GM has been releasing many models in the first Quarter of the year as new models for the following year.

The 2004 GP came out in March of 2003 etc. THey have been doing this for near 10 years.

I am sure Scott may be able to fill us in if there is a reason GM has gone to this or that it may just be by chance.

It could be as simple as by calling a car one year and doing a early release it may count to some emission or Cafe rule?

 

OK, i guess i just haven't been paying attention then. It's still ridiculous.

 

This has been the practice in the automotive world since the beginning of time. Pretty much all manufacturers begin their next model year in July or August as a matter of standard practice.

The first Mustang was released in April 1964 as a 1965. The Nissan GT-R is available now in some markets, but is a 2009. The '84 Corvette was released in March '83 after the fall '83 launch was scuttled. Anything produced after January can be called the following model year.

 

They should be labeled with the model year they went on sale in. With my '98 it's not really a 10 year old car, it's 11, or is it 10? Who the **** knows since manufactures have been ****ing with the naming for so damn long.

 

Generally the new model year cars are introduced around July/Aug and are available for sale Sept/Oct (or somewhere close to those time frames), so why all the whining about getting the 2010 about 6 months early? Sheesh, if it takes to long to arrive for sale people are unhappy, if the model year comes out a little early people are unhappy, there's just no way to please all of the moaners and groaners!! And if you're that concerned about how old your car is, just look at the friggin build date.
Clyde

 

Because it's not a ****ing '10 model! It's a '09 model. Calling it something it's not doesn't make it any better. Why the **** don't we just call it the 2020 model and get done with it? **** it's about 10 years early but who gives a ****, right?

 

But it IS. I mean, you can't just ignore the fact that they've christened it an '10 model.

The reasoning behind it, as far as I understand...would be to give it a longer run rather than a shorter run before the '11 model year had to be released. the '10 will last until ~sept 2010. An '09 would last ~7 months? Hardly fair in terms of output, and sales numbers if you ask me...

Why is this such an issue again? The ACTUAL date of release hasn't changed..........

 

This is something you're simply wrong on. Any car introduced after Jan 01 of any given year can be classified as the NEXT model year. It's been this way forever. The Mustang came out in April of '64, it was a 65MY. The '84 Corvette came out in Feb/Mar of '83. Last years redesigned Tahoe/Yukon came out in January '06 as a 2007 model. I think you'd be hard pressed in fact to find a car that came out early in a calender year, and was NOT classified as the next model years car.

 

1970 camaro?

Or does that not count because it wasn't GM's fault it was late?


Those of you who don't get the gripe, i guess just never will. I can accept that i was wrong and that there have been previous cars that have come out in Q1 and been labeled as the following model year. q3 is certainly the standard.

Here is the best analogy i can come up with. Calling camaro a 2010 instead of a 09 means it is coming 5 (model) years after the retro mustang hit the scene and 2 (model) years after the challenger. Is this a big deal in the grand scheme of things, probably not. But, IMO, it's like calling someone who is 29.5 years old, 30. Go ahead and try it sometime and i guarantee you get a snappy reopnse back of "i AM NOT 30 yet, grumble, grumble, grumble" Even though it's esesentially the same age, it just makes it sound that person sound older, or in this case later to the party. Especially when the 2010 mustang is likely to be refreshed and not nearly as retro as the current model.

 

I thought the Challenger is a 09, not an 08?
You could also say that its 2 years older then its platform mate G8.
Its also been 8 model years since the last Camaro

Or, you could look at it like this...

You drive along, and you see a Ford dealer with a "new" 2009 Mustang out front, then you drive to the next one and see a "new" 2009 Challenger, and then the last dealer is the Chevy dealer with a NEW 2010 Camaro!! Its a whole new year ahead of the other two. Its why GM started doing this years ago, to simulate that it has a newwer car then everyone else. GM is no longer the only one that does this.

 

I agree - of course I said almost this exact same things 4 posts above yours

 

Yeah, I thought about that. I don't remember what the deal was on that, wasn't it a strike? Also, somewhere, I remember seeing a 1st gen (1969 looking) Camaro w/ a 1970 front plate on it to be used for advertising purposes from GM. I just don't remember if the 1st gen was supposed to go 4 years, and then they just decided to go long on the '69 model year (which is what they ended up doing) and come out w/ the new style as a MY70.

Another one that comes to mind is the new G8, its a MY08 isn't it? I also seem to recall the 4th gen Camaro and the C5 coming out in January, but retaining the current MY, but I believe they had already been marketed as such, and was only delayed by last minute engineering problems. Certainly after the fuss made over the lack of a 1983 Corvette, GM wasn't going to skip another year of production for the Corvette.

 

IT WAS NEVER A 2009 MODEL. IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN A 2010 MODEL. THE PRESS WAS SIMPLY WRONG.

 

The 1970 Camaro was delayed due to a strike.
GM only planed for the first gen to last a few years, and that the 2nd gen would be able to showcase the full extent of GM's engineering and design since the first gen was mroe of a crash course in Pony Car making.

 

Why is this going any farther?

It is a 2010 sold in Febuary 2009 case closed and move on to a topic that realy matters.