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2009 Chevrolet Camaro: American muscle outselling other GM brands, combined
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2009 Chevrolet Camaro: Definitely Not A Prius. Photo Courtesey of General Motors
The big news surrounding the auto industry the last couple of weeks has been General Motors, whose reported sales dropped 22% for the first half of 2009, all the while emerging from Federal Bankruptcy.
It took 40 days for GM to ride out this storm (the last time somebody and their transportation appliance had to do the same for 40 days, the situation was much dire), however the, “new” General Motors is being touted as a lean and mean corporation, determined to bring new products to market quicker, and provide the buying public the type of small, fuel efficient vehicles they have apparently been demanding.
Or have they?
During the last 40 days, Chevrolet managed to sell more than 9300 units of the 2010 Camaro – the retro musclecar that in the motion picture Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, turns into giant robot with laser cannons.
In that respect, I guess you could consider the Camaro a hybrid, since it burns gas, rubber, and Decepticons.
That figure is more than Buick – which was retained over Pontiac for whatever reason you care to justify – and Cadillac managed to sell across their entire lines for the month of June. So much for the popular notion that GM builds cars that the American auto consumer has no interest in, quite the contrary. The Camaro has been an unqualified sales success, and not one that came on the heels of massive rebates to lure customers in the showroom, coercing them to buy.
GM reported before the actual on-sale date of the new Camaro, more than 10,000 had already plunked down a deposit on the car before they even rolled of the trailers at dealer lots. The Camaro has also graced the cover of just about every automotive publication on the planet, and has received rave reviews not just when pitted against the Dodge Challenger or Ford Mustang – it is truly a car worthy of fighting import competition, as well as domestic.
The base Camaro is a story in and of itself with a 304hp V-6 standard, when put up against similarly priced competition as say the Hyundai Genesis, it slaps it around like a polar bear does a National Geographic photographer playing dead. The barriers to entry for the current top dog SS model (barring the absence of a planned Z/28 edition) are not steep, with the base price coming in at $30,995. For a car with 426hp and high-12 second ¼ mile implications, that is wholly reasonable.
To put up those kind of numbers not that long ago would have required a substantial investment in cylinder heads, cam shafts, gears, and other bolt-on’s that would potentially void a new car warranty. This one comes with a 5-year/100,000 mile powertrain warranty, and does so with a comparatively muted exhaust note, while returning 24mpg on the highway – those are EPA estimates, many actual owners have achieved better. Restrain yourself with the options and you can have a nicely equipped SS Camaro for well south of $32,000.
Think about that for a moment. You have a car that looks not much different than it did when it was cruising the show car circuit only a couple of years ago, is putting up horsepower and performance numbers that rival the all-time legends of muslcecardom, and does so with impressive fuel mileage, comfort, and some semblance of safety. The new Camaro has succeeded and will continue to, because it is a modern car with throwback hues, not a complete retro rendition like the Challenger and Mustang are. It is a world-class car that will be key in rebranding General Motors from the beleaguered auto giant who has been on life support for the last six months, courtesy of an organ donor in Uncle Sam. For them to succeed, the Camaro is among their models that will need to succeed - and it is already doing just that.
Even better, unlike Camaros of days gone by, it seems that the rattles, T-tops, and mullet jokes are a thing of the past as well.
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