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Originally Posted by m6-lt1
Op, a lot of people are talking about car sales right now but I believe your question has to do with why the 6th gen didn’t sell better during its entire life (not just the end where no one is buying sports cars anymore).
I know I’m going to get a lot of hate for this on this board but as someone who’s bought 2 and uses them for their intended purpose (tracking) I think the Camaro fails greatly at being an actual CAR and doing car stuff.
While most of us on this board have accepted the visibility issues I think they are unacceptable and first impressions matter. Yes you get used to it but a car buyer who’s not an enthusiast (ie 90% of buyers of sports cars) are not going to accept the poor visibility. And before anyone says the Mustang is just as bad, it’s not and it’s not even close. The amount of extra visibility in them is insane when you realize it’s the same type of car.
The lack of storage space in the car is insane. How can such a big car have such small door pockets? The doors are huge! There’s no where really to put your phone. The back seat is useless. Now the Mustangs isn’t great either but it can at least fit adults in a pinch. Anyone over 5’5 cannot fit in the back of a Camaro because their head will be hitting the ceiling.
The trunk opening. This is the dumbest of them all. I’ve heard it’s due to making the car more rigid but I would bet 99% of people do not care about the car being slightly more rigid. This is corrected on the Cadillacs and should have been the same on the Camaro. I know folks were surveyed about this but I don’t believe Chevy did a good enough job explaining the performance benefit and showing them how crappy the trunk opening actually is. I’d gladly sacrifice some structural rigidity so I don’t have to play legos every track weekend and would love to be able to get more than 1 wheel in the trunk.
I’m sure my post will get a lot of hate but it’s the truth. They just did not make a car that appeals to the masses that well. It’s bad at being a car. It’s great at being a sports car but the market that actually cares about that and prioritizes that (me and most others on this board) is a tiny market. Most folks buying a sports car just want something stylish with decent power that can be used everyday. This is why the Mustang sells so many more 4 bangers than the Camaro sold 4 bangers and V6’s. It appealed to non enthusiasts which is a way bigger market (please don’t take that as me saying everyone who doesn’t get a V8 isn’t an enthusiast ).
If I wasn’t fortunate enough to have 2 vehicles what probably would have happened for me is I would have bought my first Camaro due to wanting the superior performance but would eventually have moved to a Mustang after getting frustrated with its compromises as a car.
If GM brings back the Camaro as an ICE coupe, I am hoping it is more livable so that it doesn’t go extinct again. Move away from the chopped roof and high belt line.
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This ^
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Originally Posted by Martinjlm
Well stated @m6-lt1! I will certainly not be mad at you. 6th Gen Camaro is definitely a better enthusiast's car than Mustangs compared model year to model year. But Mustang is a better everyday car.
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This ^ The 6th gen Camaro was a great Camaro but bad at being a car, especially compared to it's direct competitors.
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Originally Posted by Number 3
Ok some people love Brussels sprouts. When I was a kid I had to burry it in ketchup to tolerate it.
You’ve fallen into ice trap of “it works just fine for me so it should be fine for everybody else”
Remember Bob Lutz said “you can sell a young man’s car to an old man but you can’t sell an old man’s car to a young man”. Same thing again.
I would have had one of the first Camaros in the Chicagoland area if they at least designed it to get two sets of golf clubs in the trunk. 2 sets fit just fine in the Gen5 and two sets fir easily in the other Alpha coupe. But for the Gen6 they made choices. So for anyone else like me? Lost sales.
As I’ve said, the Gen6 was designed for Camaro owners. It was never intended to have broad appeal.
But you are wrong about just adjusting your seat. Lol, I’m intimately knowledgeable on the SAE tools used for visibility. I even created some of those packaging tools for heavy trucks.
As MartinJim points out, you can see what you need to see. The problem with the Camaro is the “ perception” a new customer will feel when they just sit in the car in a showroom. The Welborn high belt/slammed roof results in a smaller side glass.
Glad you love yours. The question wasn’t why you love yours. The question is why you did sales continue to drop over time. You and the folks that bought and love their Gen6 Camaros was not nearly enough to sustain the car.
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This. The first perception is really a thing. Especially when you had almost every review comparison mention the visibility people already go into with a preconceived notion it is going to be bad. The first impression sitting in it with out adjusting anything probably deterred people right then and there. I remember the first time I got to sit in a 6th gen at the auto show. My first impression was holy crap this thing is cramped, and I can't see anything out of this. Also damn it made me feel fatter than I am haha. Now could I adjust everything and probably see what I need and get comfy and all that yeah, but holy hell that was an awful first impression. At that point, I didn't know if I would ever even want to test drive one because the first impression was so bad.
Now having had a chance to get in one again and mess around with seating position and what not, it's no where near as bad as my first impression. HOWEVER to me it wasn't a driving position I would want to spend time daily driving in, especially compared to my previous mustangs. Now if I was in the position of not needing it to be my primary vehicle, I would be able t overlook that stuff in a second because of the performance factor.