Yesterday, we reported on an issue that has plagued 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV drivers. The issue stems from the angle of the windshield and a particular interior color motif that causes near-blinding dashboard reflections. Our initial report provided one sample photo, but an owner has reached out to give us a better idea of just how serious the issue is.
Photos from an owner depict exactly how the Light Ash Gray interior color—finished on the dashboard and throughout the cabin—reflect onto the inside of the windshield. There’s no hiding it: the sun glare absolutely obscures the driver’s view out of the cockpit.
Our tipster—who identified himself as one of the two owners that has filed a complaint with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration—states many other Bolt EV owners he has conversed with have tried various remedies such as polarized glasses, but he emphasizes the windshield glare is absolutely blinding at times. Other owners have resorted to dash carpets, vinyl and dark-colored cloths to help reduce the sun glare.
Compared to the darker interior color that is optional on the Chevrolet Bolt EV Premier, there’s simply no comparison to how badly the dashboard reflects. One owner has reportedly had their Light Ash Gray dashboard replaced by their local dealer for $2,500 at their own expense.
We’ve reached out to Chevrolet for comment on this matter and will update this report should we receive a response. The photos pictured here speak for themselves, however.
Hat tip: Steve
Comments
A black bath mat works beautifully. It is cheap, just the right size, and has a rubberized coating on the back that keeps it in place. Problem solved.
They paid $2,500 to replace the dash? Could’ve spent $50 for a black DashMat, problem solved.
So the solution for a $30,00 (or more) vehicle with what is an obvious design flaw is to buy a “mat” to solve the problem?
This ain’t no used car with 200,000 miles. It’s a brand new vehicle that represents the latest and greatest from GM and Chevrolet. Besides being a product, it is also a statement that GM is ahead of all the other automakers in moving into the next generation.
Besides the obvious ownership and user experience problems, there are obvious image-related issues to GM and Chevrolet from this.
C’mon guys. Hold this automaker and its product to a higher standard.
Hey, it works. Life’s too short to make more fuss. Go fight the bloated military budget instead!
Consumer product = military budget?
No, not equal. Trivial distraction vs real issue
Perhaps when it’s your hard-earned money being spent on a product with such an issue, you might not think it so trivial.
On a related note, if we approach every consumer product as being trivial and not important in the long run, we would make very little progress as a society.
In this case I agree.
But we have many cases were some people are upset over trial things or in some cases dishonest.
Each case needs to be judged on the actual conditions or issues. Also the automaker needs to be gibpven the chance to correct the issue before we toss them under the bus.
Our progress has been muted not only by some product issues but at times some people with petty complaints asking for a buy back. Abuses goes both ways.
There really is no excuse for this glare problem. GM is supposed to have road tested their vehicles before they roll them out. How was something this obvious not corrected? The same goes for other auto makers too. Come on guys and gals, quit listening to some interior designer’s newest design exercise and solve these issues before these vehicles see the showroom.
Yes it needs fixed and not just some crummy mat.
They should replace or offer recolored to the owner to chose.
How this happens is when the are driving the miles the have the dash well covered up.
Just look at the mule photos and the had camo inside and out.
Also it was not all colors .
S@$t happens.
any good shop that does interior car work can dye the dash pad a darker color
GM needs to put a stop order / buy on all Bolts with this interior colored dash before someone is injured or heaven forbid killed by this .
GM should offer a dashmat or a dye to change the color . This is definately a design flaw that wasn’t discovered at the point of development for color options . GM needs to send a service bulletin to all dealerships that sell the car .
They can pay for a fix now or pay dearly if nothing is done and somebody gets hurt .
A bath mat ( LOL ) is fine until the problem is fixed .
What fool would buy a car with a light colored dash to start with. did they test drive this car before buying it? It does puzzle me how this would be overlooked during development. One would think that all the design departments would have documentation with several categories of things that are a no go.
Gives Sean another opportunity for one of his favorite type of stories thou.
Just say’in!
Two Volt owner here (Dusty 2012 & a 2015 Dusty Too, voltstats…)
The glare off the shiny black plastic in the foreground/dash areas of my Volts with the added bright chrome accents was so bad on my eyes that I cut the fuzzy part of black Velcro strips to place on the chrome. I can’t do anything about “The Shining” (stealing a movie name to describe the dash in my Volts) and how did that slip by GM? But, I guess if I bought a Bolt, it wouldn’t be named Dusty 3, I’d call it Cataract because of the vision problems. I can’t believe after all the complaints about shiny eye-poping glare in the generation 1 Volts that GM was so “blind” to a lesson they should have learned prior to bolting out of the door with this latest, glaring problem.
I can’t believe this a actual complaint! This is just another example of the consumer expecting the manufacturers to solve their problems for them!
I see retardation still resides at chevy.
Great products/producers sweat the details. All the others are good/average at best!
GM has a ways to go. ZO6 heat problems in initial year–just another example!
Sadly when a company puts out unacceptable products, an ambulance chaser is available to address!
This is really puzzling!
GM indeed DOES have a prototol/testing procedure for catching issues like this *very early* in the design phase. This absolutely should have been noticed long before even a single car was built.
I worked at GM between 1998 and 2004, and during that time it was already standard practice to simulate “veil and glare” of interiors using virtual simulation. Using 3D computer rendering software, we could simulate what the driver would see through the windshield (and when looking at the gauges, or at any of the brightwork/interior trim) under any kind of exterior lighting and weather condition. High noon, late-day sun, super-bright yet overcast day, etc. etc……it would catch any and all potentially-blinding conditions by showing *exactly* what you would see.
In many cases it forced us to rule out using light-colored upper dashboard materials for the very same reasons this Chevy Bolt is having problems. (And also to eliminate a lot of bright/shiny interior trim materials in a lot of locations that would blind the driver with reflected glare.)
Again….truly stymied as to how GM fell down on the job with this one. The practices for validating and proving out materials and reflection issues have been long-established and standardized within that organization, and they were certainly rigidly enforced when I worked there 13 years ago.
All I can think is that they were hurrying things somewhat, in order to compete as rapidly as possible with vehicles like the BMW i3 (which the Bolt looks like a quick copy of)……
you think the Bolt looks like the i3?
The bolt has a mainstream appearance to it and has 4 full doors like the Honda fit.
I put the i3 in the same class as the Prius/Prius Prime. The lets make it hideous so it gets noticed class.
Question, is the i in i3 supposed to be phony, as in iphony? “we all gotta rush out in buy one phony”? (trend? …ugh, no). and what’s with the pizza cutter tires, they have wider tires on bicycles!
Yes, “i” know, more fuel efficient, still… lame looking!
I noticed this issue the first time I drove my new Bolt in noonday sun. I contacted the dealer and he helped me locate a dash cover manufacturer who offered various covers and actually had them in stock (all the others listed them on their websites, but hadn’t yet begun manufacturing). I ordered two types of black covers and ended up using the carpet style version.
I do believe it is a serious safety issue. I did not mind spending about $50 to fix the problem, BUT now that Chevy is aware of the issue, they need to fix it for future models and probably offer coupons to pay for the dash covers.
Early adopters of any new technology or product will always find issues missed in production. I’m ok with that, but I understand if others are not. I still love the car.
Thanks for sharing the upcoming part of this game and this game is also free any play without getting any cost.
When you deleting the cookies regularly then you will be seen that your system will be get more fast from that using the previous one.