The wife and I were out messing around with no particular
place to go this past Monday when we decided to stop by the local Chevy dealer
near Warrenton, OR just to see if the GM cars had any major mark downs in
price.
 |
| 2002 Toyota Highlander |
We recently sold our 2002 Toyota Highlander and replaced it
with a 1994 Toyota Corolla because we wanted to get something that used a
little less gas and would help us lower our debt burden enough to help us buy a
new house.
As for full sized SUV's the Highlander may be one of the
nicest every made. It was a tough letting go of it, it was one of the loaded
ones too with the big 6 cylinder, heated leather seats, sun roof, tinted
windows, 6 disc CD changer, power everything, the whole shebang. Truthfully
this vehicle is the single nicest one I've ever owned; it's basically the same
SUV as the Lexus only with a Toyota body skin.
 |
| 2006 Nissan Altima |
In 2006 I bought a brand new Nissan Altima which we still have but
we've considered trading for a new small SUV. I doubt very seriously we’ll give
up the Altima. I love it; it gets outstanding gas mileage, has great zip for a
4 cylinder and handles like a dream. The Altima had the most style of any of
mid-size cars available in 2006. I originally wanted to buy a Camry, Corolla,
Accord or Civic but the 2006 Camry had an ugly body style that year and Honda’s
prices on both the Accord and the Civic were just too pricey. The quality and
reliability of the Nissan Altima is equal to the Honda Civic and the Toyota
Corolla so I opted for the Altima.
I still have the 93 Ford F-150 4X4 that I’d completely
restored back in 2005. I’d be driving it a lot more if the price of gas hadn’t
soared out of sight. I’ve owned one Ford truck or another every since I
graduated from high school in 1978. I’m a Ford truck man through and through.
As much as I’d like a brand new one gas mileage has shut me down besides a new
4X4 XLT starts at 30k and up so I just decided to keep the 93 and restored it.
I plan on keeping it forever and just maintaining so we can use it for a camper
and a boat.
 |
| 1993 Ford F-150 4X4 |
Instant Love Affair
with the New Camaro
Funny then how when I pulled into the Chevy dealer in
Warrenton and circled around it, my attention immediately went away from the
small cars parked in the lot right to the red 2010 Chevy Camaro parked near the
showroom. To be honest I didn't know that GM had even put them into production
yet, the last I heard 2010 was suppose to be when it was launched, so I was
shocked to see it setting there in all its glory.
Before the stock market plunge in Oct. of 2008, the mortgage
meltdown, the bank failures and the collapse of Chrysler and GM I had a dream
to own the new Camaro the first year of its release. I had actually contacted a
dealer in Portland in 2007 and asked how I could get on a waiting list to buy
one when they came out. They were asking for a $500 deposit to get in line to
be one of the first to buy one.
When the hurricane like storm destroyed our home in Dec. of
2007 all hopes of buying a Camaro had to be put on hold. Then as mention above
the market crash killed our 401K, and made it seem even more like an impossible
dream at least in the near future.
If money were no object my ultimate dream machine has always
been to buy a completely restored 1967 Camaro. Of all the muscle cars every
made this one has always been my favorite but since they are so rare, so
expensive and hard to find parts for I doubt I’ll ever see one in my lifetime.
The better option now would be to eventually get my hands on one of the new
Camaro’s.
When I talked to the dealer in Warrenton he said GM just
shipped them their first one 3 weeks ago. He said they’re pumping out 3,000 new
Camaro’s a month in Michigan and they’re selling but not as well as GM had
hoped, in large part due the bad economy which is no surprise.
 |
| 2010 Chevy Camaro |
About the Test Drive
The first thing that’ll happen to you if you’re at least 6
foot or taller (which I am) and you test drive the Camaro is once you open the
door to set down in it you’ll bang you head on the roof of the car the first
time. The roof is very low to the ground which is a good thing for performance
and handling but a bad thing for tall guys with big noggins like mine.
Once you take your seat, you’ll notice immediately that the
seating and interior are not that comfortable or luxurious. It’s better than
the cars of the 70’s but not much. That’s okay with me; the old muscle cars
weren’t built for a Sunday drive but for speed and performance just like this
new one so that didn’t bother me. What did bother me was that since the roof
profile is so low vision from the windshield, side windows and the rear window
is limited.
Seeing over the hood even for a tall guy is hard. I don't
think I'd ever let my tiny wife try to parallel park it, she'd surely put a
ding in it. The engineers at GM had some heated debates about the roof profile
of the car and vision from inside but personally I'm glad the profile is
low if it were much higher the car wouldn't handle as well.
I test drove the Camaro 1SS 6 speed manual tyranny with the
6.2 liter V8 engine that pumps out 426 hp of tire smoking muscle. Unfortunately
since the Dealer I went to is located in Warrenton, OR on Hwy 101 with only a 2
lane road and a 55 MPH speed limit I wasn't able to romp on the gas and get a
feel for a top end.
No need though, you can bet on an Interstate Highway with a
stretch of open road this Car will go WAY faster than you'd care to drive it.
The Car handles about the same way one of the newer Mustangs do maybe a little
better. In 2006 when I was looking to buy a new car I test drove the 2006
Mustang and the corner handling characteristics and road & wind noise
levels is equally similar.
Speaking of noise the Camaro's engine purrs, it doesn't have
the 4 barrel dual exhaust rumble of the old versions but personally that noise
is overrated. Give me the quiet and quick (0 to 60 mph in 5 seconds)
sneaky fast machine over the loud rumble. Without exception, it's the coolest
car GM has made for 25 years. The price tag on the 1SS was $28,000, pricey yes
but cheap considering what you get.
If and when I do buy one of the new Camaro's, I'll just
settle for the 3.6 liter V6 304 hp engine with the 6 speed automatic tyranny
which goes for about $22,000. From what I've read about the V6 it's got plenty
of zip and gets better mileage, an estimated 18 mpg City 29 mpg Hwy, than the
V8 auto-tyranny which gets an estimated 15 mpg City and 24 mpg Hwy.
I loved the test drive and it was a sad moment to have to
give the keys back to the Salesman, I wish I could have driven it home that day
but the wife said no way.
Turtle and Soap Bar
Mobiles
I just think it’s incredibly tragic that GM didn’t have the
foresight or the sense of urgency to get the Camaro engineered and on the
assembly line quicker. Prior to the meltdown GM’s main market in the U.S. was
for full size trucks and SUV’s. No one was buying any of the other cars they produced
because they just didn’t make mid-sized or compact versions that anyone wanted.
The Japanese and the Koreans have been making far better cars and for a better
price, plus they have more style too. Most of the latest GM cars just like the
Chrysler cars are nondescript looking clones of one another. They seem to have
to 2 body designs, one that looks like a bar of soap, the other like a turtle
or they just copy the successful Japanese body styles.
I’ve said for years that the biggest problem the Big 3 have
had is that they didn’t invest enough engineering into putting some style into
their body designs. Ford finally figured it out with the redesigned Mustang but
GM didn’t follow suit fast enough. The Mustang continues to sale well for Ford
because there’s a big market for the retro-muscle car look.
Malibu & GTO
flame out
GM’s poor effort of trying to reintroduce and repackage some
of their old car brands has failed miserably. The new versions of the Malibu
and the GTO were a complete joke and not even close to having any sort of
brash American style to them as the old 60’s & 70’s or even the 80’s
models. It was Muscle Car blasphemy to make such a terrible looking GTO &
Malibu.
I really believe that the power plants that the Big 3 makes
are probably just as good as the Japanese and Koreans but it’s their body designs
that have killed sales. Not just with a bigger full size muscle cars or luxury
cars but with mid-size to compacts as well.
I believe had GM and Chrysler focused on styling instead of
plagiarizing the Japanese they could have had a market for cars like the Camaro
or any of the long list of other successful car brands they had back in the heyday.
As long as the cars were meeting the governments requirements for fuel mileage
why worry if the car was perfectly aero-dynamic with clean straight lines.
I know the price of gas has soared to new heights in the
last 2 years but I think there still is a big market for cars like the Mustang,
Challenger and Camaro.
It’s too bad the CEO’s and the unions brought down the once
mighty giant GM. I guess us muscle car fans can hold onto the days of yore when
cars like the Camaro, Malibu, GTO, Firebird, Trans Am, and the Corvette were
the coolest bad ass rides cruising the streets.
Regardless some day, some way I’ll have a one of the new
generation of Camaro’s whether GM goes by way of the Dinosaur or not. The 2010 Camaro
is all that it’s advertised to be, it’s the coolest looking sports car GM has
made for 25 years. It’s just a crying shame it didn’t come quick enough. I know
it alone wouldn’t have saved GM but maybe had they invest more energy into
building cars with real style that Americans would buy whether big, small or
sporty maybe they wouldn’t be where they are today.
 |
| The 2010 Camaro is a Freakin' Awesome Car DUDE! |
