If you feel that the GTO makes a good Firebird, then you'll feel that the Chevy Zeta coupe makes a good Camaro.

 

Let me just say this:

I am tired of giving a damn about a new Camaro. I'm about out of enthusiasm.

A leak of a photo of a car unmistakably Camaro or an official announcement from GM would go a long way to curing me, but I'm also tired of hoping for that too.

I respect Scott a lot, but there's only so much I can give. I'd rather apply my attention to other things. I'm quite content to hang on to my current car and enthuse about C6's, etc. But I'm just worn out with all the Camaro drama or lack thereof.

 

As more time goes by and I hear nothing about the possibity of a new car.........I become more and more likely to buy another brand.

Getting close here........

 

My thoughts exactly, I'm just ganna buy another '95 and play with it once im out of school.

 

I don't understand the concern over the platform. The CTS-V and the STS share a version of the sigma platform, but they are hardly the same car in terms of size or performance. What was so special about the F-body platform? Nothing. It has to do with the components that are assembled on the platform.

 

Like when they gave up the police car market to the Crown Vic?

 

I mentioned the B-Body. Hopefully, there should be a car in a few years to take that market back too.

 

It has to do with architectural hardpoints like firewall height, overal length.

The STS is a large sedan, It's a stretched CTS....no problem, that's easy.

Now try to shrink and lower it to become a sporty coupe. BIG problem and undoable.

 

That works for us who arent going to be in the market soon, but its a big deal to those who want a new sporty car here in the next year or two. There are plenty of people out there who are ready to trade in there '00's, '01's, '02's on a new Camaro and its frustrating to not have one there. Hence they are forced to look elsewhere, and to some of these people, Mustang isnt on their list. Camaro has always been there, the bargain performance buy. Now with it not being there, its easy to see how some feel like they've been left out in the cold........

 

Exactly what I've tried to state. Throwing a half assed offering into the hat doesn't mean GM has the market "covered." Slapping a supercharger onto the Impala or the Monte doesn't mean it's a viable entry into the sporty high 20's car range. I'd like to see a magazine comparison between the supercharged Monte or Impy against Maxima, Accord V6, or the Mazda 6. Not to mention that they're knocking at the door of the G35 in price. As a matter of fact, the starting price is HIGHER.

That's outpowered by most of it's competitors, and beaten in price. What happened to Chevy giving more for less?

Compare this to a G35:
Why exactly would I ever even glance at the Impala? I can get a car that's on an old design, with lower end interior compared to an Infiniti, 50 less horsepower, way worse handling....point being, the Impala is a much worse car in every way for a price difference of about 1k. And most of the competitors are actually offering a real manual transmission, to boot! This is comparing it to the stuff that's priced near it, god forbid you actually compare it to the real competitors.

Point being, this market is far from "covered" GM's entries offer way too little for way too much.

Let's break this down...

Imports covered with Ion Redline and Cobalt SS? The Cobalt remains to be seen whenever it comes out, but Ion has completely underwhelmed everyone and it's sales are reflecting that. The redline is priced up next to the SRT-4 for a much lower level of performance. The looks haven't caught on and the build quality is panned pretty universally. It'll be canned soon, I imagine.

Performance coupes and sedans? I just broke that down up there. GM may have cars that could sort of be considered the same class as other performance sedans, but they are outpriced and outclassed on every one of them. On coupes? GM has the Monte and the G6? To compete with Mustang, G35, 350Z, RX8, Solara, and Accord coupe? Place those ones in order on a comparison and count how many before you reach the G6. The Monte would land square at the bottom, even compared to the crappy Solara. GTO is hard to place into the same realm because it's priced so high it only really competes with the old Cobra. Price the GTO in this range and it's a very attractive car, at 35k it's something no one wants.

Sports car market covered? With Corvette? If that's all that's important to GM, then ok. I suppose it depends on how you define sports car, but there's a lot of cars from other brands that GM just doesn't compete with. But, barring an affordable pony, GM is doing fine in this area with the 'vette.

Luxury sports sedan market is covered? They have one, the CTS. But it is a competitive entry, so I'll give you that one.

Sports truck market? This is a market that belonged to the Lightning. Nobody considers the Silverado SS a viable competitor to the Lightning, and now that the L is gone, people still won't buy the Silverado unless it's some hardcore Chevy guy with more money than brains. I hope you aren't talking about the SSR, because that's a car built for nobody. Put out a Silverado SS around 30k and maybe this market would warm up.

So, as it stands now, the only market GM has "covered" is the Corvette market, and it has a viable entry into the luxury sedan market that is doing alright but not taking the world by storm. Every market under the 40,000 mark GM is getting completely destroyed by it's competition in every aspect. Sadly even price on anything remotely "sporty". But as I said before, GM only cares about the company from the top down. Beancounters would rather sell 100 high margin Escalades than 1000 Camaros, and that leaves guys like us screwed.

 

If they make a new Camaro Z28 then great. If it's good, I'll buy one but if it isn't, I won't. Trouble is that my '98 won't last forever and is one of the best cars I've ever owned. I wouldn't want to replace it with an 02 as I've done all the mods on this one and don't want to do it again. So if I buy a new car, it may be a Mustang or it may be a used Caddy CTS-V. The only people who'll miss out are GM because as the years go by, lmore and more owners don't give a damn about them the same way GM don't give a damn about us.

 

Outstanding post, and dead-nuts on the money.