The seats are a deal killer.

[oilerlord]

Also, in the interests of science, I'd like to know if the cloth seating is being found less comfortable than the leather.

While it's way to early to do a poll, it's reasonable to accept people's opinions on them given the design of the seats, and how professional reviewers (Car & Driver, Road & Track, etc) continue to draw attention to that design.

I'm sure there was weight and cost savings by "suspending plastic sheets from metal frames and covering them with a fraction of the usual padding" - but to me, that doesn't at all sound too comfortable. It's too bad that GM went that direction because the buying decision aren't always made with science & logic, but with emotion and how a car "feels".

Again, I blame GM bean counters. If they would have spent an extra $100 per seat, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

 

[roundpeg]

Also, in the interests of science, I'd like to know if the cloth seating is being found less comfortable than the leather.

While it's way to early to do a poll, it's reasonable to accept people's opinions on them given the design of the seats, and how professional reviewers (Car & Driver, Road & Track, etc) continue to draw attention to that design.

I'm sure there was weight and cost savings by "suspending plastic sheets from metal frames and covering them with a fraction of the usual padding" - but to me, that doesn't at all sound too comfortable. It's too bad that GM went that direction because the buying decision aren't always made with science & logic, but with emotion and how a car "feels".

Again, I blame GM bean counters. If they would have spent an extra $100 per seat, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

I think you are jumping to a conclusion not based in any facts. Yes, Car & Driver (among others) have pointed out the weight and space-saving seat design but that's a long way from saying that it's wrong or somehow defective, which we should note they did not say. What would $100 have accomplished? The seat design was to save weight and space. We don't know if they were cheaper to manufacture.

I'd again point out that some of the most expensive office chairs you can buy have no padding whatsoever. I'd actually like to see one of the car makers be so bold as to design an Aeron-type of suspension seat for a car. It would be lighter, and take up less space -- but you can bet it would not be cheaper than a conventional design.

 

[boltage]

After seeing this thread, I felt around the seats and found the hard parts of the bolsters that appear to be the cause of complaints here. I have no problem with them, but I can see how some larger people may find the bolsters to be uncomfortable.

Care to post your waist size? ;-)

30-31" or 77-78cm

 

[michael]

That was me 50 years ago!!!

 

[flamaest]

Got my Bolt (LT) delivered. Drive was super smooth and I am very happy, but:

right from the beginning, I felt the front seats are very slim and the seat-back-sides poke into my kidney area. Seat-bottoms are OK as long as you are centered and facing forward. I sure hope the seats will 'wear-in' after a few thousand miles. I heard the Volt LT seats had similar wear-in issues. I did not get leather because I am using this car as a commuter car. I am coming into a Bolt from a 2003 Jetta GL trim seats which are much more comfortable than the Bolt seats.

I am a 6.1' male, 188lbs, 36' waist.

 

[LeftieBiker]

After seeing this thread, I felt around the seats and found the hard parts of the bolsters that appear to be the cause of complaints here. I have no problem with them, but I can see how some larger people may find the bolsters to be uncomfortable.

Care to post your waist size? ;-)

30-31" or 77-78cm

Thanks! I have a 44" waist, and it's pretty soft. I'm going to repeat that for whatever reason, I think that GM knowingly limited the range of sizes of people who will find this car's seats comfortable. If they think I'm gong to buy a Buick because I can't stand the Bolt's seats, though, they are sadly mistaken. It will be an Ioniq or another Leaf, in that case.

 

[boltage]

Care to post your waist size? ;-)

30-31" or 77-78cm

Thanks! I have a 44" waist, and it's pretty soft. I'm going to repeat that for whatever reason, I think that GM knowingly limited the range of sizes of people who will find this car's seats comfortable. If they think I'm gong to buy a Buick because I can't stand the Bolt's seats, though, they are sadly mistaken. It will be an Ioniq or another Leaf, in that case.

Articles in the web indicate that Josh Tavel, the Bolt's chief engineer, wanted the car to be sporty.

http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/news/a31929/chevy-bolt-lead-engineer-gearhead/
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2016/12/10/payne-qauto-chevy-bolt-evs-chief-speed-freak/95259830/

The big side bolsters on the seats are consistent with that. The same goes for some other characteristics like suspension tuning (on the firmer and sportier side). However, sportier seats that fit well for Tavel may not fit as well for some larger drivers.

 

[oilerlord]

I think you are jumping to a conclusion not based in any facts. Yes, Car & Driver (among others) have pointed out the weight and space-saving seat design but that's a long way from saying that it's wrong or somehow defective, which we should note they did not say. What would $100 have accomplished? The seat design was to save weight and space. We don't know if they were cheaper to manufacture.

Car and driver added:

"The seats are wrapped in economy-car-grade leather, and the door armrests are formed from an unpleasant hard plastic."

None of us know how much or how little the seats cost to manufacture, I'm merely making a supposition. Given reports that the Bolt is losing $9,000 per car, and reviewers using adjectives such as "economy grade" and "unpleasant", I tend to believe that GM made some sacrifices to get the car to the "game changer" MSRP. It makes sense that the seats and armrests were two cost saving measures.

I'd again point out that some of the most expensive office chairs you can buy have no padding whatsoever. I'd actually like to see one of the car makers be so bold as to design an Aeron-type of suspension seat for a car. It would be lighter, and take up less space -- but you can bet it would not be cheaper than a conventional design.

Do you really believe that GM contracted Herman Miller to supply the seats for the Bolt? What GM could have done is put conventional, comfortable seats in the Bolt as standard equipment - and offered the lightweight space savers as an option for folks that prefer sitting on suspended plastic sheets.

 

[roundpeg]

Come now, if you're going to respond to something I've posted, please do me the courtesy of actually reading it.

 

[iletric]

Given reports that the Bolt is losing $9,000 per car...

Only 4,000. GM pockets 5 grand off the top of the federal tax rebate instead of passing it on to the leasing party. :mrgreen:

 

[LeftieBiker]

So the Bolt's seats are going to hurt the bodies of half the people who drive it because GM's Chief Engineer for the project is a little skinny guy?!? Un effing believable...

 

[EldRick]

As a skinny little guy myself, that seems very reasonable to me.

 

[boltage]

So the Bolt's seats are going to hurt the bodies of half the people who drive it because GM's Chief Engineer for the project is a little skinny guy?!? Un effing believable...

While I find the seats to be perfectly fine, it would make sense to offer a choice of sporty seats (the current ones) and non-sporty seats (smaller and softer bolsters). But that may be more costly in terms of inventory management and other costs related to having more possible configurations.

 

[LeftieBiker]

The most cost-efficient approach would have been to design the car to accept existing seats from another model. They could have custom-designed the back seats to fold flat, and accepted 2" less rear legroom, if that were truly unavoidable. Torturing backseat passengers is a time-honored tradition among auto manufacturers. Ever ride in the back of a Volvo P1800S? ;-)

 

[HotPotato]

The seats weren't the only reason I got my deposit back (for now), but they were up there.

You slide over a scarcely-padded hard metal frame to get in and out of the seat, so your first and last impression of the car is discomfort.

On the seatback there is again a scarcely padded hard metal frame digging into your ribs, and it's not bolstering holding you in from the sides, it's a frame behind you.

I'm sure I'd get used to it, but it's a hell of a way to make a first impression.

The complaint about the steering wheel button material is valid too. It's not individual buttons you can identify by feel (my Ford C-Max does that quite well) but a small undifferentiated pad with arrows on it. It can't seriously cost GM that much more to go from a microwave oven membrane keypad to buttons.

And in 2017 there's no excuse for hard touch points on the doors, though in fairness I found them less objectionable than the armrests in my old Mazda 3.

One last thing: I don't love this electronic shifter; it sucks in Toyota's Prius and RAV4 EV (the salesman nearly backed over me when I tested a RAV4 EV because he couldn't tell what gear it was in), it sucks in the Buicks GM has been putting it in, and Chrysler's equivalent sucks enough to generate lawsuits and a NHTSA investigation. Any shift handle whose physical position does not indicate the car's gear is a hazard and will cause accidents, guaranteed. Precision shift my foot: this trend needs to stop.

All that said: these are nitpicks! The car is otherwise lively and lovely.

It's just that GM is asking a lot of money for the car, and the buyer is going to have certain expectations at that price point. I don't subscribe to the conspiracy theory that they are trying to suppress demand with an uncomfortable interior, but I don't think saving those last few bucks is going to do any favors for sales or owner satisfaction.

 

[JupiterMoon]

Would have been nice if they simply used microfiber or something instead of cheap leather. Would have cost them less too most likely and given the car a higher class feel.

 

[JupiterMoon]

Given reports that the Bolt is losing $9,000 per car...

Only 4,000. GM pockets 5 grand off the top of the federal tax rebate instead of passing it on to the leasing party. :mrgreen:

It's not even that. GM isn't losing money on the vehicle itself...it is losing money on the emissions and carbon credit or something convoluted like that because of how credits, etc are handled and distributed among manufacturers. Probably from all the trucks they make.

 

[oilerlord]

It's not even that. GM isn't losing money on the vehicle itself...it is losing money on the emissions and carbon credit or something convoluted like that because of how credits, etc are handled and distributed among manufacturers. Probably from all the trucks they make.

There's a whole other thread about that. Does the car make money? Does the car lose money? Who knows if anyone will ever know. Unless you're a GM shareholder, all that really matters is how much car we get for our money.

I find the Bolt project very interesting...including the why and how GM was able to manage getting the car to it's "game changer" price point. Clearly as more people spend more & more time behind the wheel of their Bolt, quibbles about seats, armrests, buttons, etc, speaks volumes. It's like peeling layers of an onion to find out the difficult choices that GM had to make in order to bring an "affordable" 200 mile EV to market.

I think GM had a lot of internal struggles over this car, and the seats were probably #67 on a list of 1000. The seat design saved weight & cost while adding rear leg room at the expense of some comfort. I wonder if fantastic seats were on the drawing board that cost $100-$200 more per unit - but were scrapped as a result finding every cost cutting measure possible.

 

[mtndrew1]

I initially experienced the Bolt at the LA auto show in November and the car on display did not give off a good impression of interior quality for a $44,000 car. It was that nauseating sea of grey plastic that GM used to be so notorious for and there wasn't a soft surface in sight. The seats felt narrow but didn't particularly catch my attention. Of course there were a million people trying to see the car so it was a quick affair.

This weekend I had a guest in town (a Volt owner) and we both wanted to get a closer look at the Bolt as we're both EV fans and my Soul EV lease is up in about eight months.

Keyes Chevrolet had a whole bunch of the cars in stock and when I pulled into customer parking I was in a row of all manner of EVs (Leafs, Sparks, Fiats, etc) parked there. The salesman walked over and just said "Bolt?" It was pretty funny and it was nice to see such a positive response to the car from the public. Many Bolts were lined up on EVSEs with "sold" placards on the dash.

Anyhow there was a Bolt Premier in the showroom with an interior color scheme that was much more pleasant than the auto show car and despite the cheesy hard plastic everywhere I could probably live with it. The seats however... wow they're awful. My friend sat down (5' 5" height, 32" waist) and sort of immediately yelped about it as soon as he got in the car. It feels like something is wrong with them or there's an object you've accidentally sat on.

I'm 5'11" 160 lbs soaking wet (32" waist) and if I carefully position myself in the center of the seat it's tolerable. A few degrees off in either direction and the plastic seat tray thing digs into my hips and lower back. Furthermore, when I leaned back into the seat looking at something in the back of the car it made a plastic creaking sound from the seat frame.

I thought maybe the structure of the car was super narrow or something but there's plenty of space alongside the seat for it to be wider (see image). Whether this was a cost, weight, or other decision, it was a poor one. The Volt alongside it in the showroom had wonderful supportive chunky seats. I can't imagine the Bolt EV makes it to the 2018 model year without a seat revision (and for crying out loud, some soft surfaces on the upper doors please!).

Sadly ironic that the first affordable EV that can actually do road trips is too uncomfortable to many to do so.

 

[iletric]

The complaint about the steering wheel button material is valid too. It's not individual buttons you can identify by feel...but a small undifferentiated pad with arrows on it.

One last thing: I don't love this electronic shifter; it sucks...

Ma' man!

All I'm saying, GM, make it such that I DON'T HAVE TO LOOK DOWN TO FIND THE BUTTONS, and that I DON'T HAVE TO USE 1Kp OR MORE OF PRESSURE to use them.

As far as the shifter - look at the Leaf 1.0. Nissan made it sooo simple. It is comfy, fast and it works to perfection!