2010 GMC Terrain: "Button Rich" Center Stack

I like the color, too. Anything but green and it's A-OK.

Not too many buttons when you consider all the capabilities the car has. Climate Control rarely used if set to Auto. Audio functions duplicated on steering wheel so they are not used that much. Good setup to me.

It looks extremely tacky and has *way* too many buttons. Looks like console design and button placement was an afterthought as well...

For everything that it does, that's not bad for a button layout. It's a lot to take in though. I'm sure after a while owners would have the general area memorized...but this is why i prefer touchscreens (still not a huge fan of the turn/push/click knobs some others have)

That doesn't look bad when comparing to the Crosstour: http://tinyurl.com/2393kpw

The more I look at the Terrain's buttons, the more I see a face. The dials on top are the eyes, the knob in the center is the nose, and the lock buttons are the mouth.

I know. I need sleep.

It's like some Doctor Who monster staring back at me... so I must like it lol

"It looks extremely tacky and has *way* too many buttons. Looks like console design and button placement was an afterthought as well..."

Unlike Honda and Acura products right?

If you skip the nav (which most do) you get less buttons. About 4-5 of those buttons are for the nav or music HD system. The regular center stack has less buttons. The buttons for the nav and music functions prevent you from having to fiddle with the touch screen too much. They are buttons that initiate a function within the nav/HD system directly. Makes sense to me. It's faster than using menus in Idrive or MMI or Command. Whether or not the controls are easy to use is more important than button count.

There does seem to be an overwhelming amount of buttons. I agree with 1487 though, it doesn’t really matter how many buttons there are as long as everything is intuitive and easy to use.

No worse than many other manufacturers. Honda Accord, Ford Flex, Acura TL, they have many buttons as well.

Looks fine to me. At least GM audio systems come fully featured with or without nav. As an example, look at the IL road test of the new BMW Z4 xDrive35is. Without nav, you can barely navigate an iPod (which btw, is optional even on the 7 series).

Nothing here is worse than the Acura RL.

Too many buttons. Just like in Hondacuras.

Many people complain about too many buttons especially on Honda/Acura but it's lot more convenient having dedicated buttons than for instance an Audi where you need to press 2 buttons to change fan speed (sure some will argue leave everything in auto...).

Next thing people complain about fingerprinted touch screens or bad voice recognition.
I think as long as they are cleanly grouped it's fine. The problem above might be that the area is not wide enough to hold similar buttons next to each other and there's no spacing inbetween.

Cool, just in time for the new TRON movie.

As long as the buttons serve a purpose and are intuitively placed and don't look hideous, like the Cosstour, I see no problem with it. I actually like gadgets but appreciate when they're attractively integrated into the overall design.

Hondas have too many buttons AND a jog/shuttle wheel which doesn't make too much sense to me. I thought the entire point of the faux iDrive controller was to eliminate lots of single function buttons? One look at the RDX or Pilot dash is enough to make me want to vomit. They are a mess. This center stack looks much better by comparison.

Wow - talk about "damned if you do, damned if you don't". If the Terrain didn't have nav or iPod control or heated seats or satellite radio or shiatsu massage or infinite improbability drive you (or one of your colleagues) would have complained about it...

As long as the buttons serve a purpose and are intuitively placed and don't look hideous, like the Cosstour, I see no problem with it. I actually like gadgets but appreciate when they're attractively integrated into the overall design.

"It looks extremely tacky and has *way* too many buttons. Looks like console design and button placement was an afterthought as well..."

Unlike Honda and Acura products right?

Glad to see the chip is still there. You bringing up Honda and Acura superiority and looking for a fight where there isn't one.

New Hondas are indeed button-happy, but all this red makes me think a little more Bonneville and a little less BMW. I do like red being used, and think the interior of the Terrinox looks quite good overall. I like the CR-V's simplicity in design and execution, but it lacked some features back in '08 that for $25k I would want.

Does the Equinox have the bleeding dashboard at night too, or is it white (which I think would look immensely better).

Hey deagle13, the Flex has all of those (except shiatsu massagers) and doesn't suffer the same buttonitis.

With nav: http://tinyurl.com/28v4w98

Without nav: http://tinyurl.com/24t6gx5

"Glad to see the chip is still there. You bringing up Honda and Acura superiority and looking for a fight where there isn't one."

Um no. Get over yourself dude. My point is that the editors cant seem to find any flaws with Honda products and then complain about traits in a GMC that are shared with virtually every Honda/Acura product. Why is this even an issue? Probably because they are so used to/obsessed with Hondas that they are very comfortable with the button layout and number. Switch to a GMC product and suddent its "too many" buttons on the center stack. Has the Crosstour gotten this kind of complaint?

All I ask is for consistency. I can say your attempts to regulate my comments are at least consistent. Its kind of funny how the Crosstour has gotten nothing but endearing comments from the staffers while the commenters and buying public remain unimpressed by its styling, price and utility.

"Does the Equinox have the bleeding dashboard at night too, or is it white (which I think would look immensely better). "

Its an ice blue. Cadillacs have white LED backlighting.

"All I ask is for consistency. I can say your attempts to regulate my comments are at least consistent. Its kind of funny how the Crosstour has gotten nothing but endearing comments from the staffers while the commenters and buying public remain unimpressed by its styling, price and utility. "

You're so incredibly biased that even when there is consistency, you completely ignore it and soldier on with your pro-GM agenda.

So you say:

"Its kind of funny how the Crosstour has gotten nothing but endearing comments from the staffers..."

Yet Edmunds ACTUALLY says:

Brade judder:

http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2010/09/2010-honda-accord-crosstour-beginnings-of-brake-judder.html

Mike Magrath hates the seats, says they are the worst ever:

http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2010/09/2010-honda-accord-crosstour-worst-seats-ever.html

Donna DeRosa also criticizes the seats:

http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2010/09/2010-honda-accord-crosstour-weird-seats.html

Kelly Toepke comments on ugly styling:

http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/Vehicles/2010-honda-accord-crosstour/2010/09/

Riswick offers criticisms of cluttered controls:

http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2010/09/2010-honda-crosstour-yay-fast-forward-button.html

Al Austria is unimpressed with cargo space:

http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2010/08/2010-honda-crosstour-luggage-space-is-just-ok.html

Brent Romans criticizes nav screen glare/reflections:

http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2010/08/2010-honda-accord-crosstour-nav-screen-reflection.html

Great quote in this one by Mr. Romans - staff is divisive on their opinions of the Crosstour:

"So we're half way through our year-long test of the Honda Accord Crosstour and it's earned some diverse opinions from our staff. In general, I haven't been too fond of it, taking issue with its homely look, our test car's disappointing build quality, and an all-around dubious appeal -- I can think of a lot of other vehicles I'd rather buy if I wanted car-like dynamics but still some extra versatility."

http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2010/08/2010-honda-accord-crosstour-i-do-like-driving-it.html

Scott Oldham criticizes poor fuel door fitment:

http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2010/07/2010-honda-accord-crosstour-gas-door-gap-not-good.html

Josh Jacquot expresses distaste for the fake wood:

http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2010/06/2010-honda-accord-crosstour-ploodyes-or-no.html

James Riswick questions the entire point of the vehicle:

http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2010/05/2010-honda-accord-crosstour-whats-the-point.html

Caroline Pardilla criticizes the blinds spots:

http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2010/04/2010-honda-accord-crosstour-a-really-blind-spot.html

Donna DeRosa wants more info from the audio display:

http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2010/04/2010-honda-accord-crosstour-more-please.html

Donna DeRosa misses the Honda spirit:

http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2010/04/2010-honda-accord-crosstour-i-miss-the-raciness.html

Karl Brauer doesn't like the difficult fuel gauge:

http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2010/04/2010-honda-accord-crosstour-hard-to-fuel-gauge.html

Josh Jaquot points out the lack of a manumatic:

http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2010/04/2010-honda-accord-crosstour-no-manual-shifting.html

Brent Romans calls it ugly:

http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2010/03/2010-honda-accord-crosstour-practical-but-homely.html

Brent Romans criticizes the interior build quality:

http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2010/03/2010-honda-accord-crosstour-interior-build-quality-doesnt-impress-me.html

Phil Reed notes poor rear visibility:

http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2010/03/2010-honda-accord-crosstour-rear-visibility.html

There are more that I left out. So it looks to me like there is plenty of criticism from a variety of editors. You just can't deal with criticism of GM. You even posted in many of those threads, so either you're suffering from significant memory loss or you just choose to ignore the Honda's clear criticisms.

+12 bimmerjay.

TKO to bimmerjay. Take the blinders off 1487. ;)

Thanks bimmerjay. It's nice to see you do some research to back up what we all know about 1487. Good stuff.

Ps 1487: I wont be reading your response to this comment so save your breath.

@1487,

Check bimmerjay. He said all I need to and more. You've officially lost the argument you so easily picked. The only one obsessed with Honda and Acura, is you... DUDE.

Compare to the Outlander's IP @ http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2010/09/2010-mitsubishi-outlander-gt-keeping-it-clean.html. Functionality seems more or less the same with both panels doing HVAC, navi, and stereo controls.

I'd take the Outlander's clean look over the Terrain's '70s SciFi movie motif any day of the week.

Thanks guys.

1487 spouts off all the time how he is all about the "facts", yet when confronted with actual undeniable facts that refute his often ridiculous statements he will either change his argument, fire back with a strawman defense, or simply disappear altogether. You will never see him man-up and admit that he is actually wrong about something. To top it off, he makes statements of fact that are clearly his assumptions with no credible sources or citations to back anything up.

Same thing happened in this thread about the Terrain missing its 32 mpg EPA highway estimate:

http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2010/09/2010-gmc-terrain-32-mpg-or-bust.html

He disappeared when it's clearly shown that the Terrain is an outlier, without citing which other of Edmunds' LT vehicles were as comparably bad (per his argument).

Same MO, every time.

"Hey deagle13, the Flex has all of those (except shiatsu massagers) and doesn't suffer the same buttonitis"

As far as I can see, the Flex w/o nav and the Terrain both have 40 - 45 buttons/knobs and the Flex w/nav has 35 - 40 buttons (I give a 5 button range because it's hard to tell which knobs also function as buttons). The Flex's buttons may be smaller and more neatly arranged, but there are still a lot of them...

"Check bimmerjay. He said all I need to and more. You've officially lost the argument you so easily picked. The only one obsessed with Honda and Acura, is you... DUDE."

You sound incredibly immature-this isnt a middle school fight my man. I don't even read the Crosstour updates for the most part but I'm glad to see it's being treated as the mediocre vehicle it represents. There have been nearly 100 posts and it appears about 20% of them are negative. Want to compare that rate to the Aura or CTS? Admittedly the G8 got mostly positive responses for whatever reason.

The real rest will come when the wrap up is done for this vehicle. What's interesting is some of these traits are shared with the Accord sedan they had and that car was rarely criticized for anything. The interior design, wood trim, build quality, etc. are all shared with the sedan.

"1487 spouts off all the time how he is all about the "facts", yet when confronted with actual undeniable facts that refute his often ridiculous statements he will either change his argument, fire back with a strawman defense, or simply disappear altogether. You will never see him man-up and admit that he is actually wrong about something. To top it off, he makes statements of fact that are clearly his assumptions with no credible sources or citations to back anything up."

I posted links to three other tests that PROVED it was possible to exceed IL's averages. I also pointed out that tests of the Hyundai crossovers yielded similarly poor mileage in Car and Driver. Did you read any of that? Your obsession with me is a little sad. Do you have anything to add that isnt related to my posts? I cannot go back in time and respond to EVERY entry on the blog. You should be intelligent enough to grasp that. Once a story gets pushed off the front page I'm probably not going back to respond an infinite number of times, it has nothing to do with being intimiated by your lame arguments. Your opinion of the veracity your statements is a little too high IMHO. I pointed out that the Prius' average (and possibly the Fusion's) were considerably off the EPA average and you dimissed that by saying it has spent the last few months in the desert. I pointed out the car has over 80k miles and the last 10k shouldn't be enough to drastically reduce the lifetime average. Even if that were the case, my point with the Terrain's average is that it must have spent the majority of its time in stop and go urban traffic for its average to be so close to the city EPA number- especially if the worst tank was under 13mpg.

PS;

Point being that if you're going to make excuses for the Prius being 6mpg off its average due to conditions you can't rule out the Terrain's mileage being poor due to driving conditions- especially when there is evidence that people have handily exceeded the average delivered by IL staffers.

"1487 spouts off all the time how he is all about the "facts", yet when confronted with actual undeniable facts that refute his often ridiculous statements he will either change his argument, fire back with a strawman defense, or simply disappear altogether."

LOL, the crazy part is that you are really basking in the glow of your "victory". Just so you know, my original "ridiculous statement" was that Honda's have similarly busy dashes and there dont seem to be any complaints about that trait. THAT is what I said and as far as I can tell you haven't generated anything suggesting they find the dash on the Crosstour to be overly busy and poorly designed. My statement about lack of complaints regarding Honda products was a GENERAL statement applying to road tests, long term tests and ALL hondas, not just the crosstour. It's true that the CT has generated some negative attention but overall Honda's get a free pass for some of the same faults heavily criticized in other vehicles. Case in point would be the lack of comment about the cheap interior in the Insight when other products (Aura for example) were exhaustively criticized for supposedly cheap and hard plastics. The Insight's interior is no better than any Cobalt or Caliber or Focus and yet little has been said about its interior quality and odd layout.

"He disappeared when it's clearly shown that the Terrain is an outlier, without citing which other of Edmunds' LT vehicles were as comparably bad (per his argument)."

I cited other vehicles but you said they werent relevant due extinuating circumstances. I also pointed out other sources have gotten much better mileage from the Equinox and you offered nothing in response. You and others have stated with confidence that the EPA rating on the Terrain are false and GM is guilty of misleading customers. You have inferred its all but IMPOSSIBLE to achieve those figures and you cite the IL log as proof. When I responded with information refuting that you in fact disappear or make up excuses. I have maintained consistently that it's POSSIBLE to get the EPA figures, but not probable in real world driving conditions.

"TKO to bimmerjay. Take the blinders off 1487. ;)"

I got served! Does this mean I need to watch my back on the way home from school this afternoon? Will he take my lunch money next? He is truly the coolest kid in school now though. The fact that he put that much time into reading and posting all those threads is a little scary frankly. And I thought I had a lot of time on my hands.

"TKO to bimmerjay. Take the blinders off 1487. ;)"

I got served! Does this mean I need to watch my back on the way home from school this afternoon? Will he take my lunch money next? He is truly the coolest kid in school now though. The fact that he put that much time into reading and posting all those threads is a little scary frankly. And I thought I had a lot of time on my hands.