Yesterday on Newsradio 950 AM in Detroit, Mark Reuss was on the air being asked questions about GM coming out with a pony car to compete against the Mustang and Charger.

He said, we would have to think long and hard about it and determine if that is a good thing to do at this time.

Nothing specific. Non commital. If you believe what he was saying, it would only be at the idea stage at this point. But, the fact that he would agree to the interview has got to say something anyway.........

 

huh? Seems like GM should be past “thinking long and hard” and be doing some crash testing or something with their preproduction 5th gen Camaro’s right now. I hate when I hear comments like that.

 

An aside: The Charger is NOT a pony car. The original Charger wasn't even a pony car (the Challenger was pony-car sized), and the new one sure as hell isn't either. It is a decent car, and it is rear drive, but it's not a pony car. If I were in the market for a sporty car, I'd have to be a few sandwiches short of a picnic to cross shop the large-car Charger against the sporty coupe Mustang.

But anyway, I wouldn't read much into that radio blurb.

 

Again, for everyone who's missed it:

All programs that derived from GM-North America "volume" RWD program have had funding stopped till the GMT900s are out. This means development money, and this means that nothing is going to even be considered until this is lifted.

In short, even if anything in this program is one engineering piece away from being done, it's going to remain one engineering piece away from being done till this stop order is lifted.

In short, no matter how much info or confessions come out of GM, nothing's moving and nothing's approved.





.........yet.

 

When do the new trucks come out again?

 

didn't mark say something along the same lines in the august issue of hot rod? more specifically, didn't he say there was a "big opportunity" to do somehting along the lines of a low cost rwd vehicle within chevy?

 

All I know is that this is starting to get a little old. Not that I don't "Have Faith", but really how long are we gonna have to wait while our neigbors are sporting the newest high HP RWD/AWD affordable cars from dang near all the other car companies?

 

I wish I had written down what he said.

I think he did mention opportunity and good competition out there.

It did NOT sound very hopeful at all. No keep the faith. No winky. It sounded along the lines of, Yup, That Mustang sure is kicking our ***, maybe in a few months we will have a meeting to decide IF we should do anything about it.

 

I'm quite sure you're wrong. GM doesn't just rush into things like that. They'd definately first have a meeting to decide whether or not they should have a meeting to decide IF they should do anything about it.

 

Guys, Scott is not going to be coming here, telling us we should "rilly, rilly " make it to the Detroit Auto Show if GM has nothing other than an announcement that they are "studying" the feasibility of a Camaro. If I am wrong in believing this, then feel free to roast me after January. Until then, I will continue to believe in the Red Planet.

 

Where did Red say we should "rilly, rilly" make it to the Detroit auto show? I check for his posts every few days, but missed that one. Link?

 

Yes he did. http://web.camaross.com/forums/showthread.php?t=379692

 

As far as I am aware there is not an approved program. I have spoken to numerous suppliers to find out about sourcing, and still I am coming up empty. I have been grasping for anything that would indicate gm's rwd future and still nothing. I know a few things that are not appropriate to talk about at this time. But still, it is not earth shattering stuff. Yes I have heard work on Camaro in portfolio/advanced engineering for years now. But, that is the nature of that group. It is future world. yes, the 900 utilities are a priority for the next 6 months or so. Then resources could be shifted. But lets look at the realities. Assuming portfolio did their homework and the camaro charter sign off took place today, we are still talking 24-36 months until the programs are released for sale.

 

Evok, nice to see you on the boards. I understand that we aren't looking at production for 2006, but I am wondering if we will see a concept car at Detroit in January? Production to follow at 18-24 months? I just cannot see what else Scott would be hinting about on a Camaro enthusiast site. Also, I would really hope that GM is not so short sighted to give Ford another 4 years solo in the pony car market.

 

There ya go cheech...and here's the linky too.