You can usually count on Guy to give us new information.

 

For most of my life, I was a genuine Ford man. In '96, I bought my Z for two reasons... 1) It kicked the snot out of the poor excuse for a Mustang, that year and 2) I worked for GM, so there were significant advantages to owning a Chevy.

That said, the new 2005 Mustang GT is a heck of a car! I have SERIOUSLY considered putting the Z into storage and buying one. Ford is selling so many of them, that dealers can't keep up with the demand. My local dealers are telling me that to get one, I have to order it, and that STILL doesn't guarantee that I can get one... they are moving that fast! That is the only reason I won't buy one now, because at this rate they're gonna be everywhere you look.

My point is... how can GM ignore this? The American muscle-car market is still alive! GM needs to bring some competition to the market!!

 

GM isn't ignoring it. Not by a long shot.

As a former GM employee, I'm sure that you'll conceed that things move through the system at GM excruciatingly slow, unless someone puts a gun to their collective heads.

There's something coming.

 

my $0.02, This new car would have to be dubbed the 5th gen camaro. You all think WE love the camaro... think about the guys from Chevrolet ! ! ! Heres one way THEY could look at it: Mustang VS. Camaro has been around since the dawn of the camaro. Mustang has the sport coupe market in a bag nowadays(especially with the new design, which i'm sorry but kicks a$$). Camaros are part of history for the past 35 years. Camaros have been in hundreds of movies and songs, rip up race tracks everywhere, formed clubs in almost every major city, been on the wishlist of every tenager and midlife crisis adult, and is an icon of power and freedom. we know and they know naming a new car that had a better reaction than any car yet, the new Camaro would be the BEST move they could make. it would combat and stomp mustang sales, regain the performance enthusiast crowd and open aftermarket manufacturers to millions of dollars in american economy boosting revenue. EVERYBODY WINS .. cough except for ford...

Calling it something new will eliminate any respect for it. Putting a buick or pontiac emblem on it will steer away the f-body crowd. i'm thinking that dubbing it the 5th gen camaro/ firebird would be the ONLY choice they can make

 

Holy Crap Batman.

He just rose from the dead!

 

Risen from the dead isn't the word for this!


Well, time for me to dust off my role as mythbuster & rabble-rouser.
It's been awhile.

... which is alot like saying it's been you and your older brother since you were born. He still has a longer history than you do.


Hundreds? Ok, I'll play.... name just 10..... or even 5.


Not me. I favored Trans Ams as a teenager. As for "mid-life crisis" adult, I think not. That's Porsche. Corvette maybe. But Camaro? Get real.

Power & Freedom is an exact quote from what "Mustang" means. It was used when the '94 Stang came out, and I wouldn't be surprised if someone at Ford marketing used it for the new '05 as well.

Hate to break it to ya pal, but Mustang was handing Camaro it's lunch... no wait... Camaro AND Firebird combined their last number of years of production. Mustang sold about 190,000 models the past 12 months. Starting with 2002 and counting backwards, see how many years you need to go through before you reach that single year total.

Finally, if you expect the aftermarket to have the same access to a new Camaro that Ford granted to the Mustang, study your history and guess again.

Let me get this straight..... putting a Pontiac emblem on it will steer away the F-body crowd away?? Does the words Pontiac Firebird ring a bell?

Camaro was volume.

Firebird was performance.

The 4th gen's sales started to tank when it got the LS1, so performance alone isn't going to do anything.

And finally, taking a minute and reading the home page of this website will probally do alot more to answer your worries about Camaro being called something else than digging up this old thread.

 

Not to belittle your point, but just for kicks...

Here's a few I know...

"Camaro's are Forever" by Shorcore
"Camaro Man" by Blue Meanies
"Yellow Camaro" by The Ramones
and of course...
"Bit**'n Camaro" by The Dead Milkmen

Oh...and that Ode to the F-bodies put out by some radio station in 2002.

 

Camaros in the movies???

I count more than 10.

http://www.imcdb.org/vehicles_make-C...el-Camaro.html

 

me and the little lady were listening to that CD on the way to Watkins Glen for vacation this year. i still love that song.


we have a winner!!!


well guionM....watcha gotta say about that?????

 

As for FBodies in music videos (Forgive me, I mostly watch MTV):
Nelly - Ride With Me
Big Tymers - Numba 1 Stunna
Backstreet Boys - Just Want You to Know
Metallica - Fuel
Simple Plan - Untitled
Hilary Duff - Let the Rain Come or something like that

 

Camaro is a bigger part of American culture than alot of people on this board give it credit for. When many foreigners or exchange students I have talked to get asked for a prime example of an American car, it isn't just Mustang/Corvette they gets brought up. The Camaro is often used as an example as well. I know it has been said a billion times on this board, but it was so stupid for GM just to kill the lights on an icon that everyone knows, from performance enthusiast to grandma, without having a new generation to replace it.

 

The last 2 I've heard (used to like the last one ). But the first 2?... Can you hum a few bars?

 

Steping out of my devils advocate role for a moment:

*Camaro is in the top 5 recognized automotive names in the US. Right up there with Mustang, Thunderbird, and Corvette.

*Camaro not only competed with Mustang for 35 years, it outsold Mustang at least 6 of them (last time was in 1985).

*Camaro IS a part of automotive culture.

*and finally, I've owned 4 Camaros in my life, and till a few weeks ago, I owned 2 at the same time.

But some people go absolutly nuts with their Camaro proclaimations. "Mid-life" crisis car? "Wet dreams of teenage boys"? "In hundreds of songs and movies"? "Bring back the car with tons of power & it will obliterate Mustang's sales and stimulate the aftermarket"?

The 1st thing I think when I hear this is either "someone needs a girlfriend...badly", or "someone better take their meds before they hurt themselves or someone else", or "someone is trying desparately to make friends by going off the deep end thinking that's the way to do it".

Camaro is a car that has a great history. Even Mustang fans want Camaro back because one without the other is just plain wrong.

Camaro is about MUCH MUCH MORE than a big powerful engine or simply beating a Mustang. Camaro is also about having a well made, great looking, fun to drive car that everyone wants to drive (not just gearheads), and needs a reason not to. That's what Camaro lost during the 4th gen that it had in the 3rd, and oozed with in the 1st & 2nd gen versions.

The hot rod guys bought Pontiac Firebirds.

Again, Camaro is one of the most known names in American automotive history because it's been around so long, and it has been so many things to so many people. Not a wet dream, mid-life crisis car, or some ultimate muscle machine.... simply a great and fun car for the masses. Period.

That's what was forgotten during the 4th gen "Camaro-beats-everything" era. That's why Mustangs ended up outselling Camaros by nearly 5 to 1 (F-bodies combined by 2-1). That's also why Mustang is alive and well, and Camaro has been dead for over 3 years, and is no closer than another 2 more in coming back.

You aren't going to find a face in the country (outside of certain people inside GM itself) that won't agree that GM squandered the Camaro name, not only by killing it, but not keeping the 4th gen car fresh or relevent beyond simply putting more powerful engines in the thing, seemingly adopting the views of some of that's the only thing the car needed.

Lets just hope they learned from all this & won't make the same mistakes next round.

 

http://www.gracenote.com/music/searc...rack&x=11&y=12

 

I'm certainly not familiar with the sales numbers of Ford and GM... but I must say that I'm amazed the the Mustang could outsell the 4th Gen. F-body.

When I bought my '96, I worked for GM and my brother worked for Ford. I liked the styling of the Mustang, so I test drove one before actually taking delivery of my Z. No comparison. The Camaro had a better suspension, more power, and more stability. Just makes me wonder why the Mustang, such an underdog, would still outsell in the performance market???

BTW...I must say, I miss those days! It was awesome. I had the Z and my bro' had a his 5.0 LS... dang I miss those "cat & mouse" runs!!.