The GMC Acadia, Cadillac XT5 and Cadillac XT6 crossovers will now be built without a driver side lower hush panel, GM Authority can confirm.
General Motors’ Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) engineers have determined that removing the driver-side lower hush panel from the Acadia, XT5 and XT6 does not degrade the interior noise level of these crossovers and can thus be removed without negative consequence. The driver-side lower hush panel is normally used to cut down noise coming in from under the vehicle and from the engine compartment. Removing this unnecessary panel will likely save the automaker a small amount of money on parts at the assembly plant.
This change will be applied to 2021 GMC Acadia, Cadillac XT5 and Cadillac XT5 crossovers built from here on out, along with all 2022 model year versions of these three nameplates. All three of these vehicles are produced at the GM Spring Hill Assembly plant in Tennessee. Going forward, the GM Spring Hill plant will also produce the 2023 Cadillac Lyriq electric crossover, which will enter production there early next year.
Vehicle production at the GM Spring Hill plant was put on pause on August 23rd and was expected to resume on September 6th, however the shutdown has now been extended until later in the month. The Spring Hill plant has experienced recurring shutdowns amid the global semiconductor chip shortage, having previously been shut down from July 19th through to August 9th. The 7.9-million-square-foot facility sits on 2,000 acres of land located just south of Nashville and employs 2,764 hourly workers and 411 salaried workers for a total workforce size of 3,175. Employees at Spring Hill are represented by UAW Local 1853.
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Comments
Would running something more aggressive then a set of all terrain tires have an impact on this? What about studded tires, winter conditions can make for a noisy ride to start with.
where are studded tires being used? they are worse than a normal tire unless the road is ice.
Here’s how GM find the way to improve the quality of the interior finish ! What will be the next step ? May be no more carpet under every seats ?
This doesn’t make sense. We know gm pinches every possible penny on their products so if the “hush panel” does no good why would they have even approved it for production in the first place? I’m not buying that engineers suddenly determined it could be removed. More likely it was the accountants that called for its removal and the engineers went along with it.
Ci2Eye: I agree. All companies pinch every penny out of every inch of the vehicles they build, so that’s not just a
GM thing. Suddenly, Volvo is doing this same thing and cheapening their vehicles a lot. But yes, if it was “designed” for the vehicle in the first place, then we know there was/is a purpose.
Kind of reminds me of years ago at the Buick, Cadillac GMC and Honda store. The service manager was an old gruff type of guy always walking around with a cigarette hanging out the left side of his mouth. One time I found a nice old Cadillac Seville (1979). I recall one day there was something I wanted fixed on the Seville and Frank called me back to show me what they found. He was holding a part (PCV valve I believe) that he said was the problem for the rough idle. I said ok, replace it and he laughed and said that I didn’t need that part and he could just cobble things together without it. haha. Well, I said no and had them put a new part on anyhow.
I agree, I was wondering why my 2021 Cadillac XT5 premium is so noisy on the highway, I checked underneed and sure enough there’s no lower hush panels. No engineer is going to tell me those panels don’t do anything. My old 2008 Cadillac SRX have lower hush panels and it’s 10 times quieter then the xt5, I just can’t beleve the mistake I’ve done buying that vehicle, soooo disappointed.
This is the equivalent of GM management masterminds maniacally searching under the sofa cushions for loose change. This sounds more like a mental disorder than anything else……………
how about a picture so we know what you are talking about?
Close! More likely the chief engineers knew it was needed and wrote it into the vehicle spec.. then the accountants forced the design engineers to cut so much cost that the part became ineffective. Some guy assembling it recognizes the folly and submits a suggestion to eliminate it altogether. He gets paid a nice sum for his idea, gm saves the cost of the part, and the customer still gets the same noisy car. Everybody wins!
My 2022 Cadillac XT6 is in the parking lot at Spring Hill waiting for a f#%king semi conductor chip. Everything is f#%king Top Secret when I try to gather formation as to when it will be delivered. Nobody knows a f#%king thing and I find that to be F#%KED UP. This will be the last time that I order a GM vehicle! EVER!
GM’s not alone in storing vehicles, while they wait for semiconductors to arrive. I just spent a few days in Michigan, and every undeveloped piece of real estate in and around Dearborn has new F-150’s stored on it, all waiting for chips. There are thousands of buyers out there of all brands of vehicles, in the same situation as you. Don’t you think that GM would deliver your $65K+ car if they could? I’m pretty sure they’d like to get paid for your car, along with the thousands of others that are sitting, waiting for chips.
If you think GM is so “F#%KED UP”, that the XT6 is this going to be the last GM vehicle you ever order, why are you going ahead with the order in the first place? Why don’t you cancel the order and go buy something else now? Do you really want to live with a F#%KED UP GM vehicle for 3 or 4 years, before replacing it with something else, when you can cancel the order and get something else now?
Cancel it.
What a moron! Do you live under a rock? Every auto a manufacturer is dealing with this. Go to some other auto manufacturer, more than likely you will be dealing with this again could be worse could be better, could be even longer.
)THIS IS A ISSUE THAT ALL THE MANUFACTURERS ARE GOING THROUGH NOW,BECAUSE WE AS AMERICANS DON’T SEEM TO MAKE ANYTHING AT HOME ANYMORE, SO GM IS SOME TO BLAME FOR THIS THEY AREN’T THE TOTAL BOGGIE MAN. THEY HAVE TO HAVE ALL THE PARTS ON THE CAR BEFORE SHIPMENT. WE AS AMERICANS ARE MORE TO BLAME BECAUSE WE DON’T DEMAND FROM OUR GOVERNMENT MORE PRODUCTS BE MADE IN AMERICA.?
Can’t you cancel the order? Obviously this is not gm’s fault but consumers who need a vehicle can’t be expected to wait forever on a literal slow boat from China. It could be months longer and gm can’t tell you because they don’t know.
I understand the previous president wanted to have semi-conductor production brought to the US and to Arizona specifically but some apparently felt that was a hair-brained idea and it never got traction. Right now though China has shut down our automotive industry and they’re looking to take over Taiwan, the number 2 semi-conductor supplier, which would make our industries even more reliant on one semi-hostile nation. That should be cause for grave concern in corporate headquarters across the US.
It was because Orange Man Bad, no other reason that production shouldn’t have been brought over here! US auto production is about to cut even more the rest of this year and next year, good luck trying to find a new vehicle, my local dealer is huge, the biggest in the Southeast. I stopped in the other day in their overflow parking lot between Cadillac and the Chevy truck building. It normally holds at least 400-500 vehicles easily. It was almost completely empty except for about 6 or 7 Silveraldos, all used with at least 25K or more miles on them.
I have a GMC Acadia and it is much noisier than the Buick enclave I also have so but I do think the hush panels really do something to help with the noise do they remove them from the Buicks because they’re supposed to be extra quieter smooth vehicle
They could be adding a little sound dampening spray to the floor area. Removes a part, storage of the part, transportation, build time, and the manufacturing of the part.
I’m deeply concerned this chip shortage is a small indication of what could happen “when” China decides to take over Taiwan (Hong Kong has been a dry run). Very reminiscent of the ’70’s oil crisis, but this could be MUCH worse. Americans better wake up, stop the infighting and realize we’re not each other’s enemy…
Taiwan 🇹🇼 is the number 1 chip maker not china.
Thus why he said WHEN China takes over Taiwan … just a matter of time really, before they take over everything! JB is rolling out the red carpet for them … or maybe it’s the red, white, and blue that he’s willing to let them trample on. Either way, it’s not going to be pretty.
I just removed our hush panel from our 2018 XT5 and sold it for 35 cents, I feel better now.
Shock and awe,
Mary Barra tried to delight you with that hush panel and now you’ve gone and messed it all up.
Ordered my 2022 XT5 in early August.
Since then, I lost my ….
1.) Wireless Phone Charger
2.) Driver’s Hush Panel
3.) What’s next? My Spare 18” Tire!
1.) Wireless Phone Charger
– to reduce my convenience.
2.) Driver’s Hush Panel
– to reduce my driving pleasure.
3.) What’s next? My Spare 18” Tire!
– to reduce my safety?
Ouch 😣
GM is going to penny pinch their way out of business. After a lifetime of buying almost all GM vehicles, we’re done. The quality degrades every year.
In November we bought a 2021 Kia Telluride to replace our piece of crap 2018 Acadia. It was a really hard decision…Kia over GM? Really? I couldn’t believe we were even considering it. But after months of research… reading reviews and comparisons between the Telluride and Acadia, and hating every minute of driving the Acadia, we took the plunge.
The Telluride is built in Georgia and superior in every way over the Acadia, including the level of road noise. And that’s BEFORE removing the hush panel.
We do still have a 2002 Envoy that was built when GM still cared about quality. I think the Envoy will last forever!
How odd. I did the same research and concluded that the Acadia is 85 per cent superior to the Kia or Hyundai. My money goes to the head office in Detroit not Soule.
Then GM needs to give a 5 year 60 000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty and a 10 year 100,000 mile engine transmission gear boxes
GM is doomed! The bad news just keeps coming. I think it’s time for me to go back to the Japanese!
Taiwan 🇹🇼 is the number 1 chip maker not china.
People in the US do jot realize how bad Covid is in Asia. China has easily lost 15M, India maybe 25M, Taiwan 500k, Malaysia 2-3M. These countries lead the world in electronic manufacturing Many of the mining countries have lost whole teams and villages to the virus. This will take years to retrain new workers.