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Dash Board Design Fail

42K views 106 replies 31 participants last post by  ZoomZoom 
#1 ·
Today I took my Bolt for a drive in the late morning on a curved road with the sun shinning down. The reflections off the flat dash board up into the sloped window which reflected directly into the driver’s eyes was extreme. I would say hazardous. The interior trim on my Bolt is Light Ash Gray, Ceramic White, and Perforated Leather. The dash board is Light Ash Gray and that reflects significant light. I have attached a photo showing the color scheme. Almost every car I looked at in Berkeley today uses a much dark, less shiny surface for the dashboard, for obvious reasons.
What was Chevy thinking? This is beyond disappointing. If you are ordering one, there must be a better color scheme. I would not have bought this if I had been aware of this issue.

In the photo, you can see the contrast between the mat black steering wheel and the light dashboard. The long sloped windshield makes an excellent mirror for the reflected light off the dashboard. Buyers beware.
 

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#6 ·
I originally ordered a Ceramic White/Light Ash Bolt, and canceled for exactly this reason. You can see on the chevy website (if you look closely) that the dash for this leather color combo is much lighter than for the other colors. I liked the idea of light colored seats, to minimize heat in southern California, but was concerned the dash glare would be annoying-to-dangerous.

I'm glad I switched to the dark gray interior, and sorry that you and others have this problem. If you really find it unsafe, I'd agree you should do something about it.
 
#7 ·
Interesting that you caught the problem in time. At least it is not just me. I am sure there are solutions, but I still wonder about how they came up with that light color in that location. Maybe polaroid sunglasses will work if the reflections are strongly polarized.
 
#11 ·
Have similar problem in my 2016 Volt. Was especially bad when took to car wash and they used the interior protectant with a high sheen on the dash. Reflections were terrible. They are there pretty much all the time, but my brain has learned to ignore them, and am only aware of them when thinking about it anymore. But, do believe that my two tone dash is a bad design, and darker dash color is smarter. And, whenever I go to the car wash, I tell them just to wipe the dash clean with a damp cloth only...no shiny protectant chemicals. Have not tried the polarized glasses, but bet that would work on my Volt also.
 
#18 ·
Update on Dash Board Design Fail

Update on Dash Board Design Fail
I tried two solutions.
1. Polarized sunglasses. These do a good job on reducing the dashboard reflecting off the windshield into the drivers eye. The screens in the Bolt console and driver’s screen do not darken appreciably and the light from the screens is not polarized. Still the sunglasses make it a little more difficult to see the data clearly.
2. I laid black art paper on the driver’s side of the dashboard and this was very effective in reducing the light reflected of the window. I admit this is not rocket science, it is very obvious. So long term a black dash cover would be the best solution. I am attaching to photos showing the driver’s view with with the black poster paper and without. Notice with the black poster paper on the dash that the objects in the garage are visible, without you only see the gray dash board.
 

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#28 ·
I agree sunglasses work, but that doesn't excuse Chevy. I am still looking for a third party dash cover. I have a black art paper overlay on the dash and it eliminates the problem, but looks bad. The dash is so deep and the angle of the window so shallow, that it makes the light gray dash unacceptable.
Here is what I posted a day after taking delivery. I have tried to contact Chevrolet, no help.

When I took my Bolt for a drive in the late morning on a curved road with the sun shinning down. The reflections off the flat dash board up into the sloped window which reflected directly into the driver’s eyes was extreme. I would say hazardous. The interior trim on my Bolt is Light Ash Gray, Ceramic White, and Perforated Leather. The dash board is Light Ash Gray and that reflects significant light. I have attached a photo showing the color scheme. Almost every car I looked at in Berkeley today uses a much dark, less shiny surface for the dashboard, for obvious reasons.
What was Chevy thinking? This is beyond disappointing. If you are ordering one, there must be a better color scheme. I would not have bought this if I had been aware of this issue.

Note in the photo, the only thing clear in the windshield is the reflection of the dash!
 

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#30 ·
I think there might be some film we can use. These days there a lot of different applications and so on. I even seen people go for really light tint on their windshields
The only trouble with tinting the windshield is that it reduces the light you want to see on the road straight ahead. It is really a signal noise problem with the reflection being the noise and the object being viewed being the signal.

There are vinyl wraps that could be put on the dash board, but it takes a expert to do a good job and I think in time the sun would kill the wrap and it would peal off, leaving a mess. There are third party dash pad made for most cars and when there are enough Bolts, I expect pads for the Bolt will become available. If every Bolt had this problem, Chevrolet would have to respond, but it is probably less than 1% of those sold and they have only delivered about 10 k.
 
#34 ·
I wear polarized sunglasses. I have no problems seeing the displays. I don't have the glare problem of the original poster unless I drive from bright sunlight into darker shade (i.e. pulling into my garage on a sunny day -- most days around here) without my sunglasses on. I always wear my sunglasses when the sun is shining. They cut down on the glare from windshields and mirrors of other cars.
 
#36 ·
This doesn't help because it reduces the light coming from the view in front at the same ratio that it reduces the unwanted light reflecting off the light dash board. It will help if you have a dark dash board and want to reduce eyestrain from the bright external light. Same effect as wearing non polarizing sunglasses.

Most transition sunglasses respond to ultra violet light, which doesn't make it through the windshield. Maybe there are some that respond to other wavelengths of light.
 
#43 · (Edited)
I have a Cajun Red Premiere with the Light Ash Grey interior. While I prefer the lighter color inside, the light dash was very irritating to my eyes which have always been very sensitive to glare and bright sun. I temporarily had a black piece of fabric on my dash to see if the darker color would reduce the glare. It indeed did. I also added 3m film to the windshield which did not reduce the glare significantly.

Since I am not one to put dash covers on, I bit the bullet and had the local dealer order me replacement dash parts in Cool Grey (the darker color on the other trims). It took them 3 days but I now have a dark dash that blends in pretty good except for the 2-inch wide transition at the door (see pics). Otherwise it matches the steering wheel quite nicely.

We buy our cars and tend to drive them over 10 years so I didn't want to wait for something to come from Chevy, which I believe highly unlikely.

The parts and install used all of the $2500 CA Clean Air Rebate plus most of the PG&E rebate - but I am now happy with the dash and can chuck the black cloth cover I've had for three months.
 

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#46 ·
Browsing the internet for Bolt pictures, I think I figured out how something like this (reflections from the dash) got missed by Chevrolet during testing:



With the dash covered up like that for secrecy during testing, this problem would never come up.
 
#50 ·
Browsing the internet for Bolt pictures, I think I figured out how something like this (reflections from the dash) got missed by Chevrolet during testing



With the dash covered up like that for secrecy during testing, this problem would never come up.
Hey, maybe the have an old one of those around, that I could use instead of my black art paper dash cover! Anyway, great point about how they might have missed this in testing.
 
#49 ·
I have the light interior so I'm affected by this everyday.

For the most part, I fixed it by buying a new pair of sunglasses with polarized brown lenses. Gives me the rainbows on the infotainment display, but it's better than glare-zilla.
 
#56 ·
For those of you who do not know, the windshield has a reflective coating on the windshield for
the collision avoidance systems red alert lamp on the dash. IDK if they're all coated or not :nerd:
 
#57 ·
Yes, this review they did was using the same trim package that causes the trouble. Interesting though on the
possibility of a reflective coating. Not sure how to find out, but it could make the problem worse, if it is there.
I don't think there is a red alert lamp on the dash of the bolt. If so, it is covered by my black art paper that I use
to eliminated the reflective dash.:nerd:
 
#63 ·
^ it's not just GM... my 2012 Prius and 2012 PIP both had very bad dashboard reflective properties.... even worse than the Bolt IMO.
These long sweeping dashboards with low angle windshields have issues, they really need to use non-reflective/flat coatings on the dash.

Jetta.... have you tried polarized sunglasses?
I use a pair when boating and they help tremendously in cutting down reflections off the water, etc.
 
#65 ·
Polarized sunglasses work as you suggest. As does just putting a black art paper sheet over the dash. At some point there will be third party dash pads available. So it is not the end of the world, just an irritation after spending 50 k$ on a car. Interesting that also is is problem on some Prius's and whatever a PIP is.
0:)
 
#66 · (Edited)
PIP = Plug In Prius.
Sorry, I'm so used to abbreviating it I just do it automatically.

Both versions of the Gen III Prius used some kind or organic plastic for the dash, but it was very hard and quite reflective. They did try to reduce reflections by embedding a swirl pattern on the surface of the plastic... but it was ineffective.

There were lots of complaints on the Prius Chat forums back when the Gen III Prius (2009-2015) was introduced regarding dashboard reflections... and no good solutions other than wearing polarized sunglasses.
 
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