Panel Gap and Build Quality

[buster]

Panel gap is something I never paid any attention to until I started seeing David Koichi Chao videos pop up. I do appreciate his appreciation of good build quality.

Tommy from TFL said the ZR2 is well screwed together. That may be true, but I've never had a vehicle rattle and squeak as much as the Colorado. There are days where it doesn't rattle at all and days it does. Seems temperature dependent. The panel gap of hood is also way off. The 3rd gen is much better built from what I've read.

 

[fantastic]

It's been an issue, at least on other brands, in previous years when they're churning out many cars a year. I think Tesla was the most recent big producer that realized they needed to get better at it when EV saw a rise. I don't know how a Toyota sounds or their quality but I'm certain they've learned quite a bit about their process for minimizing inconsistent gaps.

 

[AZjeff]

Not long ago Tommy from TFL didn't know a spark plug from a fire plug. The TFL franchise is lite entertainment at best.

 

[fantastic]

Not long ago Tommy from TFL didn't know a spark plug from a fire plug. The TFL franchise is lite entertainment at best.

I do enjoy the channel but it can certainly be a bit gimmicky & awkward comments. Seems they got rid of Mr Truck after Andre got his commercial license. They've brought in some young women segments if that's your style.

 

[DCDG]

Lexus is a beautifully engineered vehicle I personally feel they're better engineered then a German car.

 

[alarmguy]

I’ll be walking through a parking lot towards a store with my son who works for BMW, he will notice gaps in panels and defects in cars as we walk past by them. Just like that, by eyeing the car.
Something that I never noticed before. he points it out because BMW will not allow things that he sees in other vehicles.

 

[buster]

Not long ago Tommy from TFL didn't know a spark plug from a fire plug. The TFL franchise is lite entertainment at best.

True. That's a good point.

 

[buster]

I’ll be walking through a parking lot towards a store with my son who works for BMW, he will notice gaps in panels and defects in cars as we walk past by them. Just like that, by eyeing the car.
Something that I never noticed before. he points it out because BMW will not allow things that he sees in other vehicles.

Now I can't stop looking at the gaps.

The rattling in the Colorado gen 2 was a known thing.....mostly all interior due to high levels of cheap plastic (ideal for easy cleaning tho). Rattles are annoying. Suspension is completely quiet and solid.

 

[14Accent]

My 30 year old Seville has nary a squeak or rattle even after all these years. As much as I'd love to upgrade to a newer DTS, I can't bring myself to downgrade in such a big way. Compare the interiors of most of today's "luxury" models to that of my '95 and the difference is immediately noticeable: anything that's "below the belt line" is almost guaranteed to be nothing but textured plastic. Be it the lower door panels, the lower half of the dash, or the sides of the center console it's all textured plastic.

My '95, on the other hand, doesn't have a hard surface ANYWHERE in the interior. The dash is padded from top to bottom, the door panels are fully padded and carpeted at the bottom, and the center console is a single soft vinyl-covered part.

 

[Nessism1]

The Japanese are very concerned with things like panel gaps and small paint imperfections. When I worked for a Japanese OEM, doing quality audits, visual appearance issues were downgraded for the North American market compared to in Japan. It took a long time to convince them that such adjustments were appropriate.

 

[edyvw]

In 2000 VW spent $1 billion to reduce gaps from 3mm to 1mm.
In Europe gaps and generally quality of interior was always top priority among customers.
Here, Asian vehicles are so so, American are probably brands that pay the least attention to it.

 

[buster]

In 2000 VW spent $1 billion to reduce gaps from 3mm to 1mm.
In Europe gaps and generally quality of interior was always top priority among customers.
Here, Asian vehicles are so so, American are probably brands that pay the least attention to it.

European cars tend to have very nice interior quality, as do some of the Japanese brands. American brands have lacked in that area for years, GM in particular.

 

[Allaned]

In 2000 VW spent $1 billion to reduce gaps from 3mm to 1mm.
In Europe gaps and generally quality of interior was always top priority among customers.
Here, Asian vehicles are so so, American are probably brands that pay the least attention to it.

My 2017 GTI is very nice inside even though it is S model but I wanted the plaid seats and not the leather so no Autobahn for me. Having said that there is a lot of plastic but very nice stuff and put together well. Built in Mexico but all the warnings under the hood are in English and German. I never thought about the exterior panel gaps in 9+ years. I’ll look tomorrow.

 

[4wd]

European cars tend to have very nice interior quality, as do some of the Japanese brands. American brands have lacked in that area for years, GM in particular.

GM is always trying to push you to the upper level. Wife has seen the Yukon DU - now, all I hear is how bad ours is

 

[4wd]

If you want to see where a rattle is - take 100% of your junk from inside the vehicle …

 

[demarpaint]

Panel gaps and lousy paint jobs jump out to me. Just like a lousy house painting or wallpaper job.

 

[nobb]

Like with many engineering design decisions, there is a point of which it takes exponential cost/effort to achieve minor incremental gains. While panel gaps may be a indication of quality in other areas (eg. if an OEM was attentive to panel gaps, it's likely they've put similar effort to other areas), it doesn't really offer that much value past a certain point.

Other than visual, the only direct and meaningful impact is wind noise. But that can be mitigated with a rubber seal which is cheaper and works better than trying to achieve a 1mm gap. Interestingly, on my 2024 Outlander I noticed they used a rubber seal around the front door panel gap to minimize noise but not on the rear doors (to save cost). I personally would prefer a vehicle with a 3mm gap that's filled with a rubber than an open 1mm gap that looks good from afar.

 

[Allaned]

I looked at the panel gaps on my VW this morning which I had ignored for 9 years. The gaps are all uniform and small but don’t seem any different from the 2007 Grand Cherokee.

 

[barryh]

In 2000 VW spent $1 billion to reduce gaps from 3mm to 1mm.

1mm sounds near impossible, I will have a look at the gaps on some newer VW's to see if they are better thane mine.

I measured the gaps on my 2019 Golf at 3mm and a consistent 3mm still looks very good. The gaps on my 2009 Mercedes were bigger and on my 1989 Mercedes bigger still.

 

[edyvw]

1mm sounds near impossible, I will have a look at the gaps on some newer VW's to see if they are better thane mine.

I measured the gaps on my 2019 Golf at 3mm and a consistent 3mm still looks very good. The gaps on my 2009 Mercedes were bigger and on my 1989 Mercedes bigger still.

After dieselgate, VW started to save wherever it could. It is still much better than most cars, but cheaper plastic is used etc.
This was time when VW didn’t know what to do with money, and in Europe, interior quality is serious selling point.
2000’s are time when Audi made inroads in luxury segment precisely because of interior quality. And many VW’s were not far behind.