1980s Chevrolet Software Was An Early Computer Car Configurator: Video
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Online car configurators are a fun (and slightly addicting) way to kill some time. Almost every automaker has some sort of online configurator these days that allows the user to build their dream vehicle, but many may not know that General Motors and Chevrolet offered a similar technology all the way back in 1987.
Jalopnik recently found a YouTube video uploaded by user LGR Blerbs that shows an early MS-DOS software developed by GM called ‘Chevy Tech’ or ‘Chevtech’. The software, which was available to order from the automaker for three dollars and was also available to buy at dealerships and service centers, was essentially an early version of today’s online car configurators. Chevtech allowed the user to flip through that year’s Chevrolet production portfolio, see the different options offered and also provided pricing for each model.
While the market for this software among people who wanted to use it at home was probably quite small, we could see this being helpful in a dealership setting, as LGR Blurbs points out in the video. With Chevtech, customers could walk in, sit down and easily view what models Chevrolet offered, what options were available and how much their desired vehicle would cost. Not bad for the 1980s. Chevtech is also fairly comprehensive. Every single Chevrolet model available in 1987 is listed on the software, including the Sprint, Spectrum, Beretta, Cavalier, Celebrity, Caprice, Camaro, Blazer, Suburban and Corvette.
A commenter also turned our attention to this fun Buick online build tool, which was released by the company in 1994 and was subsequently stored on Archive.org. The Buick game allowed the user to view the entire Buick portfolio and included animations showing how the vehicles are assembled. Interestingly, it featured a golf minigame that allowed the player to take on the Buick Open at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club in Michigan.
Who knew GM was so computer savvy in the 1980s and 90s?
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A lot of large corporations were very technologically advanced in the 80s/90s. Because the tech industry was so young, a lot of these big companies were writing their own software for their specialized applications and creating cool stuff like this. But being ahead of the curve early on hurt them in the long run. 20 years later, there were excellent off the shelf products for those specialized applications (engineering drawing management, production order management, HR, etc etc) but all of your data is so ingrained into these hand made programs that you’re forced to maintain these ancient programs yourself and be behind the tech curve until someday you finally bite the bullet and make the switch to a commercially available software (or write your own again), which is incredibly expensive to transition and very disruptive to the business (ie shutting down production, holding up product launches…).
At my company (fortune 50 company, so pretty large), our entire engineering database is still a DOS system where you have to have the correct keystrokes memorized to navigate through it. It’s been hidden now with more modern software, but in the background the DOS system is still what’s running it all. That’s what this reminds me of.
Ah, those were the days! I vividly remember the Buick Dimensions software for Mac in the early 90s. I think it included a golf game, but also presented the fancy new Buick Reatta and all its various high-tech features!
This was all done by GM’s Electronic Data Systems subsidiary. I started working for them in 1985 until I was outsourced in 2000. One of the worst decisions GM made was to spin them off in 1996 vs just keeping them or even bringing them in house as IT was in 2012.