Word: camaros
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Susan Docherty is on the front lines in terms of rebuilding the company's relationship with consumers, which has been a disaster. "In large parts of this country, their cars just aren't relevant," says a former GM executive. Vehicles like the new Chevrolet Camaro show that GM is capable of building good, attractive vehicles, says a senior executive at a rival automaker, but "it's all the other stuff that gets...
...sales in the U.S. are improving, aided by cash-for-clunkers, as well as positive consumer response to the Camaro, Buick LaCrosse and Cadillac SRX. In addition, new compact crossover vehicles, the GMC Terrain and Chevrolet Equinox, have sold so well that GM is adding a third production shift at an assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ont. Since mid-September, when it began offering to take back vehicles from dissatisfied customers, only a tiny fraction of the cars GM has sold have come back to dealers, Docherty notes. "We've sold 300,000, and we've had 163 physical returns...
Like its predecessor, you can get a Camaro in different sizes of vroom. The lower-end LS model features a 300-hp, 3.4-liter, V-6 engine that goes from 0 to 60 m.p.h. in 6.1 seconds. The higher-priced SS model, which I drove, has a 6.2-liter, V-8 engine that tops out at 426 hp and cuts the time to 4.7 seconds to reach 60 m.p.h. Is the twitch-quick Mustang GT a little more responsive off the mark? Maybe, but running the Camaro through second, third and fourth gears will quickly, very quickly, make you forget...
...here's the deep-dark secret of the Camaro: this bruiser is a cruiser. At 65 m.p.h. on the highway, the SS engine puts out only 1,900 r.p.m. (the typical sedan would be somewhere around 2,500 r.p.m.), which means it's surprisingly, pleasingly quiet. Yes, it still roars when you floor it. But Chevy has made the Camaro suitable for 40- and 50-year-olds with balky backs and memories of younger days. The chairs are older-suburban-guy comfy, as if they had come out of a Malibu...
...Camaro going to save GM? Hardly, but having a hot car to sell reminds people of the fact that the Chevy brand didn't go the way of Oldsmobile. The company lost a generation of buyers to Toyota and Honda, but there's nothing from those shops that can match this throwback to the time when muscle cars ruled, and GM ruled muscle...