Before you read this, I need you to know that I understand how absurdly petty and stupid this all is. I get it. This post I’m about to write here is not the work of a healthy, well-adjusted human, and I get that, but at the same time, I felt compelled to write it. It’s not even topical! It’s about a post I wrote way back in December, months and months and months ago, about the last car you can still buy new without an LCD screen, the GMC Savana/Chevy Express. It’s not even so much about the post, but about comments made on the Instagram post that went along with it, and, perhaps most significantly, this is about the all-consuming terror that is Someone Being Wrong on the Internet.
Now I want to be clear, I firmly believe that I did not start this petty war, but I did allow myself to get sucked into it (38 weeks later), and I do believe I will fucking end it. It’s directly about the display on the infotainment system of the GMC Savana/Chevy Express van, and whether or not it is, in fact, an LCD display. In my article, I specifically noted that it is not – in fact, that is the whole point of the article, that this is the very last new car you can buy without an LCD display on the dash. There is a monochrome display there, but it’s an old school vacuum fluorescent display (VFD).
Anyway, like many articles, we had an associated Instagram post about it:
View this post on Instagram
Now, what I want to point out is that in the comments on this post, there were a surprising amount of people who insisted that the whole article was wrong, because the display shown was, in fact, an LCD display. These people seemed to delight in what they felt was an awesome gotcha:
Now, you’ll notice that at the time, 38 freaking weeks ago, I did try to reply that it was, in fact, a VFD screen. Then, I’ll be honest, I forgot about all of this until yesterday when I happened to be looking for something else in my Instagram feed and found this. And then I read the comments again, and found that my irk gland was secreting a lot of irkatosin, which made me irked.
Who are these people that have such blind, unthinking confidence that they feel the need to correct something without even trying to confirm that that something even needs correcting? Look at fucking Patrick there, the only one who felt so confident he needed to respond on two separate threads, once stating “it literally is not” and then again claiming “there’s no way,” suggesting that these monochrome VFDs cost as much as an LCD.
Oh, Patrick. I’m sure you’re a great guy, but if I may offer some humble advice: before you go making wildly confident statements like this, in this sort of dickhead manner, maybe just take a moment to consider that maybe – just maybe – the person who wrote the article actually did the minimum of research.
I don’t expect any of these VFD denialists to believe me, so today I fucking contacted fucking GM itself and just asked outright. Here was the response from GM’s Global Tech and Innovation Comms representative:
Hey Jason,Hope you’re doing well. You are correct that it’s a Vacuum Fluorescent Display (VFD).Have a great weekend!Kellie
Did you see that, Patrick and all of you other overconfident display-identifiers? It’s literally a VF fucking D.
It’s been a long week.
I mean, I can sort of understand the confusion since some LCDs are intentionally designed to look like VFDs for whatever given reason, and modern LCDs ARE probably cheaper than a VFD (there’s a lot less high-voltage circutry, for one, and you can use cheap, generic Chinese LCDs while VFDs have to be custom designed for the usage) but it has the distinct warmness of a vacuum-floresent display, and it would be really silly to argue that Chevy would update the same outdated radio module they’ve probably been using since the early 90’s used in one fleet-oriented model to use a new display designed intentionally to look nearly identical to the same one they previously used for a very slight cost reduction per unit and a massive retooling cost.
Jason, I love this energy. You’re absolutely right. That’s gotta feel good, after nearly overdosing on irkatosin. I hope that your week ahead is great!
VFD stands for variable frequency drive.
Radios have LCDs on them. Ask any dealer to correct you
I don’t think there is anything petty about wanting the truth and seeking the truth from the best source possible. THAT is the problem with the world, folks like you (and myself, at least self identified) have been gas lit so hard to believe that wanting the truth is somehow petty. Keep doing it Jason, it’s as noble as it gets, even if the topic is automotive radio displays.
I swear people are being paid to spread bullshit on the internet. Thank you Torch for doing the lords work.
absolutely, that and/or bots to spread the BS just for the cost of electricity.
Amen, lets hope this is a warning for every “Patrick” out there.
I sincerely hope that at some point in the future you write an article about the last car available WITH an LCD screen (all others now featuring OLED, or vr goggles, or some kind of direct brainwave communication that beams ads directly into your head)… if only to see if Patrick is still around and how he feels about this latest development.
I sloppily misread the header image, recognized the screen from my 2008 Saab 9-3, and immediately thought “I’m not sure I agree with ‘pretty’, but you know, I always did find the radio interface pleasing”.
I preferred the amber color that was in my Saturn Ion but yeah, it was charming for sure.
Eat shit Patrick.
And don’t sweat the lingering feels about the whole thing Torch.
Go gaze upon some sweet tail lights until your inner sense of peace returns, however brief that may be.
In first grade as I was on third base in a Tee-ball game the third baseboy asked what team I was on and I said “the Phillies”. He informed me that I was not, because my hat had a P on it and Phillies starts with an F
Kids! My buddy told me he got into a middle school lunch table debate in the 1980s about engines that admittedly none of them knew anything about. His school mate argued his dad had a “4 cylinder V6″….
Sadly, in this day and age I fully expect Patrick to be unfazed by actual facts. No doubt he “did his own research”.
Never change, Torch.
He’s always got an axe to grind with GM.
How about asking nicely to squeeze the liquid out of the VFD they’re calling an LCD. That should sort out the facts right?
Wrong, stubborn and confrontational is my least favorite type of jack-off. Sometimes we don’t have the energy to deal them the smack down they deserve, and in those cases it’s important to loop back and deliver the blow with style. Well done sir, well done indeed.
I used to have basically that same head unit in my Silverado and while the VFD tech does indeed look cool and it did have an AUX port, the sound quality was ass. Replaced it with an entry-level Sony touchscreen unit that takes USB, AUX, or Bluetooth and it sounds infinitely better. I also replaced the speakers later and that helped too. But high quality sound is lost on a work-trim Silverado with the road noise and creaking plastic, so no need to go much further with upgrades!