I've made many comments about the enthusiasm that Ford has for Mustang and the loyalty of its owners...

Here is an example:

http://forums.stangnet.com/showthrea...hreadid=267722

Another from several months back:

http://forums.stangnet.com/showthrea...threadid=58536

These types of things crop up from time to time from different people within the company. I've even seen some posts from the (now former) chief engineer. Another example - as soon as the Bullitt production ended and the #'s were available, someone from Ford posted it @ bullittclub.com in addition to other info.

I can't remember the last time I've seen GM do anything like this.

 

The mustang is their baby and they love it dearly.

Why so retro I will never understand.

 

I've noticed the same. There are Ford representatives soliciting opinions on enthusiast sites all over the place. And you know what......they actually value that input.

Short of RP, I don't see anyone else from GM trying to meaningfully reach out to enthusiasts.

 

I think once all the red tape revolvong around the camaro at the present time clears , I think we'll be seeing some of the same from RP ..........until then , we got car clinics right

 

I'm sure Ford would welcome us with open arms should we decide to purchase a Mustang. GM certainly doesn't seem to value our input like Ford does.

But that's OK. The Camaro killing was the last straw, my next new car will be a Ford Mustang.

 

Agreed.

If some others at GM had 10% of the passion for Camaro that RP does, we probably wouldn't have this whole situation.

Maybe RP can go to those clone people and see if we can have a bunch of Mini-Red Planet's cranked out running around at GM!

 

From the heart...

I REALLY HOPE that GM will find it beneficial to give the Camaro the kind of support that it deserves. Not even when/if it returns... but NOW. There are millions of people out in the world who love their cars, be they 1 yr old, 5, 10, or 35 years old. These people deserve the support and effort of GM to make their cars' heritage grow. Nurturing their passion through restorations, shows, racing, or whatever can only serve to help the Camaro/Firebird legacy GROW, enhancing the mystique and magic that the name brings. It could also help remove some of the "baggage" you guys refer to and open the future to a whole new realm of possibilities all it's own.

I couldn't imagine how I'd feel if the Mustang were 86'ed like the F-bods. Some of my GM-car buddies have really flipped over this... some to the point of leaving the GM camp alltogether. Some simply don't care, and will buy whatever else GM offers in RWD V8 performance... like vette or GTO, but they still want more selection and price diversity... understandably so.

RP - I respect you more than you know. It takes intestinal fortitude to fight against the majority - especially in modern corporate America. I do much of the same myself, just not in such a public arena as you. It tries your metal sometimes to be told to do something you disagree with, but sometimes it comes down to bringing home a paycheck. Your passion for the car shows, and GM would be well advised to use your skills and passion in nurturing the Camaro's future. I hope it happens.

I know threads like this often have an "anti-GM" theme related to them. I DO NOT MEAN FOR MY POSTS TO COME OFF THAT WAY. If anything this should be constructive criticism. While I can't say that I think GM did no wrong in killing the cars, I also can't bash them for doing what they needed to do to stay in business either. That said, I just want/hope that ANYBODY inside GM (save for RP) sees posts like these and some tiny part of it sinks in. The goal in this is to encourage GM to do things differently than it did for the last decade of Camaro/Firebird existence.

Times have changed, people's wants and desires have changed, and quite frankly the way they want to be treated and do business has changed too - the car maker needs to acknowledge these market changes and adjust their method of doing business accordingly to stay successful. GM should know this inside already... look at what made Saturn so successful from inception - a new way of doing business... "marriage" of car, customer, and company. Saturn loyalty was/is a benchmark in the industry for years because of the company getting intimate with the buyer. If anything, I'd have to think Ford (and Honda, Nissan, and others) learned the lesson from Saturn in the '90's, then capitalized on it - taking it a level further.

Like many others here have said, this hiatus could cost GM in more ways than just lost sales of the cars themselves. Honestly, if a former Camaro buyer goes and buys a Mustang (or Cobra or Lightning, etc.) in the next 2 years, he is going to be bowled-over by the after-purchase benefits (like WERM and others have mentioned) that he's going to see. It's going to make it that much harder for GM to get that guy back. Ford's loyalty and repeat-buyer status is getting big press this very month - they are doing awesome with this statistic right now.

For the next Camaro to be a success after the initial hype and press-bloating, it will need not only a good fundamental design, but also a good infrastructure of support and buyer-relations. For all the reasons noted above, and the general furthering of our mutual ponycar interests, I really do hope that these issues get the attention they deserve from the General.

Proud.

 

As a Mustang refugee, I'll also say that Ford does have a closer relationship with their Mustang owners than Chevrolet (save one person) had with their's. In the early 90s, alot of factory people fanned out to find out what people liked, disliked, wanted and didn't want in the next Stang. Though it may have been late to get it in the 1994 version, much of it ended up in later editions.

The Mach1, the 1997 & 1999 horsepower upgrades, the return of the armrest on the 1990, the unshrouded engine of the SN95, even the intake layout of the upcomming 2004 1/2 (done in a way to facilitate upgrades) were all a product of listening & interacting with it's owners.

Where Camaro falls short is that there isn't a designated "Team Camaro" that's charged with just the Camaro.

Camaro is/was under Team Corvette.

Imagine you are part of the team running the Corvette program, would you take Camaro seriously when you had a 50 year old legend? If you had a few dollars, which car would you spend the money on, and if you needed a few dollars, which car would you take the money from? Which group would you spend your time paying attention to, Corvette or Camaro?

Mustang doesn't have that problem.

 

Actually you could use the Camaro-line to try out new ideas and to be challenged as a designer/engineer to build a performance car on a budget... something I'm sure isn't as much of a concern on the highend Corvette line.

It might if Ford ever decides to step-up production on the GT should it become highly successful. (Of course they'd have to drop the price into the Vette range first... which may take a generation or two.)