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The reason it had to go away was impending crash standards that it would not pass. Plus no one was buying the damn car anyway. Check the production numbers of the F body in its final years. The last three years of production GM made 45, 29, and 42 thousand Camaros. No way they could make money on that volume. Or justify redesigning the car.
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Only one problem with your post above. You are a little misinformed. Middlebrook (the manager who moved over from Pontiac) was the decisionmaker - and the decision to Kill both the Camaro and Firebird was made in 1997.
The 1998 redisign was engineering complete and cost finalized for production in late 1996- the issue for 2003 was rollover not crash.
The reason the car did not sell well after the 1998 redisign was linked to the redesign being only frontal and not the rear as planned. Round Corvette tail lights were planned but rejected due to cost, so sales flopped due to GM failing to freshen up the body as Ford did with the Mustang.
Also Camaro Pulled out of SCCA T/A at the time of the decision and GM then saved even more money by backing Ron Capps in NHRA Funny car.
Advertising fell to just a few ads in periodicals ONLY after the 1997 heritage TV ad campign.
You see there was plenty of time to redesign the Camaro, but the money was in trucks so instead of redesigning the F-Body they shot the wad on the SSR a low mark for quality with a roof that would not even go up or down correctly.
Bad and intentional decisions made at the corporate level.
If you think I am wrong - please be specific on what you think I am wrong on.
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Since when is a rollover NOT a crash??? I didnt say front impact or side impact. I said crash, which last time I checked can involve a rollover.
Production totals fell by 50% from 1995 to 1996. What was the reason for that? The numbers stayed low from that point on.
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Yes a crash can include a rollover. Frontal impact, side impact and rear impact can be mitigated by vehicle improvements that typically do not cause a redesign.
Why new roll over standards are tougher for an auto manufacturers is due to the increased roof crush requirements which cause the entire structure of a vehicle to be revised to insure that structure is strong enough to protect against head and neck injuries- thus improvements in other structural components are needed to reduce injury severity to the crash test occupants.
Changes to crash means you reinforce what you have. Changes to rollover means a redesign.
You state the 1995 and 1996 production as reduced by 50% from year to year.
According to GM records total Camaro production for 1995 was 98,938 and in 1996 75,336.
Just where are you getting 50% from that?