Improving the G35 Dash

Introduction

It's usually said that the interior of the G35 is the weakest part of the car. This probably isn't hard, given how good the rest of it is. But still, a lot of people throw this statement around, magazines being the worst offenders, without really explaining why. Feedback is useless unless it's detailed, and Nissan-Infiniti can't really expect to make improvements if they can't isolate the problems. The best I've been able to get out of people is that the G35's interior feels "blah" or "muddled."

I don't think it's materials that is the problem, I've sat in my car for some time now and pretty much everything feels top notch. I've sat in cars that supposedly have "better" interiors (the new Honda Accord for example) and I've found that certain controls that you touch often, e.g. the signal stalks, are about as nice to touch as they would be on a 1988 Mitsubishi. In this regard, the G35 wins. Everything feels good. Then what is it about the interior?

It's something to do with ambience. It's like a crooked painting. Something needs straightening out. Basically, I've discovered a bunch of small detail flaws that if corrected I think would make the car's interior seem like a much more cohesive design.

Console Fit

I'm going to come right out and say I don't think it's that the console is metallic painted plastic. Cars like the Mazda 6 and forthcoming Legacy use an abundance of metallic painted plastic in their console designs too and they look higher brow. The problem with the G35 is that when you view the console from the traditional photo angle (the quarter view), or the side, you get to see where the console shroud joins the black plastic flashing that stretches back towards the firewall. Here, Nissan has broken the cardinal rule of interior plastics - never show a raw plastic edge. Now, it's OK to break this rule sometimes, in places where you can't see, such as behind the steering wheel, behind the door handles, etc, but the edge of the console is a bit too visible. On my car, I can see the edge of the painted shroud is not quite a straight line, basically I can see where it's been rough cut. Compare to the Mazda6/new Legacy - both of those cars extend the side flashing forward to be pretty much flush with the fascia of the console, the flashing and the console plastics are then rounded off so there's a smooth join with no rough edges.

This problem could be mostly (and cheaply) alleiviated in the G35 by actually having the flashing come forward past the edge of the console piece by a few millimetres. Further enhancement would see the flashing be made of a higher quality material, costs permitting.

Transverse Stripe

Next flaw - the dark grey painted plastic strip underneath the crease where the top part of the dash joins the rolled center part. There's a join between the central section and the segment that goes over the DVD cover. I assume this join is there to allow parts to be used interchangeably between RHD and LHD models. Nissan has put cost cutting here ahead of the realization that if you can't make a join flush fit properly, don't have a join. There is no doubt a cost effective way to make these trim pieces line up nicely. Nissan should find it.

DVD Navigation Cover Fit

In this photo, you see that the cover of the Navigation System DVD drive joins closer at the top than at the bottom. This is a GM style quality problem. Again, there has to be a cost effective solution to this type of thing.

DVD Navigation Cover Pattern

The cover of the DVD Nav drive has a strange dot indent texture similar to rolls of paper towels. The problem is that this seems out of place with the surrounding dash. I can see why the dots were added - the cover needed texture of some sort, and the designers did not wish to bring the random texture of the top section down into the middle (I don't blame them - they wanted to create a duo-tone effect). The dots seem like a last ditch, deadline's here solution to the problem though - they don't extend over onto the surrounding plastic pieces adjacent to the door, and so seem out of place.

The solution here is to derive a teture that can extend comfortably across the entire middle section. Since the air vents are built into this segment I suggest light horizontal line indentations.

Nissan's designers have created an ambitious, futuristic and interesting dash design that has become a little muddled in the implementation. I'm confident it really is primarily these areas that cause the car to suffer a great deal - suffer in ways far disproportionate to the magnitude of each of these details. Addressing them could lift the perception of quality significantly.

And, while we're here, Button Feedback

The tactile feedback of the console buttons as far as the press action goes is not optimal. The plasticky click sound and limited travel do not intersect with luxury. Pushing the buttons on the console should feel more like pushing the volume adjuster on the steering wheel - a damped, slightly longer motion. Easier to tell that you've pushed the button, and more satisfying to do so.

Me

I'm a software GUI designer/developer and occasional web designer who obsesses over visual design details.

Now, if only Nissan had an interactive suggestion and bug tracking system (*cough* bugzilla *cough*), I could log all this somewhere and be hopeful someone at the company would see it! (Of course, car interior design is rarely incremental, so this is probably all obsolete now as far as the V36 Skyline developers are concerned)

Contact me with your thoughts about this article.