shintajay: Something is wrong here. Let me explain.
In 03 / 04 models, BOTH the driver side and passenger side slots were vertical. This was a bad idea, because:
1. If a seats was moved forward far enough, it would hit the cupholder and break the mounting tab molded into the console
2. Car wash people seemed incfedibly adept at breaking the cupholders off at the mount
In either case, the entire console side (left or right) would need to be replaced under warranty.
The "solution" was to provide new console sides in which the slots were HORIZONTAL versus vertical, and of course, new matching cupholders with horizontal versus vertical mounts were required in order for the new mounts to be usable!
Because the labor involved to make the change from broken vertical slot to new horizontal slot console was large enough, GM chose to replace ONLY the side that happened to be broken! So, 03 / 04 models sometimes ended up with one vertical and one horizontal mount and a matching cupholder for each! (The vertical and horizontal cupholders are obviosuly not interchangeable!)
For 05 and 06 models, GM provided horizontal mounts and cupholders for BOTH sides right from the factory.
By the way, the horizontal mount was NOT a good solution. Reason: With the new horizontal mount cupholder, if you slide the seat forward far enough, you still hit the cupholder. Now, it does not break the cupholder mount, but merely knocks the cupholder right out of the mount! If there happens to be a drnk in it at the time, it will spill the contents of the drink all over the SSR's interior! This is especially fun and long lasting if the drink is sugary and thus supports "micro life"! GM views this as a satisfactory fix however, as it does greatly reduce the incidence of cupholder mount breakage and warranty replacement of the entire side of the console! The micro life problem is not warrantyable!
Back to your specifc case: Your 05 should NOT have one horizontal and one vertical! It should have two horizontal ones. That's how it came from the factory.
Here's my theory on what happened on yours:
Someone, during a test drive or dealer lot movement, or while prepping or cleaning the vehicle, struck the driver side cupholder and broke it (easy to do). A replacement was ordered, but an 03 / 04 vertical replacement was accidentally ordered versus an 05 / 06 horizontal replacement! So, you ended up with the dreaded one horizontal / one vertical combination!
Solution: Show your dealer this posting, and politely insist that the incorrect vertical mount and cupholder be replaced with the correct horizontal mount and cupholder. Don't let them tell you that your current setup is good enough. It is not, as that vertical mount is fragile (remember, that' why GM changed it to horizontal in the first place), and WILL break, either in warranty or later. Later is an EXPENSIVE repair, as the entire one side of the console must be replaced.
Jim G
