[Martinjlm]

Originally Posted by Doc

Boy this one's hard to read. There's no question that corporate is watching the sales trend for the Camaro, so what does this mean? It doesn't sound like Al was seeking this position; sounds more like they said "you're going over here now". Does that mean they think they need new blood in the Camaro program to revitalize it? Al is an engineer, not a designer, and he did his job giving the Camaro class-leading performance.

Mark Dickens being the "...current executive director of Performance Variants, Parts, Accessories, and Motorsports Engineering" sounds more like he's involved with the way things look on the outside.

He was involved in go-fast things as well as look-good things.

Originally Posted by Doc

Considering that the 7th gen is probably already designed and sitting in a studio room somewhere, GM may not like what they're looking at and are either bringing in this guy to help redesign the appearance, or GM is making the decision that the Camaro is on its way out and this guy is the caretaker to oversee that.

Vehicle Chief Engineers have very limited involvement in vehicle exterior design beyond saying “I prefer Sketch F over Sketch D” and weighing in on some basic design elements. Engineers engineer, Designers design.

Originally Posted by Doc

Their statement "We have launched the final variant of this generation of Camaro, so the time is right" is hard to read other than the Gen 6 is done. Not a word about a Gen 7. Nothing like "We're exciting about the next generation Camaro" or anything like that. They even made a specific point of saying that moving Al to EV doesn't mean they're planning on making an EV Camaro or a similar "performance-focused" EV (yet he says they aren't ruling that out).

Other than Johan de Nysschen, I have never seen GM execs openly describe, or even acknowledge, the existence of any future product. Try asking Tadge Juecther anything about a ME Corvette. He has perfected the blank stare followed by “what are talking about?”

Originally Posted by Doc

What this tells me is they're not blaming Al for the decline in Camaro sales, which is good for Al, but what does it mean for the Camaro? If they WERE actually planning an an EV Camaro, bringing Al over now means it'll be years before we see something.

The only way Al would be blamed for Camaro sales would be if the low sales were attributed to Camaro not meeting its performance or fuel economy goals (it meets both) or if there was a demonstrable engineering flaw that tanked the brand. That didn’t happen. The 6th Gen won enough awards and magazine covers to place Al in very good standing with GM leadership. If there is an electrified Camaro coming anytime soon, I can assure you development would not have waited for Al to show up. It could potentially take a bend in direction based on what he chooses to focus on, but he would not be starting with a blank sheet of paper.

Originally Posted by Doc

Gen 6 is done, so what's next, and when?

Good things I hope. And hopefully around 2021 - 22.