Here is something for all of you guys freaking out about what the 5th gen is going to be like.

Some guys from GM put there heads together and thought about why the 4th gen failed.... and thought "Hey lets change that about the 5th gen!" Or did you think they said "Hey the mustang is selling well, lets throw a 5th gen together and see if it sells"

TONY

 

Does any one have some Jack Handy "Deep Thoughts" quotes I can use?

 

What if a lot of the things that caused the 4th gen to fail are not an issue with the Mustang?

 

I cant remember this one exactly but its on my profile, goes like "If you are in a war, instead of throwing a hand grenade at someone, throw a little baby-like pumpkin, maybe it will make them think of how crazy war is, and while they are thinking you can throw a real grenade."

I think they toggled with the idea after they saw our demand for one, the blog, emails, letters, etc. It may have got kicked into high gear when the new Mustang came out but I think it had of already been in the process.

 

I wonder if any hardcore camaro fans are going to start a killing spree Jan. '06 when the camaro comes to the auto show and it's not what they expect.

TONY

 

Only if it looks like george jetson's car made it with a high heel shoe.

 

I'm sorry but I personally don't think the 4th gen "failed" nor have I ever seen anywhere that GM claimed it was a failure. Yes they didn't sell well, however the majority of that can be attributed to almost zero marketing at the tail end of its life. To write off the 4th gen Camaro as a complete failure is asinine if you ask me; especially when you consider that the quickest and most powerful Camaros in the entire history of the car where the last year LS1s.

 

But that doesn't make it a success

 

hmm i considered the whole "not making them anymore" a failure........


TONY

 

And Ford no longer makes the Model A. I guess that makes them a failure in your eyes as well.

 

Aztec??

 

I take that sales falling off by 100k units in less then 10 years being a failure.
The car become way to over the top. Tons of power, very low seating with LONG hood, horrible blind spots, awkward windshield rake, lack of interior space for large car. It really stopped being a Camaro and started to become a 4 seater Corvette.

 

Well it would be a failure in my eyes if GM, Chrysler and Toyota were still selling crankstart cars with great success. Otherwise, it's a sort of crappy analogy.

The bottom line is that the Camaro failed even as other cars in the segment fourished. I'm not just talking about Mustang (although that would be enough). The Eclipse and to a lesser extent the Celica also rose to cult status during the 90's. Many of the buyers for these coupes would have been driving F-bodies in the 1980's.

The 4th gen Camaro is my favorite car in the world, but it did not sell, and neither would a 5th gen if it followed the same design path. Sure GM mismanagement played in the sales decline, but most of the blame falls with the basic design of the car being incompatible with the needs and desires of the general public.

 

It sold alright for a few years, then they abandoned it in marketing, upgrades, and then completely. It wasn't a failure, it just wasn't a huge success. There is room in the middle.

 

I Think all are right. There was a lack of success in gen 4 because of marketing and the car was to far off from public need.