The truth about 1st gen Firebird

[TahoeMikeZ71]

Originally Posted by Mpressmi

To be honest to I am a little more of a gto fan then a firebird guy . I don't like the idea of the camaro and gto having equal platform esp. when the camaro was more of a pony car meant to battle the mustang. ANy one have an estimate on developing different tail lights seat dash and body kit for a T/A?

The Camaro is going to be on SWB Zeta and the GTO on LWB Zeta.

[Mpressmi]

thank you for that tahoe. Well as it going they are building the gto alll they would have to do is chnage up a camaro to make the T/A. Or they could just show sketchs

[HoeyHimself]

Originally Posted by TAHOE LT

The Camaro is going to be on SWB Zeta and the GTO on LWB Zeta.

The GTO may not even happen...hasnt anyone been listening to Maximum Bob lately?! The only V8 RWD cars we will be seeing are the ones we've already seen...for awhile atleast.

[BigAls87Z28]

Zeta will have several lenghts, and yes the whole Zeta platform is up in the air.
But as far as the first gen Firebird outselling the Camaro...uh, no.
There were SOME years in the late 70's which they did...not by much, but yes they did. I think 77 or 79?

[LAMRONH]

Originally Posted by Mpressmi

When the hit movie Smokey and the Bandit came out in the summer of 1977, sales of the Trans Am skyrocketed over 100% from 1976, no doubt due to the movie's popularity.

If Gm would have made it already and it showed up in the new knight rider maybe it wouldn't have been a ccx

On these forums I have repeatedly given GM a great free advertisement idear, which IMO is far better than their current crop of mediocre drivel and even if I'm wrong would at least get noticed.

Hire Burt Reynolds and a Jackie Gleason lookalike, give Burt the 327 GP and smokey a Camry with cop lights. Chase scene, Camry gets all toe up like Gleason's cop car did in the Smokey movie, the GXP comes out smelling like roses.

GM will: revive a flagging Burt career; give a boost to a Gleason lookalike; air an ad that's better than their billions of crapadollars that they waste now.

[Old Dood]

Originally Posted by HoosierRon

Eastbound and down...


Sheriff Buford T. Justice in all his glory:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=wqvLKdiVjqc

I always liked that style...but, you can take the bird off of it and just leave it black. I know that is sacrilegious to a lot of folks but I never liked big emblems like that...

[LAMRONH]

^^^Haha, Gleason was great in that role.
And a Smokey takeoff would make a great Pontiac ad. Will we ever see one? Or just continue with GM's mediocre ads, which they seem comfortable with.

[FStephenMasek]

Originally Posted by Old Dood

I always liked that style...but, you can take the bird off of it and just leave it black. I know that is sacrilegious to a lot of folks but I never liked big emblems like that...

You would have liked the 1979 Trans Am my brother, one sister, and I bought in college. After waiting four months, it arrived without the bird decal, with Camaro wheels, with a basketball-sized dent in the passenger side door, with the right front fender the wrong shade of gold, and with the hood the wrong shade of gold. It was one of the last 10,000 made with the Pontiac 400 (not the Olds 403) and had a 4-speed manual transmisison and the new rear disc brake option, so we took it and had the dealer fix the body work. We never did have him install the bird decal. It cost $8,300 then, about $25,000 in today's money.

[Firebird00]

I'm as big a Firebird fan as anyone (part of the reason I joined this site was to defend the car from the BS that was getting thrown at it) but the Bird never outsold the Camaro, not even in the glorious 77-79 seasons.

1st gen Camaro = 699,138
1st gen Firebird = 277,380

2nd gen Camaro = 1,936,869
2nd gen Firebird = 1,179,389

The closest Firebird ever came to surpassing Camaro sales wise was in 1990 where the Camaro only outsold the Firebird by 14,433 units.

Now you could do calculations based on the number of dealers for Pontiac and Chevrolet and come up w/ a percentage of sales based on dealer number and that might come back with a higher sales percentage based on dealers for Firebird. There have always been more Chevrolet dealers than Pontiac, so it only stands to reason that the more expensive less avaliable Firebird sold less than Camaro.

[Triple-X08]

Originally Posted by HoosierRon

Eastbound and down...


Sheriff Buford T. Justice in all his glory:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=wqvLKdiVjqc

oh my god that thing is orgasmic.



i love camaros. but i'll tell you right now. the only camaro i have liked the looks of better over the firebird and trans am, was the 60's style.

which isnt saying much because to me, the first gen camaro was ugly.
they are over rated and ugly in my opinion.

what makes the first gen camaro so special? exactly, nothing.

from 70-02 the firebird/trans am has looked better.

especially the late 70's.

ive owned 2 camaros in my life, a 75 and a 81. i love em to death, but the firebird just looks better.

had a mid 80's firebird and i loved it. knight rider style. yeah baby

the f body died after 81 begining with the 82 model year. progressively got uglier as the years past.


they should build another trans am. but they wont.
if they did, i would be in line to get one. instead now i have to settle for the camaro.


i know im going to get people that will flame me for this post, go ahead, you've seemed to have confused me with someone who gives a damn

[Canuck]

Originally Posted by Hood Scoop

If it were just about the different products in different divisions then we should be seeing a 442 and GS-X soon. Point being, they could sell Firebirds. Far more Firebirds in fact than a 442, GS-x, or any other muscle car from their historic stable (including GTO). So why not reintroduce Camaro's companion? It would sell more in its first year than the GTO did.

Sales are important but comparing the last generation GTO's sales numbers to predicted Firebird sales is not so simple. The GTO was offered in a single trim, no base model and a high price. The V6 Firebird added volume sales as did the V6 Camaro but at a much lower price. Price impacts sales. Imagine a Corvette offered with a V6 at a much lower price would boost Corvette sales but also would have a negative impact of the Corvette's image.

[Triple-X08]

the GTO was a waste of time, it was a rebadged monaro that had been around for 10 years. over priced, over rated car. sure its nice, but in reality who is going to buy a 35k GTO when you can buy a 25-30k firebird or trans am.

its basically like the SSR. big flop.

and the funny thing is the GTO pissed off alot of people.
yet the 90's+ camaro didnt? wanna be POS with a camaro badge.

[TahoeMikeZ71]

The GTO didn't have options (like a sunroof), was bland, dealers overpriced it, and it was based off an old design. If it was a fresh design, had options, wasn't overpriced, and didn't have the GTO name it would have sold. It still was better than most of the GM vehicles sold in the US. It had a better interior than any other GM vehicle.

[IROCNROL1]

Originally Posted by LAMRONH

On these forums I have repeatedly given GM a great free advertisement idear, which IMO is far better than their current crop of mediocre drivel and even if I'm wrong would at least get noticed.

Hire Burt Reynolds and a Jackie Gleason lookalike, give Burt the 327 GP and smokey a Camry with cop lights. Chase scene, Camry gets all toe up like Gleason's cop car did in the Smokey movie, the GXP comes out smelling like roses.

GM will: revive a flagging Burt career; give a boost to a Gleason lookalike; air an ad that's better than their billions of crapadollars that they waste now.

Maybe, but if GM caved so easily on the "Boy's Dream" Corvette commercial because of a couple of whining wimps, this thing would only air a time or two before it got yanked.