If it reverts to the Alpha platform, it won't be a lost cause. I'm hoping the nameplate won't be lost.

Maybe GM is rethinking its strategy 'post-CAFE' and believes that Alpha will be the platform to sell to the masses and satisfy the new mandates as well as appeasing interests from the performance crowd?

 

They're guessing based upon what information has been available on CAFE and fuel economy. No one outside of GM knows for sure at this point.

 

Doubt very seriously it's going to happen.

By the time the new Camaro hits the streets, GM will not only have a suitable RWD chassis for a replacement a short way couple of years from production (if that long), but will be able to develop a Camaro-like car off the chassis at least as quickly as the 5th gen.

Don't forget, this Camaro went from greenlight to rolling engineering prototypes in less than a year and a half and production in under 3 years!

 

I personally don't believe it will be.

However, my grave concern is with the hard-core Camaro enthusiasts. The guys who would rather see the whole line killed off if a Z28 had a direct injection V6 instead of the V8, and would bemoan and cry if it didn't have the horsepower numbers of a ZR1 Corvette. Never mind the car is as quick or quicker than the Z28 it replaces.

I for one wouldn't mind it. But after years of reading how many people would rather kill the Camaro name if it didn't have their personal want as a part of the car, I'd say hard-core enthusiasts are a bigger threat to a 6th gen than General Motors' beancounters are.

 

Honestly, count me in that crowd, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Camaro's DNA includes a V8 option because Fbodfather told me so.

Unless I could drop-kick a Corvette V8 into Alpha.....

 

Here's something to think about.....

How do Ferrari, Lamborgini, Porsche, et.al, continue to sell cars in the US under CAFE? Do they get some sort of a waiver?

 

If I recall there's 2 different things involved in examples like this.

First, is quanity. Cars that sell fewer than a certain number get an exemption.

The second thing I think the slang term was the "Porsche Rule". If a car doesn't meet a CAFE, they simply paid a fine. On a Porsche, that simply means adding to an already extremely high sticker price.

In either case, neither has a snowballs chance of applying to a relatively low priced American made car that sells well in excess of 50,000 examples annually.

 

They simply don't care. The US is not their only market. Their buyers here will pay a surcharge just to have their products.

 

A Z28 with a V6!?! I'd rather cut my johnson off and start wearing a skirt!




Seriously though. Why give up on the V8? Why not develop a more efficient engine? Better yet, why not switch over to diesel if they can't make gasoline work? I'd personally rather see a turbo 4.5L diesel V8 than a turbo V6 on ethanol... even if they were equal in economy and performance.

 

I mean can they? If it's just a matter of paying a gas guzzler tax, I'd imagine that as not being a big issue. But if they need to have a corporate average of 35 mpg - in order to sell cars in the US - that would be a problem for them.

 

My understanding is it is simply a gas guzzler tax.

Look at it this way, if the US prevented Ferrari from selling cars in the States, don't you think that Ferrari would put pressure on the Italian government to ban all US auto manufacturers? (If you don't think Ferrari has the juice or desire to do such a thing, you don't know the italians.)

 

Here's how the current CAFE standards apply.

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/cafe/overview.htm