This pretty well sums it up for me. GM is going the same direction that Chrysler did in the late 70's-and Harley did as a company at that time as well.
JMO...I am sick of the excuses from GM and Chevrolet for the poor product that is being built. Most if not all the product is either overpriced-or ugly period. In '93 the Camaro beat the Mustang on price was faster and better. and sold well. GM noticed this and raised prices to increase the bottom line.
The end of the Camaro as we knew it actually started in 1993 as Chevy Ads referred to the Camaro as a "Sports car" for the first time and not a sports coupe as it always was. How long do you think it took the bean counters at GM to figure out that they now had two sports cars at Chevy?
The Corvette was destined to win the battle, and by 1996 the GM Exec's forced Perkins out - put middlebrook in and the death of Camaro was sealed. The 1997 ad campign was Lame and appealed to the wrong market segment. They failed to go after the kids-Big mistake. Prices continued to go up. The restyle of 98 looked great in black but the rear of the car still looked like a several other cars on the market, and the round tail lights and smaller bumper cover did not make it. Bad move.
At the managment level Middlebrook was the WORST thing that could have happened to the Camaro. Middlebrook ran Pontiac in the early 90's and with the exception of the Firebird T/A there was no "Excitement" to be found.
Until GM has a rebirth of some type I feel a new Camaro in this decade may damage the Camaro name the same way the Toyota "Nova" did for the Nova.
It may take until 2017 for GM/Chevy to rebuild enough to make a quality product. The next Camaro could be Hydrogen powered if at all. But first GM needs to survive. Sad to say but Caddy is now the performance segment at GM.
Want more info? read this:
http://www.detnews.com/2005/insiders...B01-133557.htm