QATransAm

Honestly though, is it possible at all, for everything that has to be done to produce the car be kept in secrecy. Tooling and all that good stuff without any kind of official its a go..?

I mean obviously you know a lot more than me, i just can't see them not only missing the 40th...but also showing the car, getting everyone excited, having the car back on the chevy site. And for what, to wait 2-3 years when the excitement is gone again.

They wait 4 years knowing most of us will be here waiting...
wait 2 more, yea we'll probably still be, just don't know about the other 80% that need to buy to make it successful.

TQdrivenws6

So announce mid April, so that makes early May, June, and July not happening...so August 06 it is!

DrewSG

If it wasn't a Camaro, I don't see why it would be any other Zeta.

5thgen69camaro

why

posaune

my guess after reading the hints is Chevy will debut the Production Camaro...i closer to production form.

guionM

To the outsider, things work painfully slow in the auto industry & they don't like to show actual designs till as close to intro as possible.

When a car reaches final approval, they commit (irreversibly) to make and award contracts with OEM suppliers, remodel factories, hire workers (if needed), order tooling, move to final development and certification, and a whole host of other things all at once. Final approval is the point of no return.

A factory can be retooled in 6-8 months, but car development and certification can take 18 to 24 from approval to the 1st sellable car off the production line. Even before that happens, theres quite a lot of time spent training workers, managers, supervisors, and quality guys on the assembly line. Then there's pre-production models that are made and gone over and trouble shooting both to fix problems with the cars and problems with the assembly process.


Chrysler managed to keep Charger under wraps till about a year before production, and kept it's design secret almost right up till the sheetmetal stampings showed up at the plant. Charger was put into an existing assembly line, and by most accounts, final design was done pretty quickly and it's difference from the 300 was minimal enough that Chrysler was able to keep it secret. Cost to make the Charger was relatively a drop in the bucket over the 300. On the other hand, the Challenger (and Camaro) is much more involved.

Finally, all companies must account for spending to their stockholders and investors. That's why they make investments in factories or new vehicles or powerplants part of news releases. It's fairly easy to track factory spending and revamping, and the estimated time it's going to take to complete.

IMHO, it's impossible that there will be a Camaro in showrooms by next spring. It's extremely unlikely you'll see it in showrooms by fall next year. Beyond that it depends on how much money GM ultimately decides to spend on it, how quickly they ultimately want to get it done, where they are going to make it, how quickly OEM people can get their parts done, certified, and production up, what last minute glitches come up, and also of course, the health of General Motors (bankruptcy allows them to terminate or suspend approved models and their related contracts).

Then again, with Bob Lutz now making his own rules on Camaro and the entire zeta line (he seems to have 'finally' been given "Card Blanche" on getting these things to market as fast as humanly possible, all but ignoring traditional channels and limited only by budget), all bets are off.

91_z28_4me

After watching 60 Minutes peice on GM today and hearing Wagner say something along the lines of "after all this good press we would have to be brain dead not to make this car." and after reading this I think that approval has finally happened.

formula79

Wonder if it is the Caddy Coupe from 20/20?

Z284ever

60 Minutes?

Really, I have no idea. But I have to admit that crossed my mind when this thread started.

guionM

Wanna get an idea how long that RWD Cadillac coupe has been bouncing around inside GM?

How about this quote from a Businessweek article from February 2003 relating to an episode that happened in 2002:

Makes it 4 years and counting so far. Total of 6-8 years by the time it hits the streets.


BTW: the rest of the article is very good, and should be required reading here.

smackkk

You guys think anything special is planned for the Dallas auto show? The sneak peek is tomorrow night and its been mentioned in the Texas forums that Scott has mentioned a few surprises to make it a night not to forget.

There will also be a few "special surprises" JUST FOR THE ATTENDEES OF THIS EVENT and no one else!! Scott won't let me tell you!!!

and

This will truly be a NIGHT TO REMEMBER.......there will be MANY SURPRISES.......you will NOT want to miss this event!!! SEE YOU THERE!!!!!!!!

I know the Dallas auto show isnt anything special to most folks but it is the Fbody capital of the world.

MENEGRANDE

the camaro is dead... gm is bankrupt...they screw it so badly...

Chris 96 WS6

Way to add substantively to the thread.

greg_nate

Bad mood? Morning dump didn't go so well?

Abidar