Find Reviews by Make:
Whoa. I mean, way-hey! It seems like just a thousand years ago that GM started hyping their retro-styled rear wheel-drive Chevrolet coupe. And now, at least a week before GM scarfs another “bridge loan” and a good month before the company files for Chapter 11, one of our valued contacts has sent us these dealer prep sheets (PDF) for the new 2010 Chevrolet Camaro. Thank God GM Car Czar Bob Lutz is still alive to see this day.
31 Comments on “GM Shipping Camaros? GM Shipping Camaros!...”
Read all comments
GM needs to start producing PR photos of the car surrounded by the men and women who design and build the car.
Seeing Red-Ink Rick and his crew in front of one does not make me want to buy one.
Who the hell is handling the marketing at GM these days?
-ted
They will never be able to find them in all the holding lots.
Part of the job of a successful company is to put out products at the right time. The right time for this product was 2 years ago. I think the reason that it took so long is that they don’t have enough people to do the job in a timely fashion. The best sales for this product will be now and it will go downhill from here. If they can keep the company together and the car in production for a couple of years, the sales may perk up.
Man, if these things get as cheap as the lightly used (and some new) G8s have gotten, I just may trade in the GTI.
Dealer mark-up sticker of $10,000 coming to a Chevy dealer near you in 3, 2, 1…
“Man, if these things get as cheap as the lightly used (and some new) G8s have gotten, I just may trade in the GTI.”
I’d keep the GTI. I had an ’83 with 250K on the clock when I sold it, and I have an ’87 Scirocco 16V with 180K which runs great. To do that in some POS American car it would take at least 4 valve jobs and a few trannies.
A lot of the long rollout of the Camaro is due to the fact that GM decided to go with a concept first instead of just pulling the trigger and greenlighting production. It takes at least two years to get to job one.
Making the concept and taking it around the show circuit only delayed actual production.
I think the workers in Oshawa, Ontario have been very busy shipping these new vehicles, ahh it sounds so nice eh?
tced2 says it all. Even wayward chrysler got their challenger out months ago. Ford has their revised mustang out and yes how many entries are there needed in this niche market? When the mustang came out it was cheap compared to anything else sporty at that time. Mustang GT’s are now 30K and camaros will be right up there. At this price selling hundreds of thousands of units is out of the question. So again, who cares that a camaro has returned?
Oh, they promised us super fuel efficient cars before we gave them the “loans” and this is what they deliver? :-)
Interesting, they inspect the cars before they deliver them? So they actually know about their built quality? And still keep doing it the same way?
@Ronnie Schreiber
A lot of the long rollout of the Camaro is due to the fact that GM decided to go with a concept first instead of just pulling the trigger and greenlighting production. It takes at least two years to get to job one.
Making the concept and taking it around the show circuit only delayed actual production.
CryCo would like to have a word with your logic. The Concept could have very well been the production model. GM screwed the pooch delaying the launch. Had this come out around the same time as, say, Transformers, it had built in marketing. As it is, the appearance in the movie is little more than an inside joke.
“I’d keep the GTI. I had an ‘83 with 250K on the clock when I sold it, and I have an ‘87 Scirocco 16V with 180K which runs great. To do that in some POS American car it would take at least 4 valve jobs and a few trannies.
”
Meh, I used to believe that until my well cared for 97 Accord Wagon EX tranny blew this week at 182000 miles. The 2000 suburban chugs along at 130000 miles so far with no driveline problems. And now wholesale prices on 08-09 lighty used Suburbans have shot up $5000 for some reason. Schleprock.
This has got to go down as one of the worst product launches ever.
Bitchin’ Camaro, bitchin’ Camaro,
Doughnuts on your lawn.
Bitchin’ Camaro, bitchin’ Camaro,
Tony Orlando and Dawn.
GM didn’t delay the launch. They virtually made this car from scratch and that takes time.
It’s based on the Holden VE Commodore, but isn’t literally a rebodied Commodore like the Challenger is a rebodied 300C which is already in production and has a plant already making it. GM didn’t have any of those advantages to bring this car out quick.
The Commodore isn’t even made here and was engineered by Holden who is extremely good at designing RWD cars. When the Camaro was greenlighted the VE Commodore had just debuted in Australia itself and was still more than a year off being exported to America with the only major change being a Pontiac face.
Making a new car isn’t like flipping a switch on and off. Products take years to come to market even when fast-tracked and we all know how much things can change in just months, let alone years. There was nothing production-ready about the Camaro concept, it was a concept car in every sense of the word.
As a fan of cars like this I think they did a great job keeping it faithful to the concept. They also used the best talent and parts available in their global toy box to ensure the Camaro is the best of it’s kind.
The base 304hp V6 is potent and very affordably priced while returning good fuel consumption numbers. The base price on the V8 is also a steal considering it comes with standard Brembos, IRS and 422hp. It also has a legendary look unlike anything else on the road.
Judging by the rave reviews for the G8 we can all be assurred the ride, handling, and performance of this car will be first rate with the original Camaro’s iconic styling as a big bonus.
06M3S54B32, I have had numerous American cars and so has my immediate family. All of them have run well past 150,000 miles with no transmissions or “numerous valve jobs” needed.
So by all means, if (or more like when) these new Camaros become screaming deals take the plunge. It should be a fun and excellent car.
“And NAV” if equipped…Someone forgot to tell the inspection sign off team that no NAV systems are coming with the Camaro
Great Landing, wrong airport comes to mind!
If you are going to talk about reliability, mr. Jumbleoflettersandnumbers, I don’t think vw’s are where it’s at. One thing GM does right is an automatic transmission. There is an old saying: “a GM runs poorly longer than most cars run at all” same goes for the whole company, I suppose.
and if you don’t believe me about the vw’s, read tonights Hammertime:kiametrics
06M3S54B32:
You may be right about keeping the GTI, as it’s been almost trouble-free in about 14K miles. My dilemma is that I want to own a daily driver that seats 4 or 5, which I have now, and a 2-place roadster or coupe, preferably a Corvette. If I got the Camaro, I’d then have two cars that seat at least 4, making them redundant. On top of that, owning and affording 2 cars at a time, one a “toy”, will be a long time coming, as I’m recently married and a kid is next in line. So I’m thinking maybe I should jump on some automobile muscle when I can, how I can, and sacrificing the very good car that I already have.
Who knows, it could all be a pipe dream, as being married means my wife now has the overruling say in many of my actions from now on.
npbheights:
You’re right about GM cars running forever. An old car of mine, a ’99 Olds Intrigue I sold to my sister, is still going strong with about 130K miles on it. Yes, some interior trim pieces have come loose and a couple knobs are missing, but the drivetrain seems bulletproof and feels like it could go on for another 100K with no problem.
With a Camaro, and GM’s proven small-block engineering and solidity, I don’t mind having to get some panels re-glued or re-adhered, if it means that the expensive stuff, such as engine or transmission work is not an issue.
However, I’m looking for a manual trans in my sports car, if that makes a difference for longevity.
This has got to go down as one of the worst product launches ever.
More like ‘Product mosey’.
I have GTI and am in the same boat as 06M3S54B32:
While the GTI has been the love of my life, it has been problematic.
I have roughly 25k miles on it now.
An idler pulley for the timing belt went (but no damage done-warranty covered)
Tail lights (one fixed, another broken as we speak)
Steering rack required new bushings (made groaning)
More rattles than you can imagine (I’ve had to DIY fix most, dealer is incompetent at this, still noisy)
I am a domestic guy at heart..they just had nothing that met my needs (sporty, roomy, fuel efficient, quick and small) when i was purchasing. You don’t know how much i wanted to buy from the home team, but could not justify.
In 2 years or so, I’ll be looking to pick up a slightly used camaro, assuming GM in one form or another is around.
I’m tired of looking at this thing, its time for a refresh.
zerofoo :
February 25th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
GM needs to start producing PR photos of the car surrounded by the men and women who design and build the car.
Seeing Red-Ink Rick and his crew in front of one does not make me want to buy one.
Who the hell is handling the marketing at GM these days?
-ted
Ted, those are the guys who made the car.
bout time. damn. but they wont sell any. dealers will b marking them up the ass. i predict upwards of 50 grand. and who in their right mind is gonna pay that for a company thats damn near chapter 11?
Quote:06M3S54B32 :
February 25th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
“Man, if these things get as cheap as the lightly used (and some new) G8s have gotten, I just may trade in the GTI.”
I’d keep the GTI. I had an ‘83 with 250K on the clock when I sold it, and I have an ‘87 Scirocco 16V with 180K which runs great. To do that in some POS American car it would take at least 4 valve jobs and a few trannies.
I have yet to see, own or hear about any American car needing a valve job since the 80’s and that was a very high mileage 1980 Olds 260 V8 Cutlass sedan with 200K miles. The tranny failures are partly justified. Ford and Chrysler in the 90’s had a terrible time with there Caravans, Taurus and Winstar minivans with tranny failures. Some GM 4T65 trannys have bad pressure control solonoids causing rough shifts and have been incorrectly diagnosed and swapped out. I also know numerous folks with Hondas and Toyotas with failed transmissions including 3 2007 Camry owners and a Honda dealer that litterally has 20 junk automatic trannys sitting out back as cores awaiting pickup from a local scrapper. And talk about VW qaulity. Your talking about 80’s VW’s when they actually did last 200K. Try asking an owner with a late 90’s on up VW owner with the dreaded 2.0 liter turbo how many engines they have replaced or how many times there cars broke down due to failed coil packs or how many turbos they swapped out due to failure. Those Mexico made 2.0 NA engines of that period were junk too. Litterally 100’s of New Beatle owners got stuck with failed engines with less than 50K and had to flip the huge bill for a new motor. So much for American cars all being POS’s.
“i predict upwards of 50 grand. and who in their right mind is gonna pay that for a company thats damn near chapter 11?”
Even wo chapter 11 (which is where they should be) one could get an ’05 M3 with plenty of warranty for $35K; So why buy a tasteless POS GM? I’ve been in enough GM rentals (as well as an C6 Vette) to know these cars are full of interior gaps, plastic and enough glue vapors when warm to get you almost high.
ponchoman49: [Objecting to characterizations of American cars as POS’s] “… VW … VW … VW … VW…”
If Detroit’s benchmarking against VW, then I think I see Detroit’s problem.
ponchoman49, I don’t suppose you’ve noticed that VW’s US sales remain rather lower than Toyota’s? There’s a reason for that.
I’d keep the GTI. I had an ‘83 with 250K on the clock when I sold it, and I have an ‘87 Scirocco 16V with 180K which runs great. To do that in some POS American car it would take at least 4 valve jobs and a few trannies.…
Thank you for you unbiased input. With such a large sample size of 2 vehicles, you must be right.
“f Detroit’s benchmarking against VW, then I think I see Detroit’s problem.”
Actually Detroit’s problem is overpaid derelict UAW workers, job banks, retire in place jobs, pensions, ugly ass cars, redneck trucks. . The list goes on.
Moreover, what happened to the pricing? It used to be American’s new their cars were crap and priced them accordingly, and now you see $50K trucks.