MAN am I bored with the new Chevrolet Camaro. GM's drip-feed PR campaign– ahead of the retro-modern muscle car's delayed, spring '09 launch– has been interminable. At this point, what else is there to say about the car? Except next! I mean, GMNext. Am I the only person who visits this website? My gardener's blog gets more comments. But I could be wrong; Camaro Product Manager John Fitzpatrick claims "The response [to an online chat] was overwhelming — we were typing as fast as we could and still couldn’t get to about 100 of your questions." It looks like John's a hunt-and-peck kinda guy; he's chosen just 13 Q's and A'ed them in a terse/cut-and-paste style. We learn the info above (which we already knew from the PR snaps) and the fact that the Camaro "has a specific life-cycle plan" (score one for planned obsolescence!). It will accommodate golf clubs. Yes, but how many sets? Damn! The suspense is killing me.
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If this car never comes to fruition, it will have been the greatest practical joke of all time.
You may be bored, Robert, but I’m excited as hell. As someone who wanted a Camaro for the longest time, this is probably the greatest thing to happen since… well, ever! I want one badly. To each his own, I suppose.
GM always makes either the rear reflectors or back-up lights look like late additions. That is such a terrible location and breaks up the rather clean styling on the rear.
This saves all the owners from putting on the aftermarket smoke lenses so it’s harder to see the brake lights. Smart!
I think the rear looks pretty nice! Although not like the ’69. More like a Z06 Vette.
Some icons are too strong to fell.
Vette.
Camaro.
Suburban.
Mustang.
Charger.
Golf clubs!?!? Not for real men!
So the Callaway Edition won’t involve performance tweaks, it’ll just come with a free Big Bertha driver?
I like how he calls ONSTAR the most advanced navigation system available! Some might prefer verbal instructions without a screen, but I’d hardly call it the most advanced!
I made it to the homepage, yawn.
What?
They tell people what they may end up doing.
Wait for online feedback.
And then decide according to the feedback?
OK – I’ll bite. Make them darker.
Overexposed true. Still lots of things to show, complete interior options, good looks at the SS (so far all the glamour shot have been most if not 100% V-6 with the RS package) as well as most important the pricing!
If the Onstar navigation system requires a person to answer your phone call and make things happen then it is not a very scalable system. Just how many Onstar telephone operators can they afford to have? With about 250 million vehicles registered in the US the numbers get pretty crazy. If everyone had Onstar and even 1% of those vehicles wanted directions at the same time you are looking at 2.5 MILLION Onstar calls. In-car Navigation needs to be a user-managed activity to have a workable large scale system. Onstar’s current system is a throwback to the days when everyone used a telephone switchboard operator to initiate and connect phone calls.
John Horner
I see OnStar maybe going to a flat-fee and pay-per-use model, sort of like basic cell service. People will pay the $5 a month for the peace of mind…and the wasteful and lazy people (who drive our economy!) will still pay $.50 a call for directions or restaurant advice or whatever it may be.
Then just offer an unlimited service at $40 a month or something.
Increase revenue AND minimize staffing needs?
The Spring ’09 launch date for this thing is pretty good as far as the timing goes….I still have to grow the back of my hair out a few more inches before I can attain the proper Camaro owner look. Plus, I have to get the guys at the vinyl shop to make me a “Loosing is not an option” sticker for the back window.
I don’t recall having seen any photos of the undercarriage yet. I need to know what the underside of the car looks like before I run down to Pep Boys to pick up a chromed diff cover and some traction bars…maybe replace those stock wheels with some nice chromed Cragar S/S’s ….and get a coupla rolls of blackout tint for the windows…..and one of those big-assed Autometer tachs with the shift light on it.
2009 Camaro: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
…and I don’t mean zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz28.
Good Night!
-Stop the presses!
[Press room comes to a grinding halt.]
-Never mind… start the presses!
-That takes FOUR HOURS!
4 dollars a gallon and GM is bringing yet another retro muscle car to market. Yeah that’s a good idea.
Amen RF
I find it absolutely hilarious that the first round of muscle cars was killed by high gas prices and that the latest craze is retro muscle cars which .. are going to be sold in limited numbers because of high gas prices!
Man, if anybody doesn’t believe that no one in Detroit predicted gas prices going up, just look at their “new” product line. Freakin’ brilliant.
Cloth top for the ‘vert is a great idea. Camaro is still ugly though.
C’mon now!!
Toyondasan would LOVE to do a retro muscle car!!
If they ever made one! This is an American ideal.
gawdodirt:
C’mon now!!
Toyondasan would LOVE to do a retro muscle car!!
If they ever made one! This is an American ideal.
I think they’re too busy trying to make money to get.. distracted. As for the “American ideal,” I’d have to reserve that description for the most desired car in America. Which is likely to be the best-selling car in America. Which WAS the F-150 for about 100 years. Now, not so much. And not so domestic.
it still looks like a smiling retard from the front.
At first the Camaro was ugly. It looks like one of those cartoonish metal models you see in gas station snack shops.
But now its ugly and boring. To think, I thought the GTR hype and rollout was drawn out too long.
Mr. Farago, do you realize that the reason that GM keeps shoving the Camaro in our face is in hopes that we will forget that the company is a hair from Chapter 11?
What month is it going to be released and what are the prices? I think it’s going to sell about as well as the Challenger. Expect the price to be about $68,000 because of dealer markup.
Could be like the GTO and that sports car truck that I can’t remember the name of. That $45,000 pickup. Oh yes, the SSR. Build them for a while, no sales. Maybe re coupe development costs, stop making them. Ford GT? Did they break even? It was made out of aluminum wasn’t it? Robotic MIG welders fabbing it up just like it was stamped steel? I wonder what the profit margins were on that car? Why don’t these little details ever get known?
The Mustang is a tired little Pony. The 2009 model being the same old car as the 2005 model. I see a different female driving some V6 model everyday. It’s a rare sight to see a V8 model(usually on the weekends).
If no one wanted a Mustang from 2005 to 2008; why in the world in 2009 are these same people going to suddenly want one then? The price hasn’t changed, the car hasn’t changed.. There is no incentive to buy. That sentence needs to be written on the meeting boards at Ford for them to consider, contemplate, and reconcile.
Does the Mustang get good fuel mileage?
Is the Mustang a great deal?
Can I beat a Corvette in a Mustang?
What’s special about the car and what does it do?
It’s expensive, heavy, and not very powerful. I’m not impressed; especially for the price.
How about if there were three different models of the Mustang and each one succeeded in one of those three things?
Now those overpriced special edition Mustangs aren’t the answer and it does not, absolutely does not cost that much to hop one up. It’s beyond easy these days to double, triple, or quadruple the horsepower output of any vehicle.
You know the “standard equipment” column on the window sticker of a new vehicle? I would love for all that to be optional and be able to watch the cost of the vehicle drop and I was unchecking all those boxes for my custom ordered vehicle. I don’t want their radio or their wheels. Depending on where you live or what you plan on doing with the car; no heater and/or no AC to reduce the price of the vehicle?
A 2008 V8 Mustang for about $8,000. Now we’re talking..
A Mustang that can beat the Corvette for ~$14,000? Now we’re talking.
An electric Mustang? Oh hell yeah. Can it beat the Tesla? No reason for it not too.
It just doesn’t seem like it should be rocket science to be able to make a Mustang get 40 mpg. Take an engine out of a Corolla and shoe horn it in there and see what it gets. Put that thing on a diet. It doesn’t need to weigh three tons.
Everything written also applies to the Camaro and the Challenger, and pretty much every vehicle.
Maybe there really are just a bunch of idiots working at these car manufacturers who really don’t know what their doing? When they finally go out of business; that should be proof enough. I’ll see you all next summer in my electric Mitsubishi after one more winter in my current beater.
$1/gal gas or $10/gal gas? Peak oil? Won’t be too much longer and I won’t even think about stuff like that any more. I’ve got wind power and hydro electric. You’ve got some solar out west right? Hoover Dam and some extensive stuff back east.. I see a nuke plant off in the distance when I fly into Orlando.. All this concern about pollution from power plants..
When the coal plants are the last thing pumping out pollution the pressure will be on them to clean up their act. You don’t think it takes any energy to make hydrogen? Compress hydrogen? Transport hydrogen and the stuff is free or costs pennies? Natural gas based hydrogen and platinum fuel cells? And a fuel cell vehicle still has a battery pack in it since the fuel cell isn’t all that powerful.
When you have no new ideas, the best thing to do is to recycle old ideas.
When you have no new ideas, the best thing to do is to recycle old ideas.
Ask J. Mays.
The Spring ‘09 launch date for this thing is pretty good as far as the timing goes….I still have to grow the back of my hair out a few more inches before I can attain the proper Camaro owner look. Plus, I have to get the guys at the vinyl shop to make me a “Loosing is not an option” sticker for the back window.
I don’t recall having seen any photos of the undercarriage yet. I need to know what the underside of the car looks like before I run down to Pep Boys to pick up a chromed diff cover and some traction bars…maybe replace those stock wheels with some nice chromed Cragar S/S’s ….and get a coupla rolls of blackout tint for the windows…..and one of those big-assed Autometer tachs with the shift light on it.
You forgot to add a vinyl roof as well.
OnStar sucks even if it were free.
I also don’t like the idea of being tracked by GPS. If I crashed into a ditch, I would prefer to die there instead of having the OnStar
I like the “angry” curve of the tail lights; goes with the “angry” look of the front.
OK, Maybe not “angry”, but “constipated”.