You could tell me to "keep the faith" that I'll win the powerball jackpot.

It means nothing.

 

No one's ever denied anything on this subject.

Has anyone ever said "We will not be making a Camaro"? What has been said is that there "are no plans...", and of late via Bob Lutz himself, there hasn't been a Camaro "approved" for future production.


What if back in the 1985 Ford announced the 1987 Mustang 5.0 was going to get a power bump up to 225hp? What if GM had announced in 1990 that the '93 Z28 would have a 275 horse engine directly from the Corvette?

You will NOT hear an advance notice from GM (just like you won't from any other car company) regarding a car in a hotly contested segment, giving others a chance to react before the fact.

How much advance "official" word did we recieve on the new Corvette?

Ford didn't even show a concept version of the Mustang and start talking about the new one until just 18 months before it was in showrooms.

And I was waiting for a new Mustang chassis since the 1980s. However, that doesn't mean Ford went by my own personal schedule, does it?

Exactly!



FWIW: There has been evry hint thrown out imaginable regarding a Mustang competitor from GM. Even people inside GM have skirted the edge and gone about as far as they can go on the internet (which BTW, is just like talking to the press). Anyone who thinks Bob Lutz is going to drop by here, and say "We're secretly working on a Camaro" isn't being realistic. At the same time, there are plenty of people here, including myself, that know there's no reason for pessimism.


When something gets to Bob Lutz's level and he approves it, it goes to GM's product board for final approval. If it clears, it is likely to be out 18 months later (assuming cost cutters don't create yet another quality "issue"). Until it gets to that point, it's "under study" or "being looked at". If it's not being considered, that's what it means.

Bob Lutz is on record saying a Camaro-like car is "under study".

What the hell do you think that means?!

 

Like a camaro has ever hurt mustang sales before... psht..

Ford doesnt care what Chevy is doing in the ponycar market. Hell, they pretty much waited until
rumors of the 5th gens deat to start making REAL ponycars. (99+ GT poweron a reasonable level for the first time in several years, 03 Cobra, IRS, now the 05 stang)

I think the best move Ford can make (and have made) is paying GM's coupe segmant no attention.

 

GTO, Grand Prix, and the new "Camaro" will be based on the same chassis it seams.

The "Camaro" code name "Sigma" is planned to begin production April 2007.

 

Ok. So what's your best guess when we'll hear that GM has approved the Camaro?

 

Camaro? Let's call it Mustang's competitor.

Approvals can always be delayed. There's too many people in GM's pipeline who have the power to sidetrack things almost on a whim. GM's large 2008 RWD coupes & sedans would have needed final approval last January but were delayed and we got word of it shortly afterwards.

Otherwise, all things aside my best guess?

Less than 10 months.

 

06 NAIAS?

 

I don't care what you call it. I call it Camaro - you call it Mustang Competitor. It's all the same for me, as I have nothing to lose (or tell) by using the name.

Based on your response, and doing a little math, January 06 sounds about right (7 months is less than 10 months and fits with the beginning of the Auto Show circuit). 18 months beyond that would mean it hits the showrooms in the summer of 07 as a MY 2008. Sounds reasonable?

 

Do guys think Ford and DCX can't put 2+2 together on their own? Are they really waiting for GM to say something about a Camaro before they plan a response? Sure, I don't think GM should be public about things until they need to as well, but you guys are acting like Ford is going to get hit by a wall of bricks when GM does show their hand. They do have sources of their own. Really, if we can read it on this board...

 

guionM:

Only problem with that analogy is that those cars were still being produced, so it's not really valid in this discussion IMO. A better one would be when the T-Bird ended in 1997 and Ford immediately announced that the car was not dead but would be coming back in a different form. There was no "secret", and if that is G.M.'s strategy, to keep a car that customers want under wraps until the last possible second, then it is another idiotic blunder in their long tradition as a lot of their customers will have moved on. All they have to say is "hey, we have another Camaro on the way but want to make sure it is as good as it can be before it is released" and people would wait.

 

I think we should hear something before the 2006 auto show season is over, which would be April......... 10 months from now.

The UAW don't have their negotiations till 2007, but the CAW has their's this year.

 

Within about a month right?

 

Actually Ford didn't announce that the car was coming back in a different form. What Ford actually said was that the Thunderbird name "may" return on a future car down the line. That's almost verbatium what GM said about the Camaro and what Ford is once again saying about the now discontinued...again... Thunderbird.

It's easy to forget living on this and other enthusiasts boards that in all likelihood, there's probally 99.999%+ of potential car buyers who don't pay attention to press releases or announcements about future cars. There's what? 25-30,000 Camaro's sold it's final year (not to mention the million or 2 on the road from previous years), and perhaps less than 50 of us who regularly check on this 5th gen thread?

As far as saying that you want to make sure a car is as good as it can be before releasing, why in the world would any maker want to say something like that? I wouldn't. And people won't wait. Again, living on an enthusiast website can distort reality.

If you are a hard core enthusiast, then you are going to wait for whatever particular car that's your favorite. If you are a person looking for the best machine, you really don't give a flying hoot what is coming 2 or 3 years from now. Even though I have a pretty good idea what's coming down the line, even I'm still likely to buy a Mustang or GTO before then.

No one talks officially or via press releases about future models. They only allude to them, and you have to read between the lines and use a little logic or common sense. The only recent exceptions have been Pontiac's Solstice, Ford's GT, & Cadillac's STS & XLR. All other cars (even from Chrysler & Ford) had no official announcements or press releases till 1 to 2 years before production.

Sorry Scott. It's frustrating if you don't like reading clues, or like blunt info, but that's the way it is, and not only at GM.

It ain't gonna change.

 

What's the GD holdup? Are they "studying" whether or not the new Mustang is really selling that many models per month?




Weren't they going to actually replace the Mustang with the Probe until people started threatening a coup?

Hey, at least we knew there was going to actually be one made.

True, but they never said that the car was on the line. It was expected that there would be a new Mustang.


I'm saying that I will have received a full college education and some high school education in the same timeframe it took to develop a car.

 

Lips will loosen soon.

ummmmmmm..... just guessing.