[SVTKAR3]

Mark LaNeve: Camaro won't be positioned as a muscle car

Posted Mar 22nd 2008 9:01AM by Jeremy Korzeniewski



The hits just keep on coming for fans of the Chevy Camaro. Just yesterday, we quoted Bob Lutz as suggesting that the Camaro could get a four-cylinder engine option. Now we hear that Mark LaNeve, VP of sales and marketing for GM North America, says that, "We won't position it as a muscle car," speaking again of the 2010 Camaro. Sure, you could spend hours debating the terms "muscle car" and "pony car", but we're pretty sure that very few ever thought of the Camaro as a fuel-efficient option. But, that's exactly how GM will position it. "The mainstream positioning will be fuel economy, design and a V-6," says LaNeve.

The truth seems to be that GM just cannot afford to sell a couple hundred thousand Camaros a year with V8 engines rated at around 20 miles per gallon combined. But, before V8-lovers get too upset, remember that it is the fuel efficient engine options which make the fire-breathing V8 an option at all. Without mainstream options like either a direct-injected V6 or even a small turbocharged 4, there is simply no way that Chevrolet could ever reintroduce the Camaro at all.




Source: Business Week]

 

[SVTKAR3]

As a Mustang fan, i suppose this should be good news, but i can't help but feeling dissapointed...... I wanna see a good 'ole fashioned V8 Mustang vs. a V8 Camaro comparo!! :drive: :drive:

 

[CobaltSScrazy]

there will be a V8 option, sheesh. FbodyFather says a 525hp V8 Z28 option (I'm guessing at 35k?)

This load of horse **** that Lutz and Co. keep giving us about the doom and gloom of the auto industry is starting to get tiring. If Hyundai can bring out Genesis, Acura can design V8s/V10s, and Infiniti, Lexus, Audi, BMW and MB can all keep their V8's and BUILD TO CUSTOMER demand them GM should too! I read somewhere that Lee Ioc. back in the day ranted about the bumper rules and how they'd 'kill' the auto industry and the gov't just said it must be done and the truth was somewhere in between...I think we can anticipate that again!

CobaltSS

 

[Ambalanche]

As a Mustang fan, i suppose this should be good news, but i can't help but feeling dissapointed...... I wanna see a good 'ole fashioned V8 Mustang vs. a V8 Camaro comparo!! :drive: :drive:

Dude, did you not read the article? It said NOWHERE there would not be a V8 option!

GM is smart by not positioning the new Camaro as a fire breathing Mustang eater, we all know it will be , because if they did that in this high gas era, no one would even look at one if they already assume it will get 5 MPG. I say bring on the Turbo 4 (great engine) Di V6 (also great) and LS's (great again). Can't go wrong in MHO!!

 

[Ambalanche]

Cobalt, I don't want to hear anything about me having had all three of those either!

 

[BigAls87Z28]

there will be a V8 option, sheesh. FbodyFather says a 525hp V8 Z28 option (I'm guessing at 35k?)

He never said anything of the sort....and if it happens, it wont slide in at 35k.

This load of horse **** that Lutz and Co. keep giving us about the doom and gloom of the auto industry is starting to get tiring. If Hyundai can bring out Genesis, Acura can design V8s/V10s, and Infiniti, Lexus, Audi, BMW and MB can all keep their V8's and BUILD TO CUSTOMER demand them GM should too! I read somewhere that Lee Ioc. back in the day ranted about the bumper rules and how they'd 'kill' the auto industry and the gov't just said it must be done and the truth was somewhere in between...I think we can anticipate that again!

CobaltSS

This, like everything else, is being just dramatisized to the point where its getting me sick.

What Mark LaNeve said was that they will FOCUS on the V6 engines, WHICH IS GOOD!! That is the big seller! That is the one that NEEDS the attention!! The V8's have always and will always sell themsevles. The Camaro has been around for 41 years now, and people know it as a performance car. The enthuisats will know that there are V8's to be had. Im glad that they will show the performance of the V6, and I hope they match it against the 370Z, Mustang V6, and other V6 sport coupes!!!
This is GREAT NEWS!!!!

And Camaro is a Pony car, which would be part of the Muscle Car era.

 

[CamaroCrazy]

I think this is a good idea since most of the American public is getting all hysterical about the price of gas. Ok, so those people can be the ones buying the 4-cyl and 6-cyl options that, like the article said, keep the V8's possible.

Unlike the past though, you have 260hp 4 bangers and 300hp Sixes. Not too long ago, there weren't V8's that could do that! So can we really complain?

 

[big swede]

They can try and position it however they like but people will still see it for what it is a performance car with plenty of muscle as an option.

 

[2002 Caddy]

Im glad that they will show the performance of the V6, and I hope they match it against the 370Z, Mustang V6, and other V6 sport coupes!!!
This is GREAT NEWS!!!!

Not to be a glass half empty kinda guy... This thread (if any of it is true) is cause for concern. I know the new Camaro will be a great car. I fear that GM will have no clue on how to sell it... This is exactly what happened to the new GTO... GM builds a "fine" car and then they figure out it doesn't quite fit with some sort of "corporate image" and they sweep it under the rug.

Whats funny to me, is that IMHO GM's corporate image in a nut shell is:
"We make some really nice V8 powered full size trucks"

GM management worries about what people will think about a V8 Camaro and they plan to underplay it... And yet they are happy to pump out V8 Hummers, Escallades, Silverados, etc.

 

[GM-4-LIFE]

I just hope that the V8 option will be at least the LS3 and NOT the LS2.

I really don't understand why GM would even put the LS2 in the Camaro, G8 and Trailblazer SS when the Corvette hasn't had the LS2 for almost a year. It doesn't make any sense. They should ramp up production of the LS3 so that production costs are much less and stop making the LS2 altogether. It gives the public more bang for the buck and has newer technology built into it and the LS3 is just as fuel efficient as the LS2.

Just my opinion. Don't worry guys, the Camaro will blow the doors off of the Challenger and Mustang, if GM puts an LS3 in rated at 430 hp or more.

 

[Archangel]

Would anyone here actually buy a 4-cyl Camaro? Please be honest. I know I wouldn't.

 

[lilredcrvtt]

Well maybe not a 4-cyl, a high output D.I. 3.6 perhaps, but thats just me. I'm sure that some of the younger generation who never knew the hot, high horsepower Camaro's of the past may think a 260 h.p. 4-cyl is just the greatest thing ever. Who knows, when you move forward, it might be a good thing for the future of the rear drive platform. It will be very interesting to see it unfold.

 

[Sinner]

I just hope that the V8 option will be at least the LS3 and NOT the LS2.

I really don't understand why GM would even put the LS2 in the Camaro, G8 and Trailblazer SS when the Corvette hasn't had the LS2 for almost a year. It doesn't make any sense. They should ramp up production of the LS3 so that production costs are much less and stop making the LS2 altogether. It gives the public more bang for the buck and has newer technology built into it and the LS3 is just as fuel efficient as the LS2.

Just my opinion. Don't worry guys, the Camaro will blow the doors off of the Challenger and Mustang, if GM puts an LS3 in rated at 430 hp or more.

The G8 doesn't have the LS2, and Fbodfather has said to forget everything you know about GM engines for the Camaro, they'll be new and we won't be disappointed.

 

[Orbit Orange]

I've heard if you buy a new Camaro, if you press the radio button for 30 seconds, the Camaro goes into "GREEN" mode. When it does, the ozone layer becomes healed, Global temperatures drop by 1.2 degrees and baby seals live a long and happy life.

Chevy is also to bring out a new tagline for Camaro......

"Camaro, a fuel efficient car even a member of E.L.F. can love"

 

[markusername]

Would anyone here actually buy a 4-cyl Camaro? Please be honest. I know I wouldn't.

My thoughts exactly. Can you imagine being at a red light next to a 60 year old granny in her v6 camry - and she beats your camaro? What's the point in buying a camaro that a camry could beat?

This should be a halo car like the vette. Can you imagine a 4 cyl vette that a camry is faster than? Don't dumb down the camaro - build it in small numbers like a halo car.

 

[SCarFan]

Would anyone here actually buy a 4-cyl Camaro? Please be honest. I know I wouldn't.

I would. In fact, I would probably only buy the Camaro with a 4-cylinder turbo, provided it was making around ~280HP.

 

[goblue]

I don't know where all the doom and gloom is coming from. Its going to be the 3.6L DI and the LS3. The LS2 is being phased out. Maybe after a year or so we might see an LSA but no one really knows, and a base turbo 4 cyl is being considered.

 

[SCarFan]

My thoughts exactly. Can you imagine being at a red light next to a 60 year old granny in her v6 camry - and she beats your camaro? What's the point in buying a camaro that a camry could beat?

This should be a halo car like the vette. Can you imagine a 4 cyl vette that a camry is faster than? Don't dumb down the camaro - build it in small numbers like a halo car.

A sentiment echoed by many boys who haven't finished going through puberty yet, I'm sure.

I don't know about you, but I rarely get the chance to (or even want to) line up against anyone at a red light. But maybe that's because I live in the real world, and not a Fast and the Furious movie.

 

[jkennedy293]

I don't see why everyone is so shocked that they will sell a turbo 4 and V6. Since the mid-1970s, the V6 has sold more units than the V8. why should now be any different. GM is not getting rid of the V8, and they are certainly not taking away from the performance. We just need to face the facts that the majority of people who will buy the Camaro will buy it for its looks and its coolness rather than for its power or handling. It has been this way for decades, and it isn't about to change.

 

[jkennedy293]

My thoughts exactly. Can you imagine being at a red light next to a 60 year old granny in her v6 camry - and she beats your camaro? What's the point in buying a camaro that a camry could beat?

This should be a halo car like the vette. Can you imagine a 4 cyl vette that a camry is faster than? Don't dumb down the camaro - build it in small numbers like a halo car.

Who races stoplight-to-stoplight anymore?