IS THE NEW CAMARO A THREAT TO FORD’S MUSTANG? [Get the
latest “Truth With Speedzzter” here]
CNBC’s Phil LeBeau rains on Chevrolet’s publicity parade with a piece entitled
"Can New Chevy Camaro Muscle Up Sales?"How much can the Camaro muscle up sales? Not much. This is a niche vehicle coming at a time when consumer confidence is so low, little is driving enthusiasm for new cars. Here's how bad it is. When I told a friend of mine who is your typical "car guy" that I would be driving the new Camaro, his reaction was, "That's nice."
Clearly LeBeau doesn’t expect the new Camaro to live up to its 100,000+ units per year advance billing.
General Motors’ shaky future also does not help generate sales for the Camaro, beyond a hard-core group of “true believers.” Moreover, the new Camaro has a number of faults which should depress sales.
1. HEAVY CHEVY: It’s too big and heavy for a pony car in the current downsized motoring world.
The lightest Camaros will have a curb weight of nearly 3,800 pounds. The hot SS model will tip the scales at around 3,900. 2. THE “PAST” AND THE FURIOUS:
It’s too big, too heavy, and too neo-retro to appeal to what’s left of the young import tuner generation (although the overachieving 260-horsepower turbo Cobalt SS is GM’s primary salvo to this rapidly declining niche). Thus, the vast majority of Camaro sales will be to those old enough to have experienced an original Gen I Camaro (either new or before they were pampered collector cars).
3. THEY DON’T MAKE’EM LIKE THEY USED TO:
Some buyers will prefer the more pure and brutally muscular lines of the Dodge Challenger or the lithe, neo-retro Mustang to a loose, bloated, distorted caricature of a ‘69 Camaro.
4. BEAUTY IS ONLY SKIN DEEP:
Beyond the new Camaro’s love-it-or-hate it cartoon styling, the new Camaro has some abysmal ergonomics. While it may not be as hard to live with as the last generation of “spaceship” F-bodies, GM made so many compromises merely for the sake of style that some drivers will be put off.
5. I COULD HAVE HAD A V8:
Although the Camaro’s base 304 h.p. direct injection, DOHC V6 ought to terrify Mustang’s brand managers, the antediluvian two-valve, pushrod Corvette-sourced V8 is emblematic of old-school, inefficient performance technology.
6. QUALITY ISN’T JOB ONE:
According to some, the old “spaceship” Camaro started disassembling itself in the train car on the way to the dealer. While it remains to be seen if the Australian engineers, American stylists, and the Canadians who screw them together have done any better this time, the nameplate perception is currently not one of high build quality. Some testers have already criticized the occasional cheapness of the new Camaro’s interior.
7. I HATE THE IRS:
The Australian Holden chassis underpinning the new Camaro uses a heavy independent rear suspension (IRS) that will not prove to be very robust for traditional “Camaro-type” activities (i.e. drag racing).
But Team Mustang shouldn’t be breaking out in any celebrations. Why not? 1. IT’S 1970 AGAIN (almost):
In 1970, the Mustang had to fight off a glut of “me-too” pony cars from Chevrolet, Pontiac, AMC, Mercury, Dodge, and Plymouth. Now the Mustang has not only the new Camaro to fend off, but competition from Dodge, Hyundai, and Nissan. If, as Mr. LeBeau opines, the market for is on-the-ropes, then Camaro will certainly cannibalize some Mustang sales.
2. IT’S WORSE THAN 1970: The first Earth Day was in 1970.
This corresponded with the beginnings of the end for the First Supercar Era. These same tie-dyed hippies and flower children of Earth Day are now the grandparents to the “climate change” hysteria that’s sweeping our “tiny, fragile, nearly-dead Planet.” Therefore, the muscle-car-hating “appliance motorists” will increasingly single out anything that’s not a government-regulation 40+ m.p.g. golf cart as profligate, neurotic excess. Such public and political pressure could constrict the market for pony cars.
3. “I’M GIVIN’ YA ALL SHE’S GOT, CAPTAIN:”
As has been well-documented, Team Mustang has mistakenly decided to send the 2010 Mustang into battle well down on horsepower and torque to their Motown competition. Although the Mustang is generally lighter than either the Camaro or the Challenger, the power-to-weight calculations do not work in Mustang’s favor.
As one enthusiast recently wrote:
Vehicle type Wt./ H.P./ Lbs per H.P.
2010 Mustang GT.... 3800 lbs / 315 h.p/ 12.06 lb/hp
2010 Camaro SS..... 4100 lbs/ 400 h.p.*/ 10.25 lb/hp
Challenger R/T..... 4100 lbs/ 372 h.p./ 11.02 lb/hp
Challenger SRT-8... 4200 lbs/ 425 h.p./ 9.88 lb/hp
Shelby GT500**..... 3900 lbs/ 500 h.p.***/ 7.8 lb/hp
*[Actually, the Camaro SS is slated to produce 426 h.p. in LS3 form, and the weight should be a bit lighter than 4100 lbs as well]
**(Not available to regular guys who have to punch a timeclock for a living. . . . )
***[Even with 540 h.p. for 2010, the GT500 is still not relevant to 98% of potential Mustang buyers because of limited supply, high MSRP, and rampant dealer gouging]
Does anyone else see a problem with this picture?
Even if the 2010 Mustang is 300 lbs. lighter than the Challenger and Camaro, it's going to get KILLED on the street.
With nearly a decade to plan for the return of the Pony Car wars, it would seem that Ford's been asleep.
Hyper-partisans, such as "Camaro Craft's" own Jeff "LSx" Smith are going to have a field day pushing the Camaro and dogging the Modular.
It didn't have to be that way.
Certainly, given the state of the Detroit 3, who knows if any of these pony cars (or the companies that build them) will be around in five years (Barring a miracle or a merger, GM will run out of cash in 2009; Chrysler will be sold and niche market stuff like Challenger will probably get axed; 35 m.p.g. CAFE is going to kill V8s for anything except ultra-expensive luxury and sports models).
Thus, it's just plain stupid that Ford expects its long-suffering loyalists to go up against a pair of twelve-gauge sawed-off shot guns with a cap gun.
I'm sick and tired of all the excuse making for Ford.
They're blowing the last opportunity to build a legendary supercar for the masses (one that will likely have to tide all of us "Joe Lunchbox" V8 lovers over for a decade or more).
A wise man once said, "if you claim to build a better mousetrap, you'd better catch a few mice."
The emerging problem with the 2010 Mustang GT is "no mice" . . . . Do we really want to spend thousands more on a V8 that's going to be matched up with the other guy's secretary-special V6 in the minds of those at the Drive-in on Cruise night?
Do we really want to give up all of the technical leadership to the Japanese? (If you want a DOHC 4V V8 with variable valve timing and other modern feature, it doesn't look like you're going to be getting one from Detroit . . . .)
I can't tell you how MAD I AM at Ford BLOWING IT!
Finally, it might be almost OK if the wimpy 2010 Mustang GT had the basic building blocks for aftermarket performance, such as forged pistons, H.D. forged rods and a forged crank. Then on "day two," Mustangers could feed some serious boost to their new Steeds to keep up with the "day two" Camaros.
4. THE BEAM IN THE PURISTS’ EYES: True Mustangers understand why we need a beam rear axle. IRS folds like a pretzel in a drag strip launch and wheel hops like a Mexican jumping bean in many “performance” driving situations. Beam axles are lighter, more foolproof and more durable, too. And Mustang’s success in Grand Am and Miller Cup competition clearly proves the merits of the current beam axle rear suspension.
But all of the self-appointed “car experts” from
Car and Driver on down to high school Twitter exchanges believe in the APOCRYPHAL GOSPEL of the IRS. Thus, the Mustang is going to get
shelled in some corners of the automotive press for not at least offering an optional IRS (notwithstanding the huge weight and cost penalties).
5. THE DETROIT LIONS: Ford is often the Detroit Lions of automakers. As the "Recent Blunders" side-bar shows, they often start with uncompetitive products and then kill them off instead of fixing them.
Thunderbird, Marauder, Lincoln LS, SVT Contour, SVT Focus, and (to a lesser extent)
SVT Lightning are all recent examples of Ford’s drop-back-and-punt “losers” mentality.
It is entirely possible that the bean counters and the environmentalists in the Glass House – the ones who simply cannot understand why logical consumers would buy a Mustang in the first place – will use sales losses to the Camaro and the larger decline in auto sales as a bludgeon to deprive Team Mustang of developmental resources.
The acid test is whether the this final showdown of the dying Second Supercar Era will kill off some or all of the pony cars. In the aftermath of 1970, only the GM F-Bodies survived. Dodge’s Challenger, Plymouth’s Barracuda, and AMC’s Javelin were all killed. At the behest of Lee Iacocca, the Mustang was grotesquely shrunken into some sort of glorified Pinto (even without a V8 option for one season)
Thus, while the Camaro may not resurrect GM, it could possibly finish off the Mustang as we know it.Let’s all hope that the Glass House Gang and Team Mustang have the resolve to “fight the good fight” and make sure that the Mustang is the last pony car standing (and in a form that Mustangers still want). Labels: 2010 Mustang, 2011 Mustang, AMC Javelin, Camaro, Challenger, environmentalism, GM, Lee Iacocca, Modular V8, Second Supercar Era
