[el ess A]

Can't claim early bird status, but I was bound and determined that I was going to get GM Employee discount on a new Camaro. Early on, it was tough to find someone to honor the employee discount, and the wife and I wasn't quite ready to jump onboard with full MSRP or over in many cases.

A bit later, though, found a few dealers accepting the employee discount and the wife greenlighted it in early April 2009. On the phone the next morning with Classic Chevy in Grapevine, TX.

Got it ordered and had to wait 6 months, but it was worth it. A little birdie sent me a PM with some good news. The NEW Transformer Edition package that was coming and would be approved shortly and I got a sneak peek. I originally ordered it yellow with black stripes, but a bit later, the Transformers option became available for order so I called them back and was able to change the order to add CTH into the mix. It turns out that with the employee discount, and removing the gloss black stripes, the price only went up a couple hundred bucks net for the Transformers Edition package. It's a little corny, but just a little different than the others.

Got a bonus Mike Judge (and many many of his crew-mates) signed cutaway poster with the car's VIN on it, and had them dedicate it to my dad who was a GM retiree but had a severe stroke just prior to the Camaro's dropping into dealerships.

In October, 2009, it finally arrived at Classic. We picked it up there, and drove it all the way back to South Carolina. A trip to remember. Countless thumbs ups, honks and waves. The car was an instant hit.

Our car was late enough to NOT get the chicklets, but then also was in production when the backup sensors were starting to be added to the cars sometime in August 2009 (or thereabouts). We essentially got them for free because of the grandfathered in with the locked price.

12 thousand miles of smiles. And it's still parked in the garage.