Camaro dreams: Cheap at any price

The market's up nearly 1,000 points! We're saved! Buy a Camaro!

General Motors Corp. stock was up a third today and the company wasn't bankrupt, which made for perfect timing to announce long-awaited pricing information on its even longer-awaited 2010 model-year Camaro. The good news: It's not priced like a Volt. The bad news: It ain't priced like an Aveo either. Oh, and Ford and Chrysler make cheaper muscle cars.

For the V-6 entry-level LS model, MSRP starts at $22,245, plus $750 destination charge; while the SS, with the V-8 engine and the eight-ball shifter,* will have an MSRP of $30,245, not including destination fee. Production will start in the first quarter of next year, and the cars should hit dealerships in March.

GM also released estimated fuel economy numbers for both models. The LS, with 3.6 liters of displacement, 300 horsepower and 273 pounds of torque, will get 27 miles per gallon on the highway, the company says, while the SS, holding a whopping 6.2 liters of the combustible stuff, generates 422 horsepower and puts out 408 pounds of twisting force, for a highway mpg of 23.

“The wait is almost over,” said Ed Peper, Chevrolet's North American vice president, on today's news. It's about time, said the rest of the car world....

... Abandoned by the General in 2002, the Camaro was first resurrected as a concept car at the 2006 Detroit auto show, then very quickly sneaked into "Transformers" and its sequel, provoking the expected Pavolvian salivation mechanism from a generation of males who came of age in the Nixon, Ford and Carter administrations. Now it's also going to star in a new NBC drama, "My Own Worst Enemy," with Christian Slater behind the wheel. 

Doubters aside, of course GM was going to build the thing, and of course it wasn't going to mess with the design too much, since the concept was such a hit with fans. But GM came under considerable fire for taking so darn long to actually produce the new, retro-styled Camaro, that many lost their patience and went out and bought a retro-styled Ford Mustang or retro-styled Dodge Challenger. Indeed, early this year, Chrysler Vice Chairman Jim Press was bragging to everyone who would listen about how fast his company could put out a new version of an old car, straining mightily not to mention which product he was comparing his Challenger with.

His Challenger, it should be said, starts at $1,000 less than the Camaro ($21,320, plus $675 destination fee, to be exact). The Challenger R/T, which has a 5.7-liter V-8 and packs a Hemi (!), costs $30,315 and pumps out a mere 370 horses and 404 torques, which would seem to indicate that when it comes to horsepower, with Camaro you get a volume discount.

The Ford Mustang, with a 4-liter V-6, generates 210 hp and starts at $19,735, not including destination fees. The relatively parsimonious 4.6 liter V-8 on the Mustang GT is good for 300 horsepower and the car costs $26,425.

GM has started taking online orders for the car as of today. If you're bound and determined, now might be a good time, because it's a pretty safe bet that the first ones to hit dealership lots will sell for multiples of sticker price on EBay.

*Doesn't really come with an eight-ball shifter. But with the way cars are selling these days, there's not a dealer in the nation who wouldn't put one on for you if that's what you prefer.

-- Ken Bensinger

Photo of 2010 Camaro SS courtesy of General Motors

Comments

[Yon Vangelis]

Man that is a sweet ride and the 8-ball shifter makes it all the sweeter. I am going to get me one of them badboys. Gotta tell ya, I can't wait...and I've been waiting quite a while, my friend. Quite. A. While. Actually knew a guy who had an 8-ball shift on his Chevy Jimmy and that thing cruised, man.

[ATriana]

That supersize Chevy badge on the front grille doesn't have much appeal for me- I hope the SS badge takes its place -for $8,000 more anyway. 1969 Forever!!!

[MCC]

This may be the first American car to make me switch back from imports. I grew up admiring American muscle but with no real good choices in the past few years I went with a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. I love the Evo, it's a great car, but the lure of 400+ HP and TQ at about the same gas mileage and even less than the cost of my current car is making me salivate...

[Robert B]

Finally GM gets around to putting its fine small V8 into a few passenger cars, only ten years too late. This engine is produced in versions from 4.8 to 6.2 litres and can fit virtually anywhere (there's a kit to put it into a Miata!). It was developed in the 90s, and it costs less to make than a typical 24 valve V6. So what did GM do? Installed it only in trucks, the Corvette and an ultra-low volume niche Cadillac model.
Thus you can get either a cheeseburger or share of GM for the same price.

The new Camaro will be much more car than the old ones, with its IRS, a solid structure and 50/50 weight balance but GM needs to convince the Evo/STi/BMW generation to take a look or it will fade quickly.

[Jared]

How many people are going to have $30,000 cash on hand? Oh wait... GM knows that people can't afford that, so they sell you $300/month and... have we not learned that "The borrower is a slave to the lender?" A $5,000 used car for cash, doesn't make you their slave people. New cars are a waste! Sorry GM.

Make us an electric car that is around $5,000 and is reliable and THEN lets talk. Ok? Wait... that is why I ride a used motorcycle (laughing ALL the way to the bank). :)

[Frankenbike]

The V-6 version of the Camaro has 300hp? That's a considerable step up from the V-6 version of the Challenger (250hp) and V-6 Mustang (210 hp). Heck, it's the same horsepower that Ford's V-8 puts out.

Let's throw a BMW 128i in there. 230hp

OK, the Challenger V-6 gets 25mpg highway
Ford Mustang V-6 gets 26mpg
BMW 128i 28mpg. 300hp turbo version, 25mpg
OK, so the BMW 1 series weights about 700 lbs less ;)

So not only does it get V-8 horsepower in a V-6 that exceeds the 4th Gen specs (275 hp up to around '97), it gets vastly better mileage (equivalent to 31mpg in 1990 EPA values). And it appears to get better mileage than its competitors with higher output (or at least the same, we'll see when the real EPA tests are done).

And unlike the Mustang, it's a rear wheel drive with fully independent suspension.

It's a nice entry, and the V-6 version isn't so uneconomical that it knocks it out of the ballpark. Fuel economy wise it's in the ballpark of nearly every Japanese or German 6 cylinder car out there. And a lot cheaper than all of them, with horsepower in the neighborhood of the more expensive versions.

So, the V-8 is out there for the serious enthusiast. But the V-6...rather than being underpowered is a mid-range economical powerhouse that's a better performance buy than almost anything out there when it happens.

I predict the V-6 will be a huge seller. It's not an embarrassment in any way to anyone who owns it, and 300 hp is pretty much the base level for any car that isn't going to be considered "girly". I just hope they don't screw up and actually build it well.

[Tim Stroud]

Why would I want a 70's re-run? Can't anyone think of anything new these days?

[mikeyboccato]

We'll really know if it's worth the $$ when it's up close. The pricing doesn't seem to far off - not much more than the same car 10 years ago. I'm still driving my '99 SS convertible, which I just took to San Diego, getting 25mpg - at 80mph. This is the lowest maintenance car I've ever had (except for the tires). I recently saw a Challenger at a dealer, with the Hemi; for $50,000! Hopefully the dealers won't stick it to the Chevy loyalists, but that's likely a pipe dream. I think I'll just keep the '99.