There's no crack pipe involved here. Chrysler went all out with the LX cars, and it showed. Interior materials were top drawer for it's class and price level (keep in mind they start at only $21K) back in 2003 & 2004 when the '04 & '05's came out. The fact that it's materials still are viewed as very good 6 years later is hint to how good it is.

In the Charger, the attempt to combined a quasi-1960s theme dashboard with a German spartan interior simply didn't translate well into reality. The 300's highly styled interior turned out alot better. The thing is that 6 years with the same interior design is a long time, and a design that was somewhat mediocre back in '04 looks, as Brandon put it, like it came out of a "dumptruck" next to interiors coming out in cars today.

Want a real jolt? Compare the Charger's interior materials to the Dakota, Sebring, and Avenger. Although newer interiors, it will clearly show how Chrysler slid backwards and went even cheaper than it's pre-LX days in interior materials.

 

I will admit that I haven't been inside an LX car that is anything but brand new, so I can't comment on build quality or durability... but I can say when I've sat in them at the car show I found the interior design to be downright cheap looking, drab, and uninspiring... among if not THE worst of all its competitors. The materials while not as cheap as some other Chrysler cars, were still not at all impressive. The designs are also fairly generic. I can look at any one of those interiors and almost mistake it for the interior of the other two.

GM has been putting out some pretty impressive interiors in the last 2-3 years... Ford still has some catching up to do to GM IMO though they're not as bad off as Chrysler and I have high hopes for the 2010 Fusion when I see it in person.

Chrysler... honestly I've just given up on their interior design teams. Maybe they're trying to be the brand for people with no taste in interiors... the brand that can offer elsewhere more because their interiors cost less to make. I know not everyone on the planet is a dash stroker, so maybe that's the niche they're going for.

 

How was the V8 and 6 speed auto shifting? Notice anything strange?

I've been lurking on a few G8 forums, and I've read some posts about people complaining about the 6 speed automatic shifting: sluggisher or odd shifting. I guess there were a few programming revisions done so far, and some owners got their dealers to update their cars with it. It seems most report success.

 

Are you kidding?!!!

Have you been inside any new Ford outside of the Mustang?

Of everything one can say fairly or not about Ford, Ford has always been ahead of the curve in interior materials and quality than it's US competitors, and in at least the past decade, on par with most mainline Japanese cars.

The current Mustang interior, while almost overstyled, does have very cheap materials. But from the Town Car all the way down to at least the Fusion, I can say nothing but good things about Ford's interior materials, especially compared to GM's.

Even Bob Lutz admitted (as far as he could) that GM's interiors left alot to be desired back in 2003:

Ford's interiors designs at times have been questionable, and in the eye of the beholder ("New Edge", anyone?). But Ford has traditionally had above average to very good interior materials.

But wait till you personally (not simply looking at pictures or viewing it from outside the windows) check out Ford's new interiors in the Mustang and Fusion.

 

Mine at times seems a bit sluggish. I haven't taken it in to have any updates performed either though. It does seem that those with the revisions are happier...but this car does have a decent amount of torque management. I haven't noticed if those with '09's are still experiencing any issues. I plan on going with a custom tune anyways once my headers are installed.


-Mike

 

As usual you show very little tact in disagreeing with the opinion of others. Is this because you believe your opinion to be fact or what?

I've been inside every model they currently sell in the US.. some just at the car show, others driving around with people who owned them. I also had a 2008 Mustang as a rental for 2 months while my 335i was being fixed.

Materials? Yes, usually about as good, sometimes better than GM it seems, with some exceptions going both directions. Quality? Not in my experience, at least not long term... their interiors just don't seem to age well. I'm also not a fan of most of their ergonomics and aesthetics. The boxy retro designs aren't my thing and don't flow well for me from a usability perspective.

I think it's pretty obvious my post was not talking about where they were 5 years ago. I've said probably 100 times in the last few years on this board that GM's interiors have sucked pretty badly up until the new designs that we've seen come out in the last 2-3 years or so. In fact the very post you quoted mentioned that exact time frame. So it would seem Bob simply agrees with me. I can't think of anything coming from Ford in 2003 with an interior worth getting excited over either, though, and I've been in some 2003-2004 model year Fords that were not holding up well at all.


Why do you keep focusing on materials? I never specifically said their materials lack (though many of them also do not impress me).

I'm very excited to see the Fusion and also for that matter the new Fiesta. Those are two cars I will absolutely make sure I check out before I make any decisions this upcoming October.

 

One of the first things I would do is a 3200 stall converter as someone mentioned earlier....that would really make the G8 a fun auto car to drive...

 

Yes, the reprogramming fixes it. You can see if your car has had the update by going to http://tis2web.service.gm.com/tis2web. Put in your VIN; find "TCM Transmission Control Module"; then "Complete History"; and look for

92232457 0000F57A - Corrects issue with an acceleration hesitation concern.
92232458 000023B9 - Corrects issue with an acceleration hesitation concern.
92232459 00002830 - Corrects issue with an acceleration hesitation concern.

 

I have noticed mine takes a second to downshift..but it seems better in sport. The A6 Corvettes used to have the same issue till they fixed it in 08.

 

Thanks for all the great info about the automatics. That was the only thing that I had in doubt about the G8.

 

The car's biggest criticism down here is the 6-spd auto's calibrations. It's just not sporty enough in the context of BMW, Audi TUTD automatics... or even Ford Falcon's ZF sourced autos for that matter.

 

GM will fix this. The A6 in the Corvette had the same issues in 2006-07 and GM fixed it good for 08. That's not even talking everything out there as far as an aftermarket tune.

 

The Corvette I drove at Indy Bash had a lazy transmission. The paddle shifters were awkward and the shifts didn't happen instantaneously. I'm just not impressed with slush boxes.

 

Unfortunately, Holden have flashed in several tunes since VE's launch... but still cannot nail it!

Regarding your point, no, even I (as a diehard GM man) have a hard time accepting that GM auto transmissions are sufficiently well calibrated from the factory. Nothing wrong with the hardware, it's just the auto tuning from the factory that is a put off for a lot of auto GM V8 owners.

But given my love for tuning, it's always nice to see what improvements one can make to the err 'underdone' areas.