Heres a question: I know we're mostly camaro lovers, but in general we are muscle car lovers. If the new stang is as badass as predicted, will you...

a) switch camps

b) keep the faith that a new camaro will return in a few years


It really seems ford is getting themselves together as of late and I personally am finding it harder and harder not to look over the fence.

 

I think we'll see a new Camaro by '07. The questin is....will it be another half-assed effort?

Sometimes I get the impression that some of us would buy anything that GM decides to call Camaro.

Base it on a truck....no problem, I'm not into chassis dynamics. Add two small rear doors...no problem.
Use chintzy materials and have huge gaps....no problem again, I don't mind rattles and poor quality.
Have no respect for Camaro's lineage.....no problem, I'm not familiar with it anyway.

Well....I'm not in any of those catagories.
I want Camaro to be "right".
I want a good quality affordable Camaro, (but I DON'T expect it to be only $20K).
I want a good chassis...one which wasn't chosen because the components were the absolute cheapest GM could come up with.
I want a Camaro with some respect for it's own lineage.
I want a REAL Z/28!!!

Gimme that and GM has kept a customer......don't gimme that and you've lost me for good this time.

 

Never owned a Ford, but if it's the only choice out there ... I like the GTO, but the Mustang, especially the next one coming, has more American Muscle appeal.

 

When I was looking for a new daily driver afew years ago....I needed a 5 passenger, fun to drive car, preferably with a manual trans. I scoured GM's offerings. The closest thing they had was a Grand Prix GTP. It had good power, but it handled like my dad's LeSabre. And of course no manual trans.

I finally purchased an SVT Contour. It took me awhile to overcome the psychological barrier of owning a "Ford"(actually not that long).

Brand loyalty after all is a two way relationship.

 

Dead on Z!

There is an element that seems to be pretty confused here, thinking $25,000 is too expensive to pay for a Z28, but yet want IRS, an LS6 or even an 8.1 engine, want it to be faster than a Corvette, put it on an expensive chassis, have G35 quality, and so on and so on. Lot's of really bizzare stuff. If I was running the Camaro project, I'd probally have to disregard over half the comments here, or I'd never get anything done.

The next Z28 (or SS if the "Z" is dropped) is going to cost at least $30,000 in today's money. It's not going to be put of a truck chassis, and it's not going to be built crappy just to sell a few to the budget impared or the experience deficient.

 

That would violate both my criteria 4 and 5. NO SALE.

 

Mine would be continuing with those automatic headlights you can't turn off.

Nothing could make me say Mustang Mach1 any quicker!!

 

I think that's a really bad approach to have. I MUCH rather have the Camaro stay true to it's PERFORMANCE heritage than it's BADGING heritage.

No matter what GM decides to label the top Camaro as, someone is going to be pissed because you can't please everyone. We've proven that time and time again on this forum with our SS vs Z/28 or Z28 debates.

Be it SS or Z/28, if it's a world-class performer, I could care less.

 

See...you just answered your own question.

You could care less.....and many fall into that camp. You would not be offended either way. You would not be pissed either way.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

 

I have never owned a non-GM car...

It would be very tough for me to jump ship... GM vehicles have treated me well.

 

I know what you mean Darth. But let me say this. When you're on your back at 11:00 pm polishing your factory stainless steel exhaust....it's not merely a Ford anymore.....it's now YOUR CAR.

 

Unless Ford really gets the next Mustang right, as in at the most 3200 lbs, well thought out suspension, and an engine with potential, with good build quality and stuff, for less than 30k with all the performance goodies.

same goes for the Camaro if it there will be a new one.

Personally, I don't see myself buying a brand new car till the earliest of 2005 anyways..

Even then, unless I dont' have my current Camaro, I'll be considering other makes and models by then.

 

Ford is so tapped into every nuance of the Mustang enthusiast's desires it is unreal. There is no way that Ford will risk offending this enthusiast base with a half baked product. Mustang is just too important to them.
Whether it's specific styling, niche models....or even as small and trivial touches like the "horse in a corral" emblem....Ford is not afraid to go the extra mile with it's customer base...and potential customer base. The second year of the SN95, Ford changed the tail lights on the Mustang........Why?........the enthusiasts told them to. EVERY SINGLE model has worth.
Bullit, Mach 1, Cobra, the upcoming Boss......Ford offers all of those without devaluing any of them. Chevy needs to get it's act in gear, and make all Camaros cars to covet.

I think GM gets it that, the Camaro must be a RWD V8.....and that's good....but they need to reach out and go much farther.

They know that V8/RWD is the generic formula for a "pony car", now they must really nail down what it takes to make a successful CAMARO.

I know what needs to be done for me to buy, all they need to do is just ask..........

 

Wouldnt that last bit kind of defeat the original purpose of the camaro? Isnt is supposed to be a budget performers dream? This thing has to be attainable to young people in their 20's. And I dont know about ya'll but I cant afford something in the 30k range. If every muscle car is all of a sudden in the 30k range within the next few years, then thats just more imports on the road because no one will be able to afford anything else. If Chevy can make a full loaded Silverado for under 30k, theres no damn reason they cant put a Camaro in the same range.

 

That was Nova's territory.

Budget performers today are in the Neon-Honda market. The only difference between the Novas & Darts of the late 60s & today's compacts is that everything in that range is FWD & 4 cylinder now.

A young person could get a base Camaro with a 327 2 barrel, and put a 4 barrel and duals later when they could afford it, but if you wanted a Z28 Camaro in 1969, or a Mustang Mach1, it wasn't cheap. That's a very common illusion with alot of people, so don't worry.

Check out what a ZL1 engine did to Camaro's price compared to the average Corvette.