Regarding the 5th gens trunk opening.....

Ahh for once function follows form! People fell in love with the look of the concept Camaro and GM actually delivered on what imo is one of the most true concept to production releases ever. Another being the Solstice.

For how many years have people griped about the bean counters at GM running/ ruining the show? What percentage of the time did the engineers win out over design forcing GM to release bland, or awkward cars that people on this site would rip apart?

Now we have a reversal of that trend with this particular car and what do ya know the trunk opening is too small. No matter what GM does with most any aspect of any car they bring to market they will always be both right and wrong.

I guess it's just the nature of the beast in that you simply can't make everyone happy no matter how well you execute. Maybe GM should only sell chassis's and powertrains without bodies or interiors installed so the end user can figure it out for themselves and everyone can be happy. On second thought that will only result in more gripes about the characteristics of the powertrains being offered.

Maybe we should just jump onto the import bandwagon and buy Toyotas since they design such great appliances that everyone loves as opposed to passionately designed and built Musclecars like big 3ish still have the ***** to produce.

You like those bad *** rear fenders then get used to a smaller trunk opening.

 

Yeah, it is pretty funny. In this thread people are b!tching because GM kept the Camaro 99% concept like and sacrificed a little function/utility (it was worth it IMHO) and in another thread people are complaining that the Volt doesn't look enough like the concept. In that case GM went with function, making the car more aerodynamic and with a trunk and more passenger space. Just goes to show you can never please everyone.

 

It is common sense to know you need strong V6 sales to justify the Camaro's existance. The 4th gen was too performnce oriented and did not cater to the every day person, one of the reasons why the Mustang outsold it even thought it handled worse and was slower.

Here comes the 5th gen Camaro and I think it also does not cater to the masses, the people who would buy the V6 versions that keep the car sales going. I think their needs to be a balance, and the Mustang always hits it's target in this respect on the regular people and V6 sales while the Camaro does not.

The trunk is ridiculous.
The blind spots in the car are amazingly bad
The seating position is too low

but it looks cool. I think GM put all their money in the looks of the car, hoping it would trump everything else.

Trust me I am not advocating the Camaro be an appliance, but the V6 sales are the key to keep this segment going, and I personally think GM did not think enough on this. I thought GM would have learned this from the 4th gen. And use the Mustang as a template for success.

 

No doubt ... but even within the cutlines given for the decklid, the actual opening is even smaller still. If GM could've figured out some way to make the opening the full width of the decklid there probably wouldn't be nearly as much griping, and the styling wouldn't have to be compromised at all. Unfortunately this appears to be another example of GM not sweating the details enough and forcing compromises onto their customers.

 

As an editor I also don't wear blinders. The "new GM" is just as bad as the "old GM" and I've yet to see anything that changes my mind.

The Camaro is the - only - car in an assembly plant that can produce hundreds of thousands of vehicles per year. The Camaro will be lucky to sustain 100,000 sales a year worldwide once the initial lust factor wears off.

If your a father of one or two and your shopping with your wife for a new car and you've limited YOUR choices to two vehicles that are sporty and domestic chances are you're going with the Camaro and the Mustang.

Good luck convicing your wife the Camaro is the better choice when she can't see because blind spots are terrible and the truck won't hold a weeks worth of groceries because it's nearly impossible to get back there.

Instead of a coupe, GM had the perfect alternative, the Pontiac G8, the sedan to the Camaros coupe.

BUT, in typical "old GM" fashion, "new GM" refuses to keep the G8 around in North American showrooms as a sedan counterpart to the coupe Camaro.

The only think bankruptcy did was further sour the American buying publics taste about GM. Oh, it also eliminated billions in debt from "little men" like you and I.

It didn't do anything to address product (decisions) - which is what keeps a company out of bankruptcy.

 

Anyone know how many orders/sales for the 2010 Mustang so far?

 

exactly.

 

Who wants to read a news site that is constantly saying how bad the main company is?

As I have said before the few on here that spout off about how bad this car are completely out of touch with the buyers of this car. They sit on lots for hours. Selling for over MSRP on average. Everywhere you go in one people are talking about it and taking pictures.

You just sound some bitter child thats favorite car was canceled so everything made afterwards has to be crap. GM hasn't had a car this hot since the 80's, try being happy for them.

 

I am extremly happy for GM. They have a 7 month sales hit on their hands. The new LaCrosse is gorgeous. The new Chevrolet Equinox is a home run. The new Cadillac SRX is another hit.

How am I a hater because I'm pointing out genuine faults of the Camaro?

 

In the Camaro Tiger would never have his clubs. No way you could fit a golf bag in that opening.

 

Same thing could be said about the PT Cruiser, the convertible Ford T-Bird, the Hummer at one time, where are they now? Don't think that just because a car is hot at the moment that the fever pitch to have one will continue. If they're still selling for MSRP in a year or 2 then you might be right but that's highly unlikely. The initial hit of buyers were Camaro diehards who haven't had an option from GM in 8 years and blew their load the first year. Most of the others are the posers who have to have the "it car" for that year. When the new gotta have it car comes out they'll flock to it because we'll they're posers and that's what posers do. To blow off people's legitimate greivances with a car is pretty blind, the blind spots alone are making me do some thinking about whether I want this car or not. Cobalt SS sedan is looking better every day to me considering I have kids and I can actually see out of them.

 

PT Cruiser and Hummer maybe. No one ever cared about the T-brid re-release. Thank you for proving my point, The PTCruiser and Hummer enjoyed good sales and celebrity status for many years.

 

point is where are they now? personally i want the camaro to be around another 40 years. the 5th gen is to compromised imo.

 

Well since the PT Cruiser came out in the late 90's and never had a replacement, its gone. Same with the Hummer. That doesn't mean they didn't have good numbers for more than 7 months.

 

why doesn't the PT have a replacement? i want the camaro to do well enough GM gives us a replacement. nobody says it will sell well for just 7 months so i have no idea why you brought that up.