Well, dropping the Camaro and Firebird back in 2002-2003 left a lot of F-Body fans disappointed.....among them, one of my closest friends, who is a big Firebird Trans-Am fan. GM, since then, has gotten a lot of requests to bring the F-Bodies back, and has at least partially done so with the new Camaro.

That's the ironic thing......the last F-Bodies, as you note, were not big-sellers, yet GM did not realize the flood of protests they would receive by dropping them.

You, as the owner of 2 previous Camaros, may or may have not been one of those who protested GM dropping them (I don't know?) but I can assure you that many others DID....otherwise GM would not be bringing them back. The GM marketers also took a look at the new Mustang's sales, and, not surprisingly, decided that the Mustang needed some competition. Yes, it's true that the new Dodge Challenger has not kept up with the Mustang's sales numbers, but Chrysler was more or less expecting that....the original Challenger did not sell as well as the original Mustang or Camaro either, 40 years ago (and I grew up wth all three of those cars, in high school). The new Camaro, even with the auto-buying recession, will probably do better against the new Mustang than the Challenger, so far, is doing. I plant to review one (preferably an SS) as soon as it becomes available.

GM was not the first company to make a mistake like this, either. Mitsubishi, foolishly, dropped the Turbo and AWD Eclipse models back in 2000. While some of those former Eclipse fans gravitated to the Turbo/AWD Evo, many more wanted the old Eclipse GS-T and GS-X models to return. But, unlike GM, Mitsubishi still persists in refusing to bring back the once-popular high-performance Eclipses.

Just at the D.C. auto show, yesterday, I spoke to the Mitsubishi reps there, who acknowledge the flood of protests the company keeps getting from the old Eclipse crowd, but the Mitsubishi marketing people just aren't convinced.

So, unlike Mitsubishi, GM at least acknowledged their error in dropping the F-bodies, and is rectifying it.

 

I think this Camaro is going to be a very successful car from the sales perspective.

 

Mullet wearers, rejoice!

Too little, too late. Would have been killer three years ago.

Enterprise rent-a-car will certainly buy a handful of V6 powered models.

 

Like all retro cars, I'll hate it within a year.

 

Why? You just get tired of looking at 40-year-old designs?

 

Delivery in 2009 looks bleak... production must start NEXT MONDAY to make 09 delivery...

 

The Chevy people told me that regular Camaro production, right now, is scheduled to start in March. Of course, that's not necesarily set in stone.

 

Today, the last day of the D.C. Auto show, the Chevy product specialists said that the new Camaro would start production March 16 (that's the latest word, unless there is a last-minute change), although they did not go into much detail on which model(s) would start up first. At present, V6-equipped RS, V8-equipped SS, and SS convertible models are planned. They said that pricing of SS coupes would start around 31K.

There were two Camaros at the show, a dark blue RS and a silver SS. Both were roped off, so I could only get a limited view of each (and they wouldn't show off the interiors because they were pre-production models without full-factory-specs inside).

But the outside of both of them were dynamite-looking. This car is going to compete very well, looks alone if nothing else, with the Mustang and Challenger. Chevy already has a list of pre-orders, so unsold ones may not be available for awhile. I plan to review a Camaro (preferably an SS) when unsold ones become available, but just from a quick look from the specs, the 305-HP V6 in the RS has enough spunk that those who cannot afford an SS (or, who don't want one for other reasons, as insurance is bound to be high) need not be embarassed.









(Google-image pre-production interior)

 

Finally. I still would like to see a base 4 cylinder turbo model.

 

those body style camaros are slow as ****..

 

I really love the looks of it, but I still think it will be delayed with all of GM's supplier problems.

 

Way too late to cancel the camaro. The tooling, suppliers, plants are all ready to go. Way too much money to lose by cancelling the Camaro.

GM should and take the loss.

The Camaro is a disaster waiting to happen. Brilliant GM. Make a 2 door V8 coupe right when the economy is in a recession.

 

I will be happy to rent one and beat the shizz out of it on my next vacation.

 

I think its superb and I haven't driven it yet. I love how it looks.

 

Not bad at all.......