaro64]

New steering wheel is nothing special to me. the old one looked better if you ask me. just MO.

[Number 3]

Originally Posted by mhood

...like the cup holders and the visors?

You missed my point.

New cupholders and sunvisors would be NEW parts costing significant effort to redesign, retool, retest and validate. The steering wheel was already tooled up and readily available with only a few tweaks needed for Camaro duty.

So yes, in many cases, an OEM can respond quickly to clear customer disatisfiers. In other cases, however, it is just inherint to the design and an alternative is much more difficult to accomplish and get into production, i.e. cupholders.

Look at what was done for 2012, a new steering wheel, a nice improvement to the IP, and a power passenger seat with HEIGHT ADJUSTMENT

All 3 in response to major customer disatisfiers. Did they fix all of them? No. But those 3 improvements alone are pretty big IMO. And that isn't even counting the new V6 and the FE4 suspension.

[FenwickHockey65]

Originally Posted by mhood

Solution to poorly designed cup holders = don't use them.

Solution to poorly designed visors = tint the windshield.

Or sunglasses.

[BowlingSS]

Originally Posted by Number 3

You missed my point.

New cupholders and sunvisors would be NEW parts costing significant effort to redesign, retool, retest and validate. The steering wheel was already tooled up and readily available with only a few tweaks needed for Camaro duty.

So yes, in many cases, an OEM can respond quickly to clear customer disatisfiers. In other cases, however, it is just inherint to the design and an alternative is much more difficult to accomplish and get into production, i.e. cupholders.

Look at what was done for 2012, a new steering wheel, a nice improvement to the IP, and a power passenger seat with HEIGHT ADJUSTMENT

All 3 in response to major customer disatisfiers. Did they fix all of them? No. But those 3 improvements alone are pretty big IMO. And that isn't even counting the new V6 and the FE4 suspension.

Ditto.........

[dudemangod]

This thread sucks