Discussion on body issues/mods, appearance, interior/trim, and detailing (i.e. how to keep your car looking showroom new, or a reasonable facsimile thereof...).
It has the black cloth seats and the big center console with all the slots in it.. I was wondering if anyone has replaced this? I dont need it for anything, and would much rather have cup holders, arm rest etc...
Second question, Has one changed the cloth to vinyl rear seat? Give the car the leather look?
Question 3, has anyone upgraded the stereo in them.. the one im looking at has no door speakers. This will be my daily ride and well i like my music.
question 4, do they make a plug to remove the spot light? This car will not see any police work, it will just be my company car so i have no need for the police stuff..
I am probably the least experienced guy on here but I will share with you what I know. Outside of police consoles there isn't much for the 2014 cars yet. Some guys sell a generic console you could bolt to the metal slots on ebay...there are a few choices. A lot of people on here will also tell you to look at 2013 and older cars as they are more "civilianized"...especially 9c3 cars.
Personally I like the 2014's column shift better that the previous floor shifter but that is a personal preference.
As for vinyl seats, generally the cloth seat is considered the "upgrade" unless you want to try and fit seats from a G8. I don't know if that is possible on a 2014. Vinyl gets sticky on long car rides in my experience and no matter which car you buy the front seats are a cloth/vinyl mix.
I have been told Chris White is the go to guy for stereos however, I do not know if he has worked on any 2014 cars yet.
I have no information about the removal of the spotlight.
I just ran across this one, its a 14 used, with 50 miles, it does have the column shift.. the year isnt that big of a deal to me, but money wise its $3k more than the 13's ive seen that still new... extra year of warranty is worth the money to me,
As for the seats i would want them to match, Ive been ridding the impalas for years for company cars, but i just cant bring my self to pay $40K for LTZ, or mid $20s for a used one... and the extra room would be nice.. there doesnt seem to be a lot of hp difference, 45 ish, between the impala and caprice, but of course the v8 will have a lot more torque..
Im in TN, and they do not use the caprice for police cars, so i would have something no one has, which is kinda cool....
I did see set of door panels on e bay for a G8, if those would work it would hold speakers, just not sure about wiring.
Welcome to the forums! I'll be the first to tell you that you're probably going to blaze the trail on the 2014 interior mods if you pick one up. To my knowledge the retrofit of a 2014 SS center console to the Caprice is possible in theory.... but there's going to have to be a whole slew of electronic moves and parts added, modded, swapped etc.. if you want to have the shifter in the center.
Once upon a time I had a 2002 Police Impala with a column shift, ratty blue interior (well-used by Officer Friendly) and so on. To clean it up I purchased a complete tan interior including seats, steering wheel, column trim & headliner from a 2002 Impala LTZ and swapped it all out. But, I had one problem. I wasn't moving the column shifter and the LTZ package had a center console shifter. So.... I ended up engineering a custom fit switch center that went in the center section of the console where the shifter would normally be mounted. I guess you could put a pole there for a laptop mount with a quick disconnect if you picked up a SS center console & seats... might be one way to do it. I'm not sure on the seat rails interchange between the PPV and the SS, but it stands to reason that you should be able to make that fit. Electrical pin-outs might be another challenge.
I'd watch the insurance auctions and car-part.com for a wrecked 2014 and see if you could make a deal on interior parts & pieces if you find a wrecked one. Assuming you pick up a car of course. But I'd go for the 2014 if you could.
Let us know what happens!
Thanks
Eric
System Manager and your tour guide for the day. 2015 Caprice w/LFX, former NC DPS staff car. Partial hybrid G8/SS/Camaro SS interior mods, SS MyLink radio upgrade, 2016 Camaro V6 rims, GMPP Malibu chrome exhaust tips, otherwise bone stock for now.
I never could get anyone to call me back on the 14. Guess I'll keep looking and see what shows up. There are some 13s on line used that seem like a good deal. I would rather have the column shift, I think it would be easier to find or make a center console so I would have cup holders and arm rest
I read they make a " detective" car that is more interior friendly but I haven't seen one used
