Even though the F-bodies had been widely pronounced as dead after the 1999 model year, Chevrolet saw fit to upgrade the car for the 2000 model year. While I am sad that the car met its eventual demise, I am appreciative of the effort that GM put into a moribund model-range. (Compare this with the apathy that British Leyland management demonstrated for its MG sports cars.)

General Motors deserves credit for getting everything right in the 4th Generation Camaro Z28.

 

Money-hungry GM should have a bigger presence at the f-body shows so they can see all the little kids under 10 years old, all DROOLING at the rumbling 2nd gen firebirds with the shaker hoods and big hood birds and caricature fender flares and Bandit wheels. Somewhere in the hierarchy, someone just doesn't GET IT and needs to be fired before things get any gloomier than they already are.... there is a total DISconnect from the consumer to the designer. I too appreciate GM's effort of YEARS PAST.. I don't appreciate much of anything from GM since the mid 90's. The deeper you are in, the tougher it is to dig yourself out.

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1982 Recaro Trans Am (Y84), LU5/WS6/CC1/G80/J65/etc. 3,082 orig. miles (7/24/2002) - http://ohok.com/82recaro
1985 Base Firebird, F41/LB8/GU6/etc. CB radio, 142kmiles. http://ohok.com/82recaro/kizzsfb.jpg
1984 Firebird S/E, WS6/LL1/MD8/etc. All original, 102kmiles. Sold 5/02 http://ohok.com/82recaro/kizzsse.jpg

 

No body change in 9 years, no advertizing in 4, the only engine change occured because the LT1 was going out of production, the only notable exterior change happened because the LS1 induction system wouldn't fit under the hood, the refusal of offering a 3rd engine, spending $50 per car on special anniversary wheels and make a big deal that they cost a million, and finally taking a sales lead over Mustang in 1997 and turning it into a situation where Mustang outsells you by more than 2 to 1!

Yea, thanks for Camaro Z28. Hope our next one is better MANAGED.

 

Response to guionM:

I for one am glad that GM made all of the changes - your arguements as to motivation not withstanding. I like the LS-1, the '98 facelift, and the updated wheels that arrived in '00. I've even enjoyed the steeringwheel audio controls that appeared in 2000 as well - who cares if the wheel came from the '95 Monte Carlo!

The problem with the F-bodies was that the market changed in the 1990's - fewer people are buying performance cars with "downmarket" brandnames. You should consider the increasing sales of the BMW Z3 roadster and the decline of the cheaper, less prestigious Mazda Miata.

In the final analysis, I'm just as happy that the 4th generation Camaro didn't sell very well in its last few year. The lower production made my Z28 a far more "exclusive" car. I also suspect that the lack of demand allowed me to purchase it for less. (I am proud that my Camaro Z28 is unique in my hometown. In contrast, Corvettes are more common around here than sewer rats are in New York.)

I guess that I don't feel personally slighted by the slow and painful demise of the F-body. Perhaps we should retain our sympathy for the Canadian Autoworkers at Ste. Therese - they are the ones who have really gotten hurt.

 

Mission Statement:
http://thanks.f-body.com/mission.html

Post your message of thanks:
http://thanks.f-body.com/submit_post.html


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Teri Heino
'99 SS Convertible
'90 5.7 IROC
'69 RS 502/502 Coupe
'68 V8 TPI Coupe
'68 V8 TB Convertible
'67 230, 6-cyl Convertible

SSOA & WCA
http://thanks.f-body.com

Teri Heino
Register for: The F-Body Gathering in Bowling Green, KY. Sept. 20-22nd, 2002.
Special activities for a limited # of SSOA members, Thursday 9/19/02 - RSVP required.
SSOA homepage/membership benefits
SSOA Membership Application: Adobe Acrobat.PDF or Word.doc
http://www.mcgeesauto.com/Bellevue_2001/htwlss_th.jpg
1999 SS #0069's story (and everything else).

 

Redzed, I can understand pretty much everything you mentioned, but I gotta disagree with the market analysis part.

Camaro sales started dropping in 1998 at an proportionally accelerated rate each year afterward. It's of more than passing coincidence that that sales drop occured at the same time GM stopped advertizing, Mustang got a restyle, and f-body styling started it's 5th plus year without a rebody.

Considering the Z3 roadster is in a totally different market altogether, it certainly has no bearing on Camaro, but to touch on your point about it's sales vs Miata, which sells more? Also, which has been around longer without a notable redesign? If anything, Miata proves that you do need to keep design fresh to keep intrest (even though Mazda still has no trouble selling them).

Mustang proves that affordable ("downmarket" as you put it) performance is still a viable market. Mazda, Toyota, Nissan, Lexus (?!), and Chrysler all have vehicles on the way that will fall around the price & performance of a well equpted Z28 or TransAm.

No doubt, the changes to the f-bodies over the years have generally been jumps forward (though there was a couple of years in the middle quality went south), but the point I made was that as far as being proactive in keeping Camaro on top, it simply did not exist (for whatever the reason) and that no car goes from where the f-bodies were from 1997 (ahead of Mustang to where they ended up (less than half the sales of Mustang)without major management problems. Mustang alone sell more today then the total sales of the American ponycar market were in most of the 90's so the market is growing.

For all I know, maybe Camaro's team had no support (which I'm inclined to believe), but they shouldn't come here saying advertising wouldn't help (this is an actual quote: "everyone knows what a Camaro is anyway"...), restyling is too expensive, wheels & paint for an anniversary edition is a monumental item & expect me to feel that there isn't a con job going on. I'd feel alot better if it was just simply said, "we can't get the money". Anything else is just insulting people's intellegence.

So I can't be honest & say thanks. I can easily say THANK-YOU to all the people who assembled it up in Ste. Therese, I can say THANK-YOU to the team who put it all together for 1993. I hope to be able to say THANK-YOU to the people putting together the 5th gen someday.

But as far as the 4th gen goes, the management team were nothing more than caretakers, whether it was due to lack of factory support or their own lack of foresight.

 

But when the 50th anniversary Corvette gets only blah special paint and decals, you KNOW GM doesn't put much into their anniversary cars. I think the Camaro guys would've loved to do a supercharged LS1 35th or LS6 SS or whatever....but when even your pride and joy car gets the sticker treatment you know things like that aren't going to happen.

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Mark

94 Z28, Red, A4, 3:23
Lone Mods--LPE CAI, !Lapeer Dragway.

Best time: 14.658 @ 95.1
with SES light on and Driver off! (First and only time at track)

The F-body will NEVER die.

 

I don't care why my TA has a more curvy hood than the LT1 TA's. I'm just glad it does! I don't care about the lack of gratuitous advertising. I found one anyway! I'm still amazed these cars are for sale - the bang for the buck, unique T-Tops, racing heritage and all the rest. Kudos to GM and the UAW for bringing them to us.

My Z28 IROC-Z is also a testament to affordable performance and distinctly American muscle car design. Thanks again!

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Sunset Orange Met. 2002 Trans Am, DF Lid, FRA, K&N | DFGreen 98 GTP, Insulated SLP K&N, !U!Res, 3.5 Pulley, transcooler
| Brilliant Red Metallic 1990 IROC-Z Camaro, K&N, Camaro SS takeoff muffler | NBM 99 Formula, SOLD in Aug. 02.

 

No disagreement here. GM's history regarding anniversairy cars is less than great.

But honestly, the LS1 & LS6 engines are essentially identical in every regard except in horsepower. I suspect it would have cost GM no more money to install the LS6 and use existing Z06 wheels, than it cost them to design and get "the right polish quality" on the wheels that we initally heard so much about.

Maybe it's just me (been cranky lately ), but looking back over how Camaro was run (by GM's upper management or at lower levels) is appalling in retrospect.

 

Even though I realise that the 4th gen program had to walk through a labirynth of BS ( for many reasons), I sometimes wonder if they were trying to supress it's popularity purposely.

It sure would be less embarassing than saying we were doing our best.

 

Well on the topic of anniversary cars, it was still nice to see the LT4 30th anniversary SS.

 

One example of a GM anniversairy car done right.

 

Ha yeah but, if I remember correctly, the 100 LT4 conversions done on the 30th anniversary cars were done by SLP and available only through SLP (i.e., no GM support)


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Mark

94 Z28, Red, A4, 3:23
Lone Mods--LPE CAI, !Lapeer Dragway.

Best time: 14.658 @ 95.1
with SES light on and Driver off! (First and only time at track)

The F-body will NEVER die.