8 years of wear in 5 weeks!

VaSteve · 01-17-2009, 12:09 PM

I was at Epcot last week and rode the "Test Track" ride about 5 times. The ride is sponsored by GM. When you get off the ride, they have about 10 brand new cars to sit in and look at. I stopped to chat with one of the employees watching the cars. (They are GM employees). Anyhow, the guy told me that they have the cars in there for only 4-5 weeks and then they send them to a dealer to recondition and sell on his/her lot. He said that the interior gets about 8 years of wear in that short time. He said 20,000 people a day pass through the ride...figure about half sit in the cars. That's a TON of seat time.

livi · 01-17-2009, 12:23 PM

I suppose coming home from a dealer with an Epcot-car is quite the bummer.

VaSteve · 01-17-2009, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by livi

I suppose coming home from a dealer with an Epcot-car is quite the bummer.

I guess it depends on the re-conditioning they do. The Caddy had seats all chapped up like the 25 year old 150,000 miles 911s we post here.

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by VaSteve

I was at Epcot last week and rode the "Test Track" ride about 5 times. The ride is sponsored by GM. When you get off the ride, they have about 10 brand new cars to sit in and look at. I stopped to chat with one of the employees watching the cars. (They are GM employees). Anyhow, the guy told me that they have the cars in there for only 4-5 weeks and then they send them to a dealer to recondition and sell on his/her lot. He said that the interior gets about 8 years of wear in that short time. He said 20,000 people a day pass through the ride...figure about half sit in the cars. That's a TON of seat time.

Yeah, but how many of those squeak one into the seats at the Epcot center?

911Rob · 911Rob's Garage

I liked that ride

ruf-porsche · ruf-porsche's Garage

Interiors are easy to replace if all we are talking about are the front seats. Since they sit there and no one drives them they really don't get any wear or tear as a car that is driven for 8 years.

VaSteve · 01-18-2009, 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 911Rob

I liked that ride

Off topic in OT, but did you ride Mission Space? I went on the Orange (intense) side and acually thought I was going to ralph. I have never had motion sickness and that did it for me. I think the spinning combined with the movie nearly did me in. I guess they aren't kidding when they have like 50 warnings about it.