So basically, save for styling, we are talking about putting an 8 into a car that would normally have a 4. If it existed.

With people crying about energy left and right doesen't really make sense to me.

 

I've lately thought the idea of a RWD/AWD Malibu with avialable I4, V6 and a small V8 for options. Keep the V8 small, 4.8 and/or 5.3, to keep insurance prices down. I know I would buy one if I could get one for 25k.

 

I'd bet if you gave GM Brazil access to GMT355 and $50 million, they could design and manufacture a really inexpensive RWD, V8 car ...... with a stick.

GM Brazil seems to have the uncanny ability to put programs together with cast off platforms and obsolete parts.

They could sell it here and in South America.

 

Don't forget US regs. We could do it here to if we didn't have to design for 10/150K and zero damage while being rammed from behind by a locomotive at 45mph. Well, maybe I exaggerated a little...

 

They'd have to meet them, just like Daewoo does. I'm sure lots could carryover from 355.

 

If another cheaper V8 RWD car slots below camaro, then camaro has failed to be what it should be.

 

I don't know...think of it as a Nova.

Anyway, I'm thinking of something substantially cheaper than the Camaro's segment. Just as a reference point, a regular cab, 2wd, Silverado 1500 with 4.8 and 5 speed can be priced on Chevy.com for $17,660.

 

It wouldn't meet passenger car safety standards (or if it did squeak by, it would get poor ratings on the optional tests). It would be too heavy, so it would get stuck with the gas guzzler tax. Because of this, it would sell poorly, and because of that, it would be expensive.

The Bel Air was the car based on a truck chassis. Too heavy. Too primitive. It sounds neat at first, but when you do the full business case and try to figure out who'd buy it, it turns out that people want retro-looking cars and not the retro cars themselves.

 

I thought we were trying to get away from cars that felt like, and were super cheap?

If we are just trying to make an ultra cheap fun car I dont think that neccesitates a V8.

Hell if Camaro gets the 300ish hp v6 you were just talking about at 18k then why would you really want a 330 hp V8 in a 14k car that feels like the catalogue of GM parts that it is. Especially in the face of a car that is pretty much gonna be bred for performance from the ground up?

 

What makes you say that?

GMT355 vehicles have mostly 5 star ratings.

 

Trucks usually don't do too well. I went to the trouble to look up the Colorado. It did actually make a good rating on the front IIHS test, but only a marginal from the rear. Side was not tested.

For NHTSA, it's actually mostly 4-star ratings. Out of 11 ratings, 9 had four, and 2 had 5 stars. What about roof crush standards? When to pickups have to start meeting those? But never mind. Let's assume it's safe enough.

It's still too heavy. Nearly 3700 pounds for a 2wd 5 cylinder. Put a sedan or coupe body on it and add a V8, and you have 4000+ pounds. With a pickup suspension. Pickup ride height. Means poor aero. Which means gas guzzler. And it would drive like a truck.

Even if I were interested (and I might be -- I drive a Suzuki GV and I have a couple of early 70s Cutlasses after all) I just don't think the appeal would be there in the numbers GM would need to get the cost down.

 

And that there is the question. Would it appeal to enough people? The whole deal with the Bel Air concept was to explore the viability of a BOF car. The reason being low cost compared to a more common unibody.

If you could go into your Chevy dealer, and get a decent new car, with adequate chassis dynamics, smallblock V8, manual trans, for $18 or $19K (again, below where the Camaro would be priced, making that argument moot),............would we get any takers?

 

I say no. Too many nice HO 4's and 6's in that range that would give a nicer complete package. Think about it, would you buy the vehicle you are proposing over a turbo Nomad or even turbo Cobalt? I sure wouldn't. The market has moved on...

 

I agree. V8s are dead with the younger generation. If anything they'd be better off slapping the supercharged Ecotec in a Aveo and selling it as an entry level pocket rocket. (Or the turbo version the Solstice is getting, whichever is cheaper to build for GM and cheaper to maintain for the buyer.) Few kids today are into V8 RWD cars like we were at that age. (My youngest is a rare exception.) A low priced V8 car priced in the Cobalt range just wouldn't sell. Image and style are more important to today's youth than a V8 rumble. As technology advances, sure V8s will continue to be more fuel efficient; however, nowhere close to the efficiency you can get with a HO 4 or 6, which can generate just as much performance as an eight once you slap on a power-adder.

 

Well, I might, but I see your point. I look at something like a 4.7 V8, six speed manual, Dakota for $20,470 (under 17K with $3,500 rebate), and just see an incredible value.

But I guess that $3,500 is on the hood for a reason.