Quote:
Originally Posted by Boost Creep
In a post in that thread they had a commercial from 1984 with a Camaro starting out at $7,995, that's like $18,500 in todays money. At that price sales would skyrocket.
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Like I posted in that thread, the $8,000 Camaro in 1984 was the Iron Duke 4 banger with a 4 speed manual, no air conditioning, no nothing. They would not sell a single car equipped like that in 2018. And if they tried, it would cost GM MORE to produce them than to produce all the Camaros with power everything due to production costs and logistical inventory of production parts. It costs more to have every part be an option, that's part of what drove GM and Chrysler in to BK - every car could be built with or without every individual feature. The incredible amount of different wiring, nuts, bolts, parts and presses/stamps required to offer those options made things a nightmare in the old days. Don't even get me started.
A loaded Z28 with the 350 and automatic was around $13,500 which is about $32,000 in today's money. Don't forget, even the base 2018 LS turbo 2.0 6 speed with zero options at $26,000 right now would even beat the fully loaded 1984 Z28 350 with a 5 speed stick in every aspect of performance. The 350 HO 5 speed 0-60 was 6.6 seconds, turbo 4 automatic today is 5.7 seconds. Also, handling and braking (even with the base stock brakes, no Brembos) isn't even close.
In other words, you can still have your base, no frills, high performance Camaro Z28 you could get in 1984 for under $30k in today's money. It's just going to be a turbo 4 now. But it's still going to blow the doors off your 1984 Camaro Z28.
That's really how you need to compare apples to apples. You also have to be mindful of the limitations of technology in 1984 vs 2018. Not even comparable. Even the brightest most forward thinking engineers in 1984 could not conceive of the technology our cars have in 2018 that enable performance, let alone creature comforts.