[Butta]

Car News briefs: Could new Camaro be coming?

By AUTOWEEK

Camaro coming?

Faced with the imminent introduction of an already highly praised all-new 2005 Mustang this fall and nothing in the showroom to do battle with it, General Motors is eyeing a return to the pony car wars. So says Chevrolet general manager Brent Dewar when asked about plans for a future Mustang fighter. Says Dewar: “We’re working on that. We’ll have a competitor.”

We’ll see.

Full Article Here

 

[mcroto97]

Joy

 

[chev454ls]

I can't wait, I want it now!

 

[silverado_13]

GM needs to bring it out now. We can't wait any longer.

 

[Gorf]

Yiphee!! Now lets just hope that it's a Camaro, and not a Holden Monaro with Chevy badges. It would be awesome if they gave the next Camaro an LS2! Oh I can't wait and it had better come.

 

[Mikkoo]

The key to success will be better packaging, much
improved ergonomics, and of course an LS2 for
the Z28, and SS.

 

[Watchdevil]

It's poor foresight for GM to think that there would not be a market to continue the Camaro against the Mustang. Chevy just let the Camaro languish in an old bodystyle and platform to the point that it was not interesting anymore except only to the die hard Camaro enthusiasts. I think people are desiring something new and fresh.. After so many years of being stale, not many people were as interested in the last Camaro for a few reasons. One, is that the Mustang was freshended and updated more frequently the past decade. Two, the used car market is flooded with used Camaros that look not much different from the newer ones, so there is not as much incemtive to buy a new one. Three, interior room and versitility was limited... the ride was also harsh. I also think too many people asociate the Camaro as being a harsh riding plastic lined rattle trap. All of the four F-bodied cars I owned (83,85,89,92) certainly were.

I hope the next Camaro will benefit from a fresh and modern evolutionary design and not depend on a host of retro styling cues.

 

[jordanz28ss]

My 88 camaro rattle but I still enjoy my baby!! :woot2:

 

[chadbarb99]

I won't believe it until I hear the words,"GM has green lighted to produce the next Camaro!!"

 

[redtruck1002]

To the return of the Camaro, I am VERY happy, correct that EXTREMELY happy. All I hope for and ask for is a car that is a Camaro, one that says Camaro from every angle. Not a retro design, but one that is aware there is a glorious past to the name it wears.

 

[GM_Guy81]

Maybe we will see it In january at Detriot.

 

[GotAWD]

Originally posted by Butta@Jun 3 2004, 10:46 AM
Car News briefs: Could new Camaro be coming?

By AUTOWEEK

Camaro coming?

Faced with the imminent introduction of an already highly praised all-new 2005 Mustang this fall and nothing in the showroom to do battle with it, General Motors is eyeing a return to the pony car wars. So says Chevrolet general manager Brent Dewar when asked about plans for a future Mustang fighter. Says Dewar: “We’re working on that. We’ll have a competitor.”

We’ll see.

Full Article Here

glad to hear GM is getting on the work orse but i also think that they should have not cut the camaro. the firebird ok but gm still needed a pony car. just one thing i dont like about the article is the little comment at the bottom "well see" whats that sup[posed to mean? GM cant do a good pony car???

 

[New_Mexico_Sunset_on_Rt66]

Watchdevil - Yes, the ride is harsh, but it's a performance car, for gosh sakes, it should be hard to steer when coming up to stoplights! As Sammy says from "Can't Drive 55", "When I drive that slow, you know it's hard to steer.
And I can't get my car out of second gear."

I can Testify that the 4th Gen Z-28 is a Pure Thrill to drive. Crank some good hard rock, pop the T-Tops and let the Lake pipes roar. Mmm, good.

The 4th Gen Camaro is NOT lacking in performance, but is lacking in styling.

I bet the 5th Gen kicks b>tt.

I'm cautiously optimistic.

:angry: <_<

 

[MCGARRETT]

It's poor foresight for GM to think that there would not be a market to continue the Camaro against the Mustang. Chevy just let the Camaro languish in an old bodystyle and platform to the point that it was not interesting anymore except only to the die hard Camaro enthusiasts. I think people are desiring something new and fresh.. After so many years of being stale, not many people were as interested in the last Camaro for a few reasons. One, is that the Mustang was freshended and updated more frequently the past decade. Two, the used car market is flooded with used Camaros that look not much different from the newer ones, so there is not as much incemtive to buy a new one. Three, interior room and versitility was limited... the ride was also harsh. I also think too many people asociate the Camaro as being a harsh riding plastic lined rattle trap. All of the four F-bodied cars I owned (83,85,89,92) certainly were.

Of course...GM is always wrong...Ford however is perfectly in the right by still using the 1978 FOX platform, which debuted on the Farimont, on the 2004 Mustang, and not re-designing the car from 1979 through 1993 was also the right thing for Ford, but of course in GM does it, then it sucks...

GM was also wrong for offering more HP in both the V8 and V6 engines.
GM was wrong for offering better looking cars.
GM was wrong for offering better handling cars.

Both the Mustang and the Camaro were updated once through their prouduct cycles. The Camaro was introduced in 1993 and was updated in 1998. The Mustang was introduced in 1994, and it was updated in 1999.

Ford produced and sold more Mustangs than Camaro's, so by that rationale there would be more Mustangs on used car lots, and less incentive to buy a new Mustang, also Ford concentrated heavily on fleet sales for V6 Mustang convertibles, so those will also flood the used car market too.

The Camaro was not interesting.....

I dont know, but when a car offers about 50 more horsepower and an extra gear in a manual transmission, in a lower slung, better looking and handling car, thats interesting enough for me..

If you need scoops and spoilers...you might want to go get and Eclipse or something and go to Pep Boys..


Chevrolet was not wrong for droping the Camaro, if you have a car with declining sales, on and older platform, with a needed expensive re-design comming up, and you are also facing decling market share, and slower sales in your bread and butter car line-up, what do you do...you pick your battles...I hate to say it..but cars like the Cobalt, Malibu, Impala, Silverado, Equinox and even Corvette are more importaint to Chevrolet than the Camaro, cars like these are what bring in the dough and help pay for funding for cars like the Camaro, remember that its been more than 20 years since a Camaro has sold more than 200,000 units.

 

[R.E Sanchez]

*Please Keep Comments Appropriate, Racial and Cultural Slurs are not allowed on these boards*

-Chris

 

[SilveradoBraddah]

You say that like it's a bad thing Sanchez. If Chevrolet will develop and sell the SSR, definitely a low volume undertaking, then a new Camaro to do battle with the new/old looking Mustang is almost a certainty. Things are changing for the better under the reign of Lutz. This is a man who is not afraid to take risks, exactly what GM needs.

 

[New_Mexico_Sunset_on_Rt66]

McGarret,

That's just the kind of talk we need. You know, that REAL Ford vs. GM rivallry. If Mopar can get a kick @ss performance ride, then the rivallry will be back to the good ol' days. You know, the die-hard Ford guys, the die-hard GM guys and the die-hard Mopar guys.

I just hope its styling matches its performance. I also hope they ONLY improve it's performance, which is already superb.

:lol: <_<

 

[Canuck]

This great news for performance fans. Competition is always good and having GM admit they need to be back in the pony car game is a good admission.
When this will happen is the issue now. Sooner is better than later.
I suspect one day in the future someone from GM will write their memoirs and explain the death of the F body and why GM did not have an immediate replacement for the F body.

 

[usa1]

McGarret, good critique of Watchdevil's post.

There are a few things that made the Camaro a sales loser to the Mustang in the later years.

Packaging. I'm sure many would disagree, but I think this is the biggest thing against the last generation Camaro.

The last Camaro was large, long, and wide on the outside, and yet small on the inside. You ever look at how obscenely thick the door are? What's in those things? The refreshed Camaro tried to help this by taking 3" off the nose (which really turned it ugly in my eyes), but the thing was not small by anyone's measure. The Mustang is about 10" shorter and yet is as roomy inside as the Camaro.

The packaging also drove a very different seating arrangement compared to the Mustang. You sat "in" a Mustang, and you said "down into" a Camaro.

This packaging problem turned it off to the female demographic who are a big buyer of Mustangs and other small cars like the Eclipse and Celica. The seating postition turned off older buyers.

I had many people say the Camaro was simply too big for them to consider buying it. The thing should have been designed to be well under 190 inches. Other people complained it was hard to get into and out of.

Quality. The Camaro has never been know as a quality vehicle. The last generation kept this tradition alive and to make it worse, the interior, even after the update in 1997, was still cheap looking. The Mustang isn't great for quality by any measure, but it was consistently better than the Camaro.

Marketing. The Camaro seemed to be marketed only at the male population and hard core enthusiasts. No effort to broaden its appeal was made. In the 1970's and 1980's Chevrolet did a great job coming out the models that appealed to different groups of people. Lines like the Berlinetta appealed to a very different group than the Z28 did. On the last generation, Chevrolet focused primary on the performance enthusiast. Al developement was made to make the Z28 or SS faster. Great for someone like me, but many buys don't care or cannot afford the models.

By targeting the inexpensive performance crowd, the Camaro got associated with the mullet heads in many people's eye. Not a group you want sterotypically associated with your products.

Volume. Because Chevrolet taylored to a small but vocal portion of the market, they suffered from lower volumes. The low volumes translated into an underutilized plant at an inflexible plant that could only build F-bodies. This made the whole business model for the line not work and GM needed to cut its losses.

You can poo poo the idea of trying to make the Camaro appeal to females and older people, but when you dothis, you guarentee the product will have a limited appeal to a fraction of population. The Camaro needed volume (150K+) to stay economically viable.

A new Camaro that is designed for the masses and has the performance we know GM can put into it, could be a big seller. I hope Chevrolet does it well.

Note to GM: Don't let the guys who did the ION or the "new" minivans anywhere near this project!

Mark

 

[R.E Sanchez]

Originally posted by SilveradoBraddah@Jun 3 2004, 07:41 PM
You say that like it's a bad thing Sanchez.

sorry for not being clear...I think bringing back the Camaro is a great thing, mullet hair and half shirts...bad thing