Hot Rod Magazine's Camaro Survey

[02hawk796]

You mean GM knew 15 years ago they would be this screwed up ???
Sorry, I don't think GM has a solid plan for next Tuesday much less 15 years from now LOL.

He was half-right. You have pointed out the half he got right. GM started planning 20 years ago to be this screwed up, and have been working mightily on that "end-of-business" model. It was put in place and preached by Roger Smith, who hated cars but loved counting beans. That's the "stop making saleable cars" half.

The car-planning is hard to swallow. GM planned in 1952 that Ford would produce a Mustang in 64 so that GM could follow with ah, um, Camaro? - that's it, yeah! And that's why GM spent the 60's designing that super performance Banshee, just to be able to shunt all that progress into a Camaro clone - Firebird. Sounds far fetched.
Then Chrysler/Dodge comes out with some musclecars, and, by golly, GM had already planned 15 years prior that they'd follow that developement, too??
And in the late 70's, GM planned that SLP would resurrect the WS6 & SS monikers to goose the sales and desirability of their wimped-out F-bodies, and extend the production span of the 4th gens?
And then they asked Dodge to please, please, could they build a Viper so that Chebby could respond by feebily trying to develop a vette worthy of market share?
And of course in the late 80's GM planned to direct Dodge to make a retro-ish Neon SUV -umm, PT Cruiser- and Ford to produce a retro Stang, so GM could respond with the "oops, we mistakenly cancelled the Firebird/Camaro line" bandaid of Holden Monaro GTO until the new retro-styling Camaro is produced.
I dunno, seems kinda far-fetched to me.

[WMCCjames]

I worked in automotive design for over 10 years and I can tell you, car lines are NOT running 15 years ahead of production. That's just rediculous. One example I can give is the new mustang. I started work on the 05 mustang (automatic shifter design) in 2000....and that was one of the weirdest design schedules I had seen.
Most other new car designs I have seen ran 24-36 months out from production. Things are not like they used to be......they can bring new designs to market much quicker these days.

[thursday12889]

i think they should drop the SS and make an IROC. I know its based on a 1st gen but its not a 1st gen, its a 5th gen so it should be almost exactly like the 1st gens.

[02hawk796]

Forgot something:
I don't think GM "planning" had anything to do with the greatest creations of the Pontiac line, which all came from John DeLorean, who had to sneak all of his goodies past the GM execs so we could enjoy his fruits. Pontiac "Excitement" is merely nostalgia of the DeLorean era at GM.