Bob Cosby

LOL. Gee, that wasn't predictable at all. BTW...Blind faith is blinding.

Bob

krazzycowgirl

NO its not blind faith, Because Its not GM I hold my faith in its the people who work for GM, Guys like Scott Settlemire, Bob Lutz & others.

I trust Scott Settlemire & thats because I have known him personally for 6yrs now. I dont worship him like some people do But I do trust him

WERM

The 1965 Mustang was based on the Falcon. The 1967 on the Fairlane. The 1974 on the Pinto. The 1979 on the Fox. The 2005 was based on teh DEW, but basically became an all new platform in the end. What exactly does all this mean? Exactly NOTHING. Well, okay, the Mustang was able to be less expensive and sell in higher volumes over the last several decades to some extent due to the lack of dedicated platforms.

If you are just talking about appearance, better call up the 911 and Corvette folks, 'cause they are driving nothing but a redesign of a redesign of a redesign...

It's okay to not like Mustangs. This is a Camaro site after all. But it's kind of laughable to suggest that they shouldn't look like Mustangs or that Ford's lack of a dedicated platform over 4 decades of profitable and uninterupted production is somehow a poor strategy.

greg_nate

I do get your point very well. The gist is this: The designers got together, drew from a large parts bin with the intention of building a driveable concept with real production oriented considerations.

I understand and can clearly see your line of thinking. I even agree - but there are these persistent rumors that fly in the face of this. And yes, I am almost certainly reading too much into them.

What I'd really like to know is if (a)the concept was thrown together at the last minute because GM found themselves in a vacuum after the 2005 Mustange release, or (b) work on the concept had been going on for a couple of years with Holden in mind as the underpinnings.

If its (a), then the 2009 date seems realistic, considering its coming from GM. If its (b) though, I'd expect things to be more in place and a quicker production date.

I have to admit, that despite all the rumors, (a) seema the most likely, as they don't even have a place to build the frikkin thing yet. I would much rather they build it in Australia and get it out now, than waste time and money, sell their soul to the CAW again, and build the thing in Canada. I guess I am getting too caught up in wishful thinking, and am secretly hoping that GM is going to wow us all, and pull the Camaro rabbit out of their hat in late '07.

RyanG5

Very excited the 5th Gen Camaro will be coming out, but I agree, sad but true.
It's almost like someone in GM is sabotaging the Camaro.

This Camaro should have come out in 1993, but instead they build the SSR and then the HHR, lame. GM is run by un creative money types, what GM needs is to put designers in charge and the money will follow along with higher sales. Most of GMs cars are boring, there is no excitement and the vehicles that are exciting are high priced like the C6 Z06. There isn't enough passion and who the hell says the low priced vehicles have to be boring and dull??? WTF GM, it's time to hire some young talent.

I really hope the new Camaro does well and if not GM can ONLY blame it's self.

GoFast908Z

i'm saying that people are talking about a new mustang that looks exactly like the camaro.........well....where is it????

I8COBRA

I'm not waiting another almost 2 1/2 years for this thing, I may not even be alive still. I'll buy something else for the time being and if I like the Camaro enough to buy it when it comes out then I'll trade in whatever I'm driving and pick one up. But theres no way I'll be sitting around on my *** for GM to take its sweet time with this thing.

94LT1Maro

I was actually going to suggest that, to those of you who can't wait on a new Camaro. Go spend your money on a Mustang or a Challenger, save the Fifth Generation Car for the people who are willing to wait for it. I'm not a committed buyer of this car yet simply b/c I don't have enough information on it. But i'm sure time will solve that little problem.

On another note, guys the phrase "Keep The Faith" didn't end on August 10, 2006. You still need to keep the faith, not in a new Camaro being built. Because that question has been answered. But you need to keep your faith in GM. That the employees from Management, Engineers, Designers, and Production are working on this car. And that they are working as hard and as fast as they can to get this car out, and to do it right.

It's time to dig deep again, and be patient. This car is going to be built again, celebrate, be happy, and most importantly Keep The Faith.

PaintBallR

It doesn't matter when the car comes out as far as I'm concerned as a true GM only buyer . Everyone on this form who really is a true fan of the camaro(like myself) will buy it when it comes out....

What worries me is the ppl who bought a mudstang awhile ago and is in the market for a new car and they don't care what brand it is.
GM wants the Camaro to appeal to all types and if they come out with the car too late, those "could have been sales" are going to be snapped up by newer models which came out earlier.

"Ya i was going to buy a Camaro, but the car wasn't in the showrooms yet so I bought a (Mudstang - Challenger) instead. I'll buy a Camaro later when I'm tired of the one i just bought, I have another year or so before it comes out anyway, so no big deal" GM first annual total is not going to be what it should have been, cause it was lost to the competitor who put out the product first.

It's ppl like that, that GM should be considering if they want to reach the numbers of sold cars like the mudstang. The ppl want them but alot of ppl don't like to wait.

I have seen it many times, guys I know bought a mudstang because there was nothing else out in the market to compete. For the money they couldn't go wrong. They wanted a Camaro in the first place but GM scrapped it so they bought a Rustang.

I'm 100% positive if that GM comes out with the camaro alot sooner that 09, we are going to see alot of used mudtangs in GM's second hand lots as trade in's....collecting dust.

But until then I'm saving the cash for my orange ls2 6 speed Camaro

Bob Cosby

This may be something of a surprise to you, but people have actually chosen Mudstangs/Rustangs over a Camaro when both were available on the lot. Though I "guarantee" nothing in the future (like some do), I'd be willing to bet a hefty some of money that quite a few still will.

That takes nothing away from what we all hope will be a well-engineered Camaro.

Hmmm....now that we know that the Camaro is "officially" coming, does the term "Keep the Faith" now morph into a "Marketing ploy"?

Bob

Shellhead

I guess I just don't understand some of the comments on this thread - lots of folks basically saying this car is dead because it's coming out late - and those remarks punctuated by "I'm not gonna buy one" type comments.......even to the point of mocking the comment of "Keep The Faith".....what they heck, guys?

There isn't a person on this board that hasn't wanted the Camaro to continue and never go on hiatus.....but it happened - get over it.

GM did try different things (like SSR) because they didn't think the sport coupe market was viable. I worked on the current Mustang program at the time, and it was obvious to me that the new (current) Rustang was an easy target. Heck it's an easy target for my '99 TA WS6! But GM didn't see it that way, probably because they were in love with FWD and were looking solely at cost.

Just hearing some of the GM engineers talk about ideas that were floated for a new Camaro, it's a good thing we didn't get one before now. Would anyone want a Caliber-esque FWD Camaro? Would we want Camaro to suffer the same fate as Charger? Not a chance! So GM tried some different things, and Rustang proved the sport coupe market still exists now GM's playing catch-up..........or are they?

Camaro getting a new platform can't be underestimated. Trust me, I saw it firsthand on the current Rustang. Every week there were meetings about changing the platform, in part because of IRS, in part because of packaging of other components, in part because of overall handling and performance. The time it took for that car to come out was extended because of all the wrangling - but internally it got so bad that the prototypes were pushed to the end of the timeline to the point that issues found on the FIRST prototype could not be fixed in time for production, never mind the other TWO prototype phases. That's the wrong way to build a car!! If you can't learn from prototypes, they become pointless. And understand the Rustang team were a good, solid group of people that did the best they could with the resources they were given. It was management that didn't understand vehicle development and simply pushed for timing. One manager even asked, "Are there any unforeseen circumstances that could impact our timing?"

GM is putting Camaro on a new platform from the get, and they are vowing to "do it right". If that's the case, then they won't be playing catch-up come 2009. Done right that car will be so cool looking, so refined, so powerful and perfect it could really set a high watermark for GM. It could be the car that makes guys like BMW and SRT look around and wonder where they came from. Is this cheerleading? Yup. Can it happen? Yup. Will it be easy? Nope. GM needs to really hunker down and get everything right - from the smallest bolt to the largest assembly. They can do it, and if they're saying they want the time to do it, I'll gladly give it to them. If they screw up, they'll know the customer response won't be pretty - so why don't we just sit back and let GM show us what they're made of instead of spouting doom and gloom?

Btw, I'm sure NO ONE at GM is underestimating what is at stake for the company with this car. It's a new platform and it's a HIGHLY visible car - even beyond enthusiasts. All it takes is ONE embarassing recall and GM loses credibility for most average people on this car. They'll sit back and say, "That's typical GM" and then they'll go buy something else - something more conservative. But if this car is a winner for quality along with everything else, I can guarantee you'll have people lining up who never thought they'd buy a car like this again........GM knows it and has to rise to the challenge.

CLEAN

Close enough to be a winner. There were elements w/in GM that floated various ideas to corporate for years about a 5th gen, but there really wasn't a suitable platform that would give the price point they wanted. As soon as the Zeta-lite business looked like it was going to happen, they used that angle, and it took. They started work on the concept I believe less than a year before the 2006 NAIAS. I know the car itself wasn't built until just a few months before the show. So no, it hasn't been hanging around on the drawing boards for years, though other proposals have. Danno even saw one at a clinic once, but it wasn't the same concept that we saw this year.

Z284ever

That's interesting stuff. Can you share any specific details?

Bob Cosby

Oh. Of course.

Bob

Mustang Killer57

I think everyone complaining about the 09 date needs to put it in perspective. Currently, there is NO assembly line to build the camaro or zeta cars. The plant still needs to be retooled. There are production cars currently being built their right now, its not like they can close tomorrow and retool so you can have the car at the beginning of 08.