2010 GMC Terrain: Nice Detail

I think thats to stop items from rattling in the door pocket.

@1487,

Probably. Keeps it from sliding around. The door-handles (they aren't open-thru) in my Accord are like that. Keeps my phone in place, since that's where it normally lands. A nice touch, for sure.

@Donna,

Is it really that pink looking, or is the camera one white-balance away from taking great pics? :o)

@thegraduate: It's a dark red. My camera is not good. -- Donna

That is a nice touch. these are the things GM never used to do, or did badly.

They are nice and grippy. There is a covered storage area on top of the dash that has it too. Nice to keep your sunglasses from sliding around and rattling.

I was expecting the 'nice detail' to be the light in the door pocket.

Now if you could just keep someone's greasy paws away from the door panel. :P

It's the kind of detail that GM stopped doing for a while. My 2002 GMC Pickup had nice details like lights for both front footwells, lumbar adjustments on the seats, illuminted vanity mirrors, a light in the glovebox and a light under the hood. My 2004 Suburban in the equivalent trim level has none of those things, and they weren't availble optionally. These little details leave a good impression, or their absense can leave you annoyed, but you don't notice them on the test drive. I drove a new Malibu in fleet trim (it belongs to my employer) at night for the first time recently - it has a couple blue LEDs in the headliner that provide just enough light that you can see around the interior - it's as if there always happens to be a (blue) full moon shining in. I like it. I'm glad the General is getting this stuff right again.

Colorado kid, both the aura (orange color) and the malibu have that. They also have lights to light up the door handles at night.

Subaru's have this, too. Our 2010 Forester has a blue LED in the headliner near the sunroof controls, and one in the center console storage bin. At night, the interior is lit up just enough to see around, and it looks cool when combined with the blue gauges/red dash lights.

I've noticed this same single LED in my friend's G37 as well. Definitely a nice touch in any car.

looks like the Terrain needs to go in for a detail... those greasy marks, plus the rear cargo area are making this brand new car look 10 years old!! Or just plain abused.

There is a blue LED light that lights up the silver gear shifter of our 08 Mitsubishi Eclipse that not only makes the interior look great at night but the silver bit casts the light around to the rest of the cabin and helps the black interior not feel like a cave.

"They are nice and grippy. There is a covered storage area on top of the dash that has it too. Nice to keep your sunglasses from sliding around and rattling."

They dont have the bin because they have navigation. Cars are always lacking interior stowage space these days so for me its one more reason to skip the pricey nav system on this vehicle.

I believe there's an LED in the center bin under the armrest as well. You dont find this stuff on comparable Toyota and Honda products. Fords have lots of LED interior lighting though. The Camaro and LAcrosse have LED strips inside the interior, on the doors in the Camaro and I believe along the dash in the Buick. Not found on many semi affordable cars.

i see small door pockets are standard issue on all new GM vehicles... the one in the new Camaro is ultra-tiny too... weird considering the door is massive!

@1487

In the Equinox, the entire center console is bathed in soft blue light from an LED in the overhead panel that houses the map lights and sunroof controls. It's partially hidden and angled such that you don't see where the LED is located. It give the impression at first that the light is coming out of nowhere. Another slick touch is the soft blue backlight on the sides of the radio/HVAC control stack. The center dash storage area is reason enough to NOT get the NAV system. My wife loves that storage area.

I don't think there are LEDs under the armrest. You're probably confusing it with the overhead light. There is I think another light under the HVAC controls over the console cubby (under the HVAC stack) that illuminates that bin. The Terrain I'd guess has red lighting since the controls all look to be red backlit, compared to the soft blue in the Equinox.

The rubber insert in the door handles pictured above is a dark red/maroon color. It is in our Equinox. And that small holder looks to be is sized around a pack of Kleenex in the plastic pack. At least that's how my wife uses it and it looks to be scaled to fit that plastic Kleenex pack just right.

There are all kinds of slick touches in these vehicles, like some soft lights inside even the cup holders in the center console and a bright lamp inside the armrest that comes on when you open it. There are also two semi-circle notches cut into the armrest housing where the lid latches, to allow you to pass though cables/cords out of the armrest (which houses a USB and aux. audio port). That allows easy cabling to your cell phone or MP3 player, and there's a rubber-lined cubby at the base of the armrest that are sized to hold those gizmos without them being tossed around.

"There are all kinds of slick touches in these vehicles, like some soft lights inside even the cup holders in the center console and a bright lamp inside the armrest that comes on when you open it. There are also two semi-circle notches cut into the armrest housing where the lid latches, to allow you to pass though cables/cords out of the armrest (which houses a USB and aux. audio port). That allows easy cabling to your cell phone or MP3 player, and there's a rubber-lined cubby at the base of the armrest that are sized to hold those gizmos without them being tossed around."

Nice touches yes, but not anything new I'm sorry to say. My '04 Mazda6, and pretty much every vehicle I've owned since then (about 4 Fords), had the cable pass through in the arm rest. Our current Flex and Escape both have LED lights in the cup holders, floor areas in front and back, and inside the armrest. There are like 6 or 7 colors to choose from too plus "off".

It's good to see GM copied Ford on the location of the USB port (inside the arm rest) because those are in some bad locations in other makes IMO. Particularly Hyundai where it's sandwiched between two powerpoints at the bottom of the center stack. What a cabling nightmare that must be on trips where you need your MP3 player and cell phone charger and portable GPS.

The light and rubber in the cubby are nice touches but I could do without the rubber being red. That cubby is rather small though. Looks like it could have been larger but the wiring for the light stopped that idea. I'll take the extra space over the cool, but useless, light.

baggs:

Some fords have the USB in the center console below the other controls. I believe the Focus and Escape are like this. Models designed with USB from the start apparently have it in the storage console. I'm still trying to figure out why Audi and VW have USB ports in the glove box. Talk about after thought.

The cubby shown above is an extra compartment in the door- most vehicles only have the lower map pocket/bottle holder. I think its smart that they used wasted space in the door panel to create another bin. Someone on my block has an X3 and the owners has crap stashed in every available nook and cranny because the vehicle doesn't have much storage space.

I think the light is there to illuminate the area at night so you can see. MAkes sense to me.

I think the red liners are cheesy plus they have a higher potential of showing dirt. The stitching is a nice touch though as are the courtesy lights.

@baggs

I didn't say that GM was first, I just said it was all a nice package and well thought out. If Ford has a better idea, then use it. Nothing wrong with that. My 05 Mazda3 has some of the same blue-ish lights illuminating the ashtray area. GM took it step further to make the lighting cover the entire console and even hide the light to it looks to almost come from nowhere.

Ford has some great ideas but the shiny plastic inside too many of their vehicles make them look cheap. We looked at an Edge but the dashboard in the 2010 model we saw was a sea of shiny cheap-looking plastic. Not pretty in a 30k vehicle; it turned my wife off the minute she opened the door for a test drive. I hope Ford does what GM did, banish most if not all of the shiny plastic. And put some curves in the interior; the flat dashboards look lousy. I love the GM curved/cockpit dash design.

GM also use a slick molding technique (or at least some supplier does) with the A/B/C pillar interior trim, where it's plastic but molded such that it looks like a woven cloth cover. It looks slick and really fools the eye. Do other car makers use this trick?

you're right about the last gen Ford interiors. The 2011 Edge's interior is a quantum leap forward. I cant stand the current Edge interior with the brick radio and angularity. The new Edge interior is the best in the Ford lineup by far if you ask me. I drove an escape recently and the interior design is sorely lacking. There is no comparison between the Equinox and Escape interiors. The gauges are pretty ugly too.

I happen to like the style of the red liner, but its purpose is functional either way, in that it makes it easier to see if there is something in the cubby. Think of a backpack with a red interior instead of black, and you'll know what I mean.

FWIW, "Accent Lighting" is listed as a feature in the SLE-2 trim of the Terrain (equivalent to LT-2 in the Equinox?). It's not listed at all in the SLE-1 feature list, but they wouldn't really leave something like that out of the base model, would they? Even the base Malibu gets accent lighting.

@1487

I know a few guys that work for Delphi and get to see vehicles years before us mere mortals do. One of them I'm the most friendly with said that GM has done the most amazing turn around with interior design of the Big Three, with GM being leaps and bounds above the rest. He tole me you you oughta see some of the stuff coming down the pike.

He said they're getting closer to Audi territory, and this is from a guy that hated GM cars. He hated them so much he wouldn't bother buying them when Delphi was GM and got a massive discount. I hope Ford does the same since one thing I'm not that enamored with Ford products on the showroom floor is the interiors.

The Edge's present interior was such a let-down and one of the big reasons we didn't get one (fuel economy was the biggest). My wife just disliked the interior, and really hated it after getting in the Equinox. The Equinox in 2LT form with 4 cyl/FWD is a nice family vehicle, plenty of space, and at decent price; not the best at anything but the entire package is just "right". We've lived with it for over 7 months now and like it more now than the day we bought it; I have never bought a car in the past 25 years that impressed me more after 6 months than when I bought it.

No wonder GM can't make enough of the 'Nox/Terrain. It hits a 'sweet spot' in the market.

Well GM folks have said Audi is the target they are aiming for so I'm not too surprised. The Lacrosse interior is pretty sweet for a car that tops out at $40k. I also had two chances to sit in the Cruze and the interior is easily on par with more expensive cars like Accord much less other compacts. The quality wouldnt embarass VW and it light years ahead of the Corolla/Matrix.

The MKX has the best interior on any Ford/Lincoln product ever. The 2012 Focus looks good too. The 2010 Fusion interior is better than the first gen, but still too blocky and dated for me. I think the MKS interior is very nice but it should be for that money. Flex is nice as well aside from the terrible faux wood and gauges.

You still cant find more than a handful of Theta suvs at dealer lots around here. They are selling them within days of getting them.

@tmathes - I've said it before and I'll say it again: Based on my first-hand observations at the most recent Los Angeles Auto Show, GM passenger cars had the best interiors of all vehicles in the $20k-$30k range, and GM was at parity with competitors in the $30k-$40k range. I think people who don't believe this have just not looked very closely.

Venza, Legacy/Outback, Mazda6 -- while attractive enough, all were filled with had hard plastic dashboards & panels (sadly, the Sonata was roped-off, but I'm guessing it's a similar story inside). VW is the exception with the CC, but the bog-standard Passat and Jetta models were not better than any Buick or Malibu. Ford has some nice materials inside, but the designs are pretty Spartan for my taste.

In terms of sub-$20k cars, I really like what the Koreans are bringing, and I think the Fiesta is brilliant. I hope the Cruze is as well-done.

@misterfusion

GM's cars have plenty of hard plastic, but if done right, hard plastic is okay. The Equinox/Terrain is a great example. The dash is hard plastic but the finish is done right, no gloss, looks richer than it is. I don't mind hard plastic if it keeps costs down but looks good. I have a 2005 Mazda3, which is full of hard plastic but Mazda did it right in that car. One advantage of hard plastic: it can't delaminate from the substrate like I've seen some cars do with soft touch surfaces after a few years in some harsh sun.

We also checked out a Venza; what a mediocre interior for *a lot* of cash. No thanks. I got a gander at a Sonata since someone in our office building bought the new model; the plastic did look cheap (aka shiny) a bit too much for my tastes. The exterior lines, though, wow. The car looks a lot more expensive than it really is.

"GM took it step further to make the lighting cover the entire console and even hide the light to it looks to almost come from nowhere."

My 1997 528ia used red LEDs to achieve that effect. I had a 2001 4.6is press loaner that used red LEDs to illuminate the interior door handles. Having said all that, the Terrain's interior is quite nice. I like the red stitching; it really sets off a black interior.

mrfusion:

I agree with much of what you said. I sat in the Sonata and its interior is average if I'm being charitable. I can't think of any comparable car that feels cheaper inside. Its perfectly acceptable for a value laden car but it doesnt come close to raising the bar. The CC (and Regal) are in a totally different league relative to the Sonata and Toyota's mainstream products. My mother in law has a Camry XLE and the interior is slightly better than what you get in a Corolla.

1487
"The cubby shown above is an extra compartment in the door- most vehicles only have the lower map pocket/bottle holder. I think its smart that they used wasted space in the door panel to create another bin."

You're right! I didn't notice that at first and now that I do I agree that it is a nice touch. So I take back what I said about that cubby before.

tmathes
Yeah, the last Edge interior was horrible. We leased an Escape Limited instead of an Edge strictly based on the interiors. The new Edge has a really nice interior IMO, more power, and better FE to boot. It will be back on my short list for sure when the Escape lease is up next year. The Terrain will not however because both my wife and I don't like the exterior design at all. The interior is OK for a GM. At least there are knobs for the radio and HVAC unlike the Acadia which has stupid up/down buttons or something like that. The center stack on the Lambdas really turned me off from an otherwise nice vehicle.

@baggs

Does the Equinox turn you off too? I personally cannot warm up to the Terrain exterior. I thought the Equinox has a more interesting/attractive design, along with the same interior. I also like the blue lighting over the red. And I wouldn't call the interior "just okay for a GM". I personally haven't seen any of these mid-size crossovers that have a nicer interior design; Ward's gave it the nod for best mid-priced truck interior. Be sure to check it out in a two tone color; that really makes the interior stand out (I do not care for the black-on-black).

If you want a V6 only, then the Edge does make more sense. If you're looking for just a people mover (our situation), you can't beat the 4 cyl/FWD combo in the Equinox. The SIDI engine is a wonderful power plant and gets great fuel mileage

tmathes:

The SIDI gets great fuel mileage unless driven by an IL editor :)

@aurakr