I think the question of the Vibe vs. the Camaro all comes down to your definition of "handling". I mean, it's not as easy to establish ranking in this category as it is in say, acceleration.

Seeing as how the Vibe is loosely based on the Celica and that the Celica is certainly not a bad-handling car, I think that the GM engineers might not be as clueless as you think.

As far as the handling of pickup trucks is concerned, my Impala has presumably less suspension sophistication than the ZQ8 and still gives fits to many supposedly sportier cars on autocross courses. I've also seen autoX courses torn-up by everything from early-80s VW pickups to highly-modified Rams. Folks still want to think that handling is somehow influenced by the shape of the vehicle's sheetmetal

 

Good point.