General Motors’ new Cadillac DTS and Buick Lucerne models unveiled at the Chicago Auto Show feature complete interiors designed and developed by Lear Corporation in the first collaborative effort between GM and one of its suppliers for a total interior.
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In 2002, Lear was awarded total interior responsibility to work with GM to jointly design, source and engineer the interiors for a pair of the automaker’s 2006-model luxury cars. The rationale was simple: leverage the supplier’s considerable expertise in vehicle interiors to create elevated levels of harmony, craftsmanship and quality perception in GM’s upscale luxury vehicles.
The project involved an unprecedented level of teamwork and cooperation between GM and Lear. Involvement in the early stages of the program allowed the supplier to interface with the vehicles as a whole as it worked hand-in-hand with GM’s engineering and programme teams over the past three years to provide critical input for the content, design and production processes that were selected for these vehicles.
Lear is providing approximately 80% of the interior content for the programme and will also integrate components from other suppliers. In addition to the interior content, Lear also supplies 100% of the wire harness and bussed electrical centres. In total, more than 1,500 part numbers will be supplied in five colours sequenced from various Lear-controlled distribution centres.
Among the benefits to GM are lower cost and improved quality by getting its supplier involved in balancing and managing the myriad of variables to achieve the optimum combination of interior components, based on its extensive experience as an interior provider. All design work was completed by the supplier’s engineering team while sourcing decisions were cooperatively made between Lear and GM purchasing.
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By GlobalDataPremium materials and processes were carefully selected for the DTS and Lucerne interiors to allow them to compete among the best nameplates in the premium luxury segment. The vehicles are equipped with extremely comfortable leather seating, with optional 100% leather upgrade to semi-aniline leather on the DTS. The interiors also feature expansive use of real wood and chrome accents throughout the cockpit, and LED lighting adds to the overall premium effect. Hand-wrapped door armrests and inserts add a soft touch and appeal to the consumer.
In addition, the DTS and Lucerne feature a number of Lear innovations, including its flexible seating architecture and Spray Pur, a seamless polyurethane coating for the instrument panels.
The major benefit of is in the cost savings achieved by using a common seat architecture across multiple platforms as opposed to the traditional approach of designing separate seat structures for each vehicle. The Spray Pur technology is said to provide best-in-class grain and gloss performance for instrument panels and eliminates the visual seams for air bag compartments.
Lear is also conducting total interior programmes on an exclusive, low- volume scale on vehicles with highly visible launches, such as the Ford GT and the Maserati Quattroporte.
In the case of the current Chevrolet HHR, Volvo XC90 and Mahindra & Mahindra Scorpio, Lear’s role was systems integrator, supplying partial content, manufacturing, sub-assembly, sequencing and some engineering while the design and sourcing were directed by the manufacturer.
With the Mazda RX-8 sports car, Lear put its knowledge as a pure integrator to work, without providing major content.
