I noticed that there are MANY misconceptions regarding the decisions GM made to axe the Camaro. I also noticed a large number of new members asking the future of the Fbodies in this forum.

I think we should create a FAQ's sticky next to the sticky about the concept Camaro. In it, we should include the decisions/theories of why GM decided to hiatus the Fbody, what we know now, and what we can we expect in the near future. It should answer most questions/misconceptions people seem to have in this forum, as well as others.

 

What role did the windshield play in the F-body's demise?


The "A" pillar's close proximity to the front passenger's heads would have mandated a redesign of those pillars or the inclusion of air-curtains in the F-body for the 2003 model year.

Why didn't either one happen?

The "A" pillar is already thick. The addition of air curtains in the pillar would have made them unacceptibly thicker. Curtains based just above the side windows would have not only ended the T-tops, but would have affected entry-exit ease (already dicey with taller people).

Redesigning the "A" pillar would have meant redesigning the greenhouse, either by moving the "A" pillar away from the heads of the front seat passengers, or by raising the roof to allow installation of side air curtains. 2 very serious issues there:

1. Redesigning the roof without redoing the rest of the cars proportions would have made the F-body look pretty odd (sleek car/ tall greenhouse).
2. Redesigning just the roof would have been expensive enough to simply go the rest of the way & design a whole new structure (remember, GM didn't even want to initially pay for the 1998's new nose, till it turned out to be necessary for the LS1).

Why didn't they do a new structure then?

Too expensive. To make Camaro worthwhile, it HAS to share most if not all of it's structure with another car or sell in large volume. GM had no other RWD structure to use, and Camaro isn't going to sell in massive volumes on it's own (say 2-300,000 as a likely guess), so just this alone was enough to shut them down. There are a laundry list of other reasons, but this is just one area.

 

We tried to get a few informative posts regarding the 5th Gen and why the Camaro is on hiatus put as a FAQ on the top of this page but no1 ever did anything about it.

 

Unfortunately, we already saw how many people pay attention to "stickies" when we tried to prevent the endless threads on that Camaro concept.