Who are the retro Haters?
I am pretty sure that most of the "Retro Haters" around here are very young. I said most, not all. There seems to be a lot of whining that the Gen 4 cars are not influencing the new design. Personally, I like all the Gens, but the 4th Gen was the car that killed the F body. The "modern" 4th Gen didn't sell, why should they repeat that?

 

IMO I feel the 4th Gen body style didn't have that muscular look to it, it looked more like a sports car then a muscle car. It didn't look tough enough to me.

Don't get me wrong though, I still love the 4th Gens, but they're more of a sports car than a muscle car in styling. (IMO)

 

Some of you may be interested to know that, back in the day, we never considered the Camaro a musclecar. Musclecars were Chevelles, GTOs, Chargers, 442s and GSXs. The Camaro was just a ponycar like the Mustang.

I love classic Camaros, but I hate retro. But, then I also don't consider the Camaro concept "retro", therefore I love it!

 

I don't know what you're thinking about the younger crowd, but a lot of us younger guys are in college or college grads. A much higher percentage than guys our age back in the 90s. I betcha a good percentage of the buyers will turn out being younger than you think .

I'll be graduating in 2007, and ready for a new car. I obviously won't be paying for the car in full, I'll be making payments, and not using mommy or daddy's money either. And I gotta tell ya, a Camaro is what I want .

But yeah... I wish the 5th gen paid a little more homage to its predecessor. I'm not liking how blunt the front end is nor the fact that the hood/front end barely slopes at all .

 

So far, the poll is confirming my hypothesis. Retro hate decreases in each age group. I am NOT trying to put anyone down. Your opinion is your opinion, but I do find this interesting and entirely logical. Men tend to feel most fondly toward the kind of cars we first were involved with. I would love to have my High school '55 Chevy back more than anything, even the new Camaro. If your first car was a '97 Camaro, you will always remember that as the best ever. I do think it is good to restart the Camaro line with a Retro influenced design. This will appeal to those with the wherewithall to buy it quick lyand the design can evolve and grow into the next generation of car buyers.

 

There's more younger people than older people that visit this site. According to your other poll, people older than their mid-30's don't like it as much either.

You have to consider the audience of this site and also your numbers are so low that these polls don't really prove much at all

My unscientific research says that older folks (~50's and up) don't like retro at all. On the other hand I've found that many of the younger guys love retro as even though they didn't live in the sixties they know all the stories. I think younger people have more glamorous thoughts of the sixties than the people who really lived it.

I will be in the market for a performance car about the time the Camaro hopefully comes out. I absolutely hate retro and am dissapointed in the concept. Unfortunately I'm in the minority

 

the poll doesn't mean anything that you are saying it does unless you have both sides in the same poll and say "i love/hate retro and i am ___ years old" then you can make some comparisons, people can vote on both the way it is now

then maybe it would make more sense, i never voted at all and i don't really care either way, just as long as the car is appealing to me and isn't a flat out remodeling of a car

 

I'm 51 and I happen to like the concept but not because it reminds me or doesnt remind me of the classic Camaro "look" but simply because I like how it looks.

In a general, however, I am disappointed that Ford and GM have found it necessary to return to their designs of 40 yeras ago for their "new" cars and can't seem to design stunning looking cars that stand alone and set new standards.

 

I'm neither a retro hater or lover. I simply love good design.

I don't particularly like the original Dodge Challenger, but I think the new one looks great. I'm not a fan of the '69 Mustang, but I'd buy a new one in a heartbeat if I was in the market right now.

The new Camaro isn't retro otside of being identified as a Camaro. Much the same the new C6 Corvette is identified as a Corvette. In both cases, they are modern futuristic versions of 1968 models. I still haven't warmed up to the new Corvette, but I love the looks of the new Camaro.

I don't believe "retro" has alot to do with which age group likes the car. It has to do with how agressive a car looks, and how much attitude it has.

The last Thunderbird, the PT Cruiser, and the '04 GTO simply aren't agressive looking cars. Save for the 60s era GTO purists, these cars tend to have an older group of buyers. However, the new Mustang has attitude and agressive styling. It also has a pretty low age group of buyers.

I personally like the 4th gen Camaro. If I didn't, I wouldn't have owned 3 of them. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough people like me to keep the car going. But it seems that people went even more nuts over the Camaro concept than did over the new Mustang when it was unveiled.

This was all age groups.

 

You may be right about the "first car love" thing but I'm not sure.

I was a Firebird only guy until my 2000 Z28 to the extent that back in the day, the only cars I loved/hated more than Camaro was the Mustang. .

I also happen to think the the second-generation Firebird TransAm was the best body GM ever put out for theese cars. Yes...I did own three of them ('73, '76 and '79 all purchased new) but I don't think I love the look simply because I owned them...I really did like the look better than the first gen body.

That aside, I also liked the look of the third and fourth gen cars too and as I reacall, so did most of the automotive press when the cars were released.

 

My first vehicle was a 1977 F150 and I hate that truck. I'm glad it's gone.

I'm divided on the retro argument. I love most of the retro cars that are out now. And while I love the exterior of the concept Camaro, I don't think it's really that retro. I do, however, hate the interior, which is clearly retro.

I think Ford did an awesome job of blending old and new on the '05 Mustang and Chevy should take note.

 

I couldn't agree more .

Excellent point. You can't have a survey on this message board without a high percentage of error. I don't know for sure, but I would say that 3 out of 5 people on this message board are younger than 25. There aren't very many members older than 55 on here, and those 2 older members saying they don't like it is much more earth shattering than I expected.

If there it is any consolation, I can give you a run down of my family of Camaro fan's opinions (I'm the only member of this board; and they have all owned Camaros at one point... actually... all currently own one except for my dad -- corvette):

me-20- don't like it because it has brick in the wind styling on the front end and seems really tall for a sports car... (sorry, I grew up on 4th gens, and I wanted Camaros to remain sports cars, not revert to muscle cars)
sister-22- indifferent; doesn't care about cars much, but says she likes the '95 Z28 a lot better
mom-55- HATES it and disses it EVERY time I mention it to her, she says it isn't the attractive car she was hoping for (she wanted something that looked more like a Lamborghini Murcielago)
dad-46- likes some parts of it, but agrees with me that it doesn't look perfect yet. He thinks it needs to go on slimfast to lose some of the bodyfat and needs to lose the vents on the outsides
aunt-63- has owned at least 5 or 6 different Camaros (2 3rd gens, 4 4th gens, maybe some 2nd gens) and she likes the design, she thinks it is really tough looking

I don't like the 5th gen much because, to me, the 4th gen looked sooooooo beautiful (referring to the '93 to '97 ones).

However, I also like the '05 Mustang. Why? Because the previous generation was so incredibly ugly in my opinion.

Therefore, it's really obvious, at least to me, why some people hate the 5th gen. It's because (depending on your tastes) NOT better looking than the 4th gens.

Yeah, I buy magazines from the early 90s from Half Price Books, and it is insane how much the automotive press praised the 4th gens. It's obvious advertisers liked it too, because Bridgestone and a lot of other car supply things had ads featuring the 4th gen Camaro.

 

I agree with most you say here and the car to me is far from retro but with just enough camaro DNA to tell it is one. Scott ask me a year or 2 ago what I would like when the camaro and I told him way back then I could live with either one as long as it stayed rear drive had lots of power and good brakes.

That being said I know lots of what we saw at the show will not be in the production car if we get it, so I know I will like it because I love the looks of this car for a change and to answer another ??????? I am one of the old ones here being as I will be 63 in April and I think we will get over 90% in this car what all of us wanted so yes I am happy