JakeRobb

I'm glad we had this conversation.

notgetleft

I'm not in denial that it's retro. It obviously drew most inspiration from the first gen shape. However, i think people claiming the comncept is ONLY inpsired by the first gen are in worse denial than the non-retro crowd.

Why, easy. The non-retro crowd is splitting hairs over the definition of retro. A waste of time argument if ever there was one. But to say that there aren't any elements of other generations in it are truly wearing blinders.

my only $0.02 on the retro vs. non- argument is this. The new mustang and challenger (and beetle and tbird) ONLY look like 1 generation of their ancestors. The fact that the camaro blends more than one generation is what muddles the definition to some of us. I really don't care what you call it though so i'm dropping out on this...

MarineReconZ28

All points are moot. GM made it and GM labeled it as "Heritage". Anything else in an opinion.

flowmotion

Seems to me that calling a car "Retro" is like calling a politician a "Liberal" -- everyone knows what it is, but nobody will fess up to it because of negative associations.

Z28Vert19

why does it matter whether or not it is "retro" or not? If you like it good, if you dont good. This thread is all opinions. Buy definition the 5th Gen is retro, heritage, evolution and every other thesaurus word that has to do with them. GM was not trying to make an exact copy of the1st gen but simply a sort of reencarnation of the 1st gen...modernized. It has small design cues from some of the prior generations and large ones from others. I really dont care...GM doesnt like the word "Retro" because ford used the word and if they use it then it would look like they are copying ford. Heritage and retro are very close to each other if you follow each word to there roots. IN MY OPINION, i love the 5th gen and will be right in line with the rest of you to buy one. With out a doubt the 5th gen carries on the distinguishability of the camaro. Just a quick question about retro.....would the Plymouth Prowler be considered retro because if its open wheels and sort of retro look?

HAZ-Matt

That kinda sounds like how Mercedes made a sedan that they called a "coupe".

JakeRobb

Yeah, WTF is up with that new "four-door coupe"?

That's like saying a girl is "ugly hot", or that it's "hot cold" outside.

It's almost as bad as "front-wheel-drive sports car".

Buttercup

The only people who don't call it retro are the people in the 5th gen forum here that are trying to convince the anti-retro crowd that this car is perfectly styled. Even GM recognizes that it's retro. If you think "heritage" styling is anything but a fancy term for the same ol' thing you're delusional. The rest of this message board calls it retro, the f-body email lists I'm on refer to it as retro, my general car buddies call it retro, ricers call it retro, the media calls it retro, the people in my office who don't have an automotive bone in their body say it looks like one of those old ones, the only place anybody tries (and puts lots of effort into doing so) to call it anything but retro is in this forum on this message board.

It's actually pretty remarkable. GM, like the people on this board, want to circumvent any possible negative remarks that some may have with the Camaro. They realize that there are actually people who aren't all that happy about retro styling. They coin the term "heritage styling" and BOOM all of a sudden it's not supposed to be retro.

Why is it that most of the people who are arguing that it is NOT retro the same guys that wanted the 5th gen to be retro???

This is only an issue here so it doesn't really matter. To the rest of the world this car is retro. Unfortunately a lot of people dig it but labelling it anything other that retro is not going to make it look any better to those of us who aren't impressed with retro styling.

EllwynX

Just to dispel the idea that only on the 5th Gen Boards are there people claiming they don't view it as 'retro' I just thought I'd mention that a number of people I've shown it to, while they can see the 1st Gen cues, consider it more modern than retro...

Buttercup

OK.

Stewie

Simple question.

Could you imagine a car design (in looks) like the 5th gen back in the late sixties?

Good Ph.D

ACTUALLY, its not as contradictory as you might think. The original meaning of the terms "coupe" and "sedan" had nothing to do with the number of doors a car had.

It refers to the roofline. Mercedes is far from the "first" to make a four door coupe, in fact they were quite common in the sixties when the words retained their original meaning.

This is why there were Mustang sedans available, which looked like this...


And Mustang coupes, which we all know and love, that had the signature fastback roofline, like this.



So by that definition, which is admittedly a bit archaic... Calling this a four door coupe is perfectly acceptable.



Especially considering there is essentially a sedan version available.



The more you know.

[/HIJACK]

HAZ-Matt

I disagree. The original definition of a coupe is a carriage with two seats on the inside and one on the outside; its name derived from the fact that it looked like a normal carriage cut in half. As it refers to the car, the definition is more classically a closed 2 door automobile with front seats and a luggage compartment. It may also have the qualifier that the rear needs to slope back, but in any event in the strictest sense coupes were only two doors and they only have one row of seats (autos with rear seats were either club coupes or coupe devilles). Therefore, while you could have a 2 door that was a some sort of coupe or sedan, it was not possible to have a 4 door coupe.

I do agree that a sedan has never expressly had to be a 4 door. But even if you follow the silly SAE distinction between the types based on rear passenger compartment volume, the CLS is still a sedan. The ad wizzards are mislabeling the car based on the more sporty connotation of coupe as opposed to sedan.

Good Ph.D

Well, out nerded I see...

Mine has pictures though.

FS3800

the SAE says coupe is a car with less than 33 cubic-feet of interior space..

that aint much.. it's possible to have a 2 door with more than that, and thus it'd be considered a sedan

but i don't think it's possible to have a 4 door with that little interior space

Mercedes calling the CLS a 4 door coupe is just a marketing ploy.. coupe sounds sportier than sedan