[Martinjlm]

Originally Posted by ZPirate

Unfortunately styling is subjective. What some like others may not. For example, some people don't like the 2019 refresh of the Gen6 Camaro, but I do. I like it better than the 2016-18s. What I don't like about the styling of the Gen6 are the small side windows. Those give the car a chop top look, hurt visibility and make the interior seem dark. Does that make me want to get rid of my Camaro? No. The car has many positives.

The Gen6 still has the best chassis of the American muscle cars. It's the sports car of the group. And the 1LE package makes it handle even better. Not to mention it's a great bang for the buck.

I've never had anyone ask me what car my Camaro is. Most people readily recognize it as a Camaro. I do get asked about what a 1LE is.

I agree with you that the C8 now looks (and is priced) like a European exotic. That's what GM apparently wants. It wants the C8 to compete in that market. I've owned a C6, but frankly I'm not willing to spend what a C8 costs on a weekend car.

My guess is that GM basically gave up on the Camaro several years ago. That's why it's not marketing or improving the car. And why it isn't developing a new Camaro. GM would rather concentrate on higher profit trucks, SUVs, and C8s and other developing EVs. Only Ford seems to care about having an ICE Muscle car going forward.

Don't forget that GM has done this before with the Camaro. When it dropped the Camaro after the Gen4 it gave Ford the market. Then later GM decided to build the Gen5 and get back in the Muscle car game. At this point I suspect GM keeps building Camaros because there is still demand (even without any marketing) and the tooling and R & D are paid for.

I’ll try to add a little perspective to what you’re saying here.

GM did hand market share to Ford after the drop of Gen 4. But it wasn’t for lack of trying. Gen 4 had to be ended because the F-body platform was not capable of meeting CAFE and safety requirements that were being rolled out at the time. GM tried super hard to put Camaro on a different architecture but there simply wasn’t anything usable available at the time.

For the first part of this time period I led the Powertrain Planning department and we were responsible for working with Engineering to match powertrains to vehicles. Later I was part of the Portfolio Planning group that made the business cases to place specific vehicle programs on appropriate architectures, so in both cases I was right in the middle working with people focused on trying to revive Camaro. Bringing it back on Zeta platform was pretty much a moon shot led by Bob Lutz, Ed Welburn, and Tom Stephens (VP of Powertrain). Ed had his 1st Gen parked in the GM Design studios and gave his team direction to use it as inspiration to design 5th Gen.

GM was working hard on development of a Gen 7 right up until the strategic shift to all EV for passenger cars. I had left GM by this point in time but was still in touch with people familiar with the program, some of whom are active in this forum. The decline in sedans, coupes and convertibles combined with the move to EV effectively cut the lifeline for Camaro and a whole bunch of other cars. Most of them, including Camaro, are likely to come back in EV form eventually.

(me and Ed Welburn at an Automotive Hall of Fame event)