http://autos.canada.com/news/story.h...5-bf84c49c9d21

 

A good read and I knew a firebird would not be back several years ago for many reasons

 

It's a shame. Even though I've always been a 'Camaro' owner of any of the pony cars, I've always admired the Firebird/TA as well.

 

Thats great!

That gives me 4 more years to save, make more money /charge on my GM card and figure out what color to get!

4 more years, I'll have 90,000 on mine by then, and it will be 12 (if I still have it) so it will be time.

 

You know, as a Firebird fan myself, I'm getting tired of hearing this "badge" engineering is being stopped at GM thus why Firebird can't comeback. How many "badge" engineered cars are still at GM, or are on the way? Sky/Slostice comes to mind and these are new cars.

I think Pontiac and GM is making a big mistake to just throw away 35 years of heritage.

 

I thought that was funny too--GM has quite a few badge enginered cars. Look the G5 coming to the US--Pontiacs Cobalt. AKA, Pursuit/G4

 

This part caught my eye...

If GM can make a 5th Gen that is actually lighter than the 4th Gen, they'll have one more buyer (me). I'm not holding my breath, but it would be neat indeed.

 

Exactly, it seems Pontiac is getting rebadged Chevy's anyways, so why not add the Firebird as well? ( ANd I'd rather Pontiac engineer their own cars, but it seems pretty hypocritical for Lutz among others to spout how GM is getting away from rebading cars, yet future cars are being planned to be rebadged cars. Makes alot of sense right?? )

 

i give it a year affter the 5th gen comes out and they will have the t/a come back out and drop the gto...

 

You do realize that the GTO isn't a Firebird replacement? Dropping/Not replacing the GTO would be a big mistake. It will be great cars like the new GTO that will get GM back on track. Like it, or not, the 4th gen Firebird was a poor seller, it wasn't needed before and the new Pontiac won't need it in a few years, IMHO.

 

Good God!

Guess I'll go over it again:

TRANS AM IS DEAD!!! Dead as in deceased. Dead as in giving CPR to a person with who's been enbalmed already! Dead as in NOT coming back.

GM had to PAY royalties to use the Trans Am name. They attempted to get out of it back in 1982 by using "T/A" instead of the words "Trans Am". They still faced legal problems and would have likely lost if they had been sued. GM is finally rid of that name. If GM used that name again, they would have to pay ALOT more than that $5 or $10 per model, because it would have to be renegotiated. GM isn't going to use scarce money on this. To be perfectly honest about it, coming from a person who was absolutely crazy about Trans Ams in the '70s, if I was making the decision, I'd decide the exact same thing.

The idea is rotted in the grave, and has been ever since I did that muscle car article 3 years ago. A Pontiac Trans Am is NOT coming back. Move on.



Now that's out of the way, let's go to Firebird itself.

First alot of you poured on with Lutz's "badge engineered" point. I think he mis-spoke when he used that term but there's no doubt what he meant and that he most certainly was right.

The F-body 1000% DID get away from what it was supposed to be. Instead of an all purpose, fun to drive coupe, it became a cheap 4 passenger Corvette that appealed to hard core enthusiasts. One of the most amazing things I've ever read in my life is from more than a few people here who "demand" that the Camaro focus on performance, regardless of sales, and that sales isn't everything. But even more shocking was this outlook was echoed by some of the same people behind the 4th gen Camaro.... at the same time Camaro was being outsold by..... CORVETTE!!!! I understand the need to put a good face on a bad situation, but wow!

Mustang (as well as Barracuda) lost their way in the early 70s when they became [i]huge[/b]. Also, like the Camaro, the quickest regular production model of Mustang occured when Mustang was it's largest. These cars started out as fun to drive, easy to live with cars. The difference between Camaro & Mustang is that Camaro backed their's up with more muscle.


As has been stated many many times, to the utter disbelief of hard core, never surrender, schorched earth Firebird fans, Firebird used disproportionate resources allocated to the F-body program. In the pre-4th gen era, this was overlooked because the coupe market was large enough that it really didn't affect the line. But in the 4th gen era, especially in the 2nd half of the 90s, the coupe market caved in, and to this day, hasn't significantly rebounded. In short, the town isn't big enough for both anymore.

Instead of the costs of creating and marketing 2 cars in a segment that doesn't make it worthwhile, GM is submitting a single model in order to afford a variety of engines, regular reskinings, and a better quality of materials. In short, they are putting money into the car where it's going to do the most good.

Badge engineering was the wrong term, but it's easy to see what he meant.

 

But it doesn't cost GM anything to use "Firebird" or "Formula" (I'm not saying that that changes anything, I'm just pointing it out).

IMO I don't think SCCA would increase their asking price that much on using the "Trans Am" name anyhow, especially given the lack of popularity of that series.

 

I certainly agree. If they truly want to get away from this, then they should axe the Torrent right now. At least the Sky looks different enough from the Solstice, the Torrent looks nearly indistinguishable to the Equinox. The upcoming G5 better look a whole lot different than the Canadian Pursuit.

 

To add to what GuionM said the firebird in the last several years just became a camaro with different skin to fancy it up more but you still really had the same car. I agree build one car and have some opts.

 

Wow, just get over it. The firebird isnt coming back. How many more times does GM need to say it so people finally get it. We ALL should be glad to see the Camaro coming back.