The only things i hate about the concept are the guages. The retro font and style used on the primary guages and the awkward placement of the rest on the console is just all around bad.

Other than that, the overall flow is great.

btw, those console guages would be USELESS in a convertible with the top down. They'll be glare city for sure.

 

Well, that certainly does not apply to me. My wife and I have purchsed five new cars since 1999, four of those GM (1 Buick, 1 Pontiac, 1 Chevy, 1 Caddy). So, my comments are coming from a real potential buyer.

 

Yeah, I do wonder just how many of the people crying 'build it' are real potential buyers.

While I wouldn't be able to purchase it right away if it came out in less than 1.5 years (and it most likely won't), that's only due to my only having purchased my current vehicle 9 months ago. I'd have to pay considerably more off before trading it or I'd just end up having to finance a portion of it onto the Camaro due to it being worth less than I owe.

I've had, um... 3 new vehicles since 1999. All of them Chevy.

So I like to thinK I qualify as a 'real potential buyer'.

 

I take it you've never been in a 1st gen convertible. The console gauges aren't a problem at all.

 

If you say so. My thirdgen convertible had real bad glare off the radio, as does every other convertible i've ever been with a relatively low in the dash radio that's angled up slightly so the driver can see it. I suppose if you don't angle the guages up and make them even more hard to see and useless you could avoid that, but then, wtf is the point of guages that are hard to read?

 

My take on the interior...

First off it's a concept interior, which is pretty much designed to be "cool" rather than "useful" (form over function).

Overall I like it. But there are a few things I don't like.

Seats... I absolutely love them. The shape, the style, the contrast stitching.. gorgeous!

Dashboard/instruments... I like the general shape of the dashboard. Not crazy about the instrument panel, but I think realistic modern gauges would make production instead. The top lines of the dashboard are great, and how the door panels form into it is really nice. The screen in the center of the dash would be neat to keep as the onboard computer for tracking mileage, trip meter, maybe even incorporate radio and HVAC display into it, maybe GPS too. And HUD? Pretty please?

Center stack/console... I think a regular radio and HVAC controls will end up there, again, what's there now is just concept. I wouldn't hate console gauges, but I wouldn't find them too useful either.

Interior trim... Executed well. Not crazy about orange, but I know why it's orange. I wouldn't want alot of chrome staring me in the face, but subtle trim on the instrument panel is fine. Everything else is great the way it is.

Lighting... has anyone noticed the interior lighting? 4 smooth white LED strips on the headliner running the length of the roof (I have a good picture of it somewhere). Really neat, and I'd take that any day over a dome light. I would love to see that make production, even reduced to 2 strips along the edges by the windows (or whatever).

Other... Rearview mirror incorporated into the headliner. Quite nice and maximizes visibility out of the windsheild. Not sure if it's feasible for production though.
I like the concept steering wheel, but I would like a Corvette steering wheel just as much.
The materials used inside are great... seats, trim, headliner, every piece of material inside is nice, whether you like the shape or not.

 

I'm sure you are. After my experience in buying a GTO a couple of years ago, I'm going to wait a year (and the scalping stops) before I'd buy one.

It's just that I've read alot of bellyaching (not on this thread) of some jerk making some off the wall comment showing his stunning creativity (like the guy who once called the then-new GTO "Kangaroo-poo") that is obviously said just to compensate because they're insecure about being hung like a gerbil, then everyone gets that herd mentality and piles on.

We've waited a long time for the Camaro to return. There was alot of things done under the table as well as what we'd call extreme (how does tearing down a whole 200,000 capacity factory sound?!). Camaro had alot of fans inside GM from Ed Welburn, Bob Lutz, and even GM's CEO, Rick Wagoner himself (!) who in whatever devious way they could worked to get Camaro back while manitaining their responsibility to the entire company. GM's previous management people killed Camaro, and wouldn't have given a moment's thought about bringing it back if it didn't make tons of profit.

I just get a little edgy knowing what it took simply to get to this point where "Critical Mass" is going to FORCE the people who would derail, kill, or sideline the car (at GM, Lutz, Welburn, or even Chevy's general manager or GM's CEO don't have final say on new vehicles) can't do anything but say OK.

GM is a very political organization. We have people in key positions who (for a change) KNOW the car business, and have alot of enthusiasm for it who have to work with alot of people under them or they have to go through who understand nothing more than market studies, figures, and corperate structure and territorial threats.

After what it took to get Camaro to this point where it IS going to get made, almost come hell or high water, slamming the car over minor items or condeming the car over things that can be changed while in production just rubs me the wrong way.

Not meaning to flame anyone, but like I mentioned before, it tends to make me a little unfair and prickly. Sorry.

 

I've heard this statement elsewhere about production approvals in reference to GM, but WTF???? If these guys can't cause it to happen, who IS running GM. Who at GM doesnt' work for these guys? Maybe we've found the "root cause" problem here.

Doug

 

Great observation guionM and once again i have to agree with you. We could be "picking the nits" on all the little details of the car, but i really don't think that that will help in anyway. Alot of the management seem to really respect the Camaro name, i mean just look at the unveiling, it was incredible! If everybody continues to find little things wrong with the car, this could really hurt Mr. Lutz's efforts in persuading "higher powers" to get this thing out ASAP.

I think that the biggest issue to date, and i can support my argument with the 1-10 rating poll posted on this site, is that the car is almost too good looking for its own good. I find that when a lot of people tell me how awesome a car looks, that when i finally see it, i try my very hardest to find all of the things wrong with it that i don't like, just so i dont have to be like everybody else. I learned about this in psychology 101 and i thought it was a bunch of BS and i thought people like to go along with the crowd. But the very existance of muscle cars defies this idea simply because people buy muscle cars so they don't have to be like everybody else. We want to have strong engines,to leave 20ft drag marks, make the guys driving mini-vans and hondas envious and generally scare woman and small children with our exhaust sounds! Woooo!

Well, sorry, i got a little over excited there and i realize that some of those muscle car driver attributes may have been a little over the top and i also apologize for getting of topic from the "interior hate" discussion but i just really want to support the fact that we should just trust GM, i mean they revived our faviorite muscle car amidst the worst financial and gas crisis in recent history. So i think we can trust them to make a fantastic final version.

Okay now i'm going to go sit in my 2000 3.8L and make loud VROOM noises with my mouth and pretend that its a 5th gen Z/28. peace!

 

Just give us a GTO/C6ish interior, and everyone would be happy. I guess I don't understand why they would make such an "edgy", controversial interior after seeing the response from the public. If the response is 50/50, they could probably go with a GTO/C6ish interior and capture more of the market because the subtle/clean interior wouldn't offend many people. Most people like the exterior - most of the controversy seems to stem from the interior.

 

holy old post batman!

 

Gawdy, tawdry and cheap looking!!! The gauges on the console are not safe, nor easy to read.

The exterior is stylish yet exciting. Make a comparable stylish, exciting interior that is not like the concept.

I will buy the car regardless of the interior, but while driving, it is the interior we see most. GM, look at the poll results and you can see that the vast majority of us readers (read BUYERS GM) want a significant interior change please.

 

I think if they kept the interior EXACTLY like the concept's was, I would be happy with it. However, this is obviously not the case. This is the type of interior that if you start with...I don't know how it will turn out after metals are replaced with cheap plastics, cheaper leather and cloth, and not as elegant stitching -- it's the attention to detail and quality that really sold that interior to me. I think, had they started with a more modern GTO/C6/etc. style interior, they would actually be able to improve the interior rather than take an "overdone" concept interior and water it down.

 

I can see how some think it's "tawdry"....but cheap looking? I fear it WILL look cheap looking after they're make a production version of it....but, IMO the concepts was not cheap. Just curious - what about it is cheap?

 

To tell you the truth they could make the interior pink with rainbow accents and i would still buy it. But then again i just want the most friggan horsepower/lb/dollar as physically possible.

IMHO, the current Chevrolet SS lineup has some very acceptable interiors.