I couldn't agree with you more on all the points guion, especially regarding the appeal of all demographics of Mustang, how that is achieved without minimalizing the overall appeal of all Mustangs, and how this Camaro captures it. I've never been "in" the Mustang community, but one thing I know for sure is that it exists and thrives. Camaro must attain the same superstar cult status of this and import makes. Every model makes the difference, and every car must be bottom line fun to drive, easy to live with, and cool to be in. The new Camaro design is every bit what it should be, I hope your points on the interior carry through to the right ears. GM, listen and learn, a car with the level of passion built into its design like the Camaro, is exactly how you should be designing every other car. Design a car that will eventually gain a fervent crowd of fans, also the exact opposite of Impala, and you will have success.

 

I think part of the problem with the Camaro community vs the huge Mustang community, is that the Mustang is it for the Ford guys. Where as GM is so large with so many car lines, the enthusiasts are spread out over several cars. Plus Camaro has always played the step child role to the first born Corvette. Corvette gets all the attention while Camaro was hidden in its shadow.

The aftermarket doesn't make sense to me. With the popularity of the Small Block Chevy in the aftermarket, probably 90% of hot rods, street rods use a SBC. But on the other hand Camaro parts are so limited, especially 4th gen. Catalogs like Jegs or Summit only have 1 or 2 pages dedicated to Camaro vs. the dozen or so for Mustang

 

I am part of a 99% Mustang "muscle car club" in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (middle of nowhere to GM execs I'm sure!), I am basically the only full time GM car in the club, rest are Mustangs.....I also worked for a few years at a dealership around here as a salesmen. Back in September of 2004, just before the Mustang came out (here at least), Ford and the Alberta Mustang Owners Association invited our club to some of their meetings and a preview of the new Mustang a month before release....this was HUGE here, in a fairly out of the way community in Canada. To my knowledge, GM has never done anything like this, and it still remains difficult in this city to rally support and owners of Camaro's at all compared to Mustangs which have huge Mustang only shows everywhere.....

GM support for a new Camaro would give me the chance to "rally the troops" the way the Mustang guys have always been able to do, we are a good market for this kind of car, tons of money comes through with the oilsands and the economy is booming for decades to come at least....more corporate backing would be a great thing, seems whenever I had ideas in the past for things of such nature, they were ignored only to have the Mustang community using them shortly after....

Adam

 

The point about aftermarket support is well taken, I've harped on it myself.

-BUT-

This thread seems to have taken a turn towards GM not paying attention to Camaro enthusiasts, which at least lately I have to take issue with. The concept exists because GM took notice of the enthusiasts.

Did I miss something, or didn't Scott provide early viewing or a special viewing to lots of folks, all over the country?

The Detroit show in particular, and what GM/Chevrolet/Scott did there was very, very nice.

 

I think thats just the point, as of late GM is doing just that... working with the fan base where as only a few years ago this wasn't really ever heard of and the bulk of this has to be directed at Scott for doing such a wonderful job at energizing such a movement. Thank you Scott!

i really love the new Camaro, I think it's perfect in every way but Guy is right on the interior, it needs to be done "Right". Granted we all want the outside to look cool but when you spend most of your time actually driving the car the interior cannot be ignored. I'm a big fan of awsome interiors and unitl the G6, Tahoe and even Impala came out I never realized just how bad GM's interiors really were. I'm glad to see things on the right track now...

BTW, Scott... I still want my houndstooth inserts for the seats on my new Camaro