New Camaro sure is impractical.

[Vegas69]

They have grown on me about as much as my favorite mole.

[MyFriendScott]

Design fought tooth and nail to get that roof as low as possible......

There is a balance to be struck between design and engineering. In the end however, car sales have always done better when design wins out over bean counters and engineers. The Camaro continues to out sell the Mustang and Challenger because of its winning design IMHO.

[parsonsj]

car sales have always done better when design wins out over bean counters and engineers

I resemble that remark. Surely engineers deserve more love than to be classified as equal to bean counters!

Seriously, though, I'd guess all facets of a new automotive offering have to be weighed, balanced, and compromised. The cas to be buildable, drivable, maintainable, and still catch the fancy of consumers.

[Happyfunballs]

Surely engineers deserve more love than to be classified as equal to bean counters!

Yes, we do. The mere sharing of words in a sentence invokes a slight emotional reaction.

[trapin]

I don't know, anytime I'm in a meeting with Engineers they're always throwing around cost amounts in response to any idea we have. A classic example is molding costs for parts. You could ask for a flange to be a certain way or to change the die pull angle in order to get a certain look or to use a certain grain on a part and they respond with, "that's a $30,000 change right there." "You wanna do that it's gonna cost $155K or $89K".

Maybe that assessment isn't too far off. LOL.

[Steve Chryssos]

I've driven quite a few as press cars. Out of the box they feel like roof chop, 2 door Suburbans. Good luck trying to use an ATM Machine as the door sills are particularly high. Also the sunroof cars do not offer enough clearance for my hair, but that could be considered a personal problem.

As enthusiasts however, we like to take things apart and make them our own. Ditch those monstrous 20" or 22" wheels, lower the car and swap in some Recaros and the ergos improve dramatically.

[parsonsj]

In the software world, we engineers talk in terms of LOC. Lines of code. We provide estimates for effort in LOC. Others turn that into customer costs, but we do talk that way: "you want to add visible status and user commanding for that new NTP switch? It'll be about 750 LOC".

I just have no idea how much money 750 LOC actually is.

You need to know that effort in order to make good decisions. Otherwise you could be building a $90,000 sub-compact.

[parsonsj]

Also the sunroof cars do not offer enough clearance for my hair, but that could be considered a personal problem.

I'm convinced it's a GM thing. I never have enough headroom in a GM passenger car. Add a helmet to the mix and I have to do the "ghetto driving position" to get my noggin positioned somewhere reasonable. Maybe I just need longer arms.

Fords seem to have more headroom, for whatever reason.

[JEFFTATE]

The New 5th Gen Camaro drives well . And the styling is cool , like a concept car .
But they do look a little bloated , and the blind spots are bad ..

GM should do this :
Get rid of the blind spots.
Put the car on a diet .
Give it more head room .
Make the back seat useful ..

[DartorDemon]

The real problem with the new camaro is that they took that pos from concept to production. I mean i can handle fugly if it performs well(mustang) or i can handle great looks with so-so performance(ie challenger), but the camaro just fails on both fronts.

[BonzoHansen]

it does perform well. maybe not well enough to make up for its shortcomings

[04ctd]

the "armored truck gun slit" windows just kill me.

i have owned 8~10 or so Camaros (still have 4th gen) and i have not even contemplated the new one.
wife wants to go set in a convertible. i don't need another "unfunctional" car.

before we buy any car, we say "it has to do three things very well, and those three things are: ___ ___ ___"

right now, we have a 07 tahoe with 3rd row seating
(gbabies, DD, vacation, groceries, mini tow rig)

and a Dodge Mega Cab CTD
(tow rig, family toter, covered bed, was DD until diesel popped)

for a fun car, we have a 66 chevelle
(DD, date nite, use it in parades, take Gkids for fun runs for burgers, grocery getter.)

our 4th gen is in storage, because, it doesn't do many things very well. :(
you cant get babyseats in there very well :(

i don't see the new camaro doing 3 things well

[claytonisbob]

hahhahah I understand. I am 6'7 and have the 2ss manual. Even though i understand ur complaints i love it. It fits fine. especially with how adjustable the front seat is.
But I also like to recline my chair, so maybe thats the difference. However the trunk is terrible lol and no visibility out the rear window.

I don't see how... I'm 6'6" and I could not fit in a 5th gen with a sun roof. Not sure how much not having a sun roof would buy, but I don't see it being enough to make me not have to lean so far back I can't see. The car feels bigger than my Chevelle on the outside, Miata-small on the inside. Can you even find a SS without a sunroof? If it like most cars I've seen, the upgraded models always seem to come with sunroofs.

It's funny though, I do fit ok in a 4th gen, C5 and C6 'vette and the newer mustangs.

[CreepinDeth]

I'm a HUGE fan of the 2012 Bumblebee edition.
The previous Bumblebee was gayer then a bag of d**ks, but this one is wicked.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3303109...n/photostream/

[barraza]

I'm not sure why so many take it personally.

2010 sales
Camaro 81,299
Mustang 73,716

2011 Sales
Camaro 88,249
Mustang 70,438

Bottom line is that GM builds what they think will sell, given the money and platform constraints they have to work in. The Camaro is certainly not a sales bust, and neither is the Mustang for that matter. Both are very successful.

The real question is, "Is it Practical for YOU?". As in you personally. I for instance, dont give a da*n whether you find any of my cars "practical". They are what I want, so they are what I have. And who says a car has to be practical anyway? No car in existence today would truly be called "practical" by everyone.

No, I don't have a new Camaro either, but my 84 year old dad has one. He loves it. I have driven it and it is a fine car. Perfect no, but if you are like me and outside the 95th percentile size, almost nothing fits anyway, so live with it.

[406 Q-ship]

I don't know, anytime I'm in a meeting with Engineers they're always throwing around cost amounts in response to any idea we have. A classic example is molding costs for parts. You could ask for a flange to be a certain way or to change the die pull angle in order to get a certain look or to use a certain grain on a part and they respond with, "that's a $30,000 change right there." "You wanna do that it's gonna cost $155K or $89K".

Maybe that assessment isn't too far off. LOL.

As engineers we have budget restrains at times and when a cost is incurred in one area that means cost need to be cut somewhere else. Just think that when a design has been signed off by Corp, Engineering, and design (with complainsts) tooling is done, and Design comes back and wants to make changes that kill that tooling. That will kill profit or the cost preunit must be raised accordingly, then design should have spoken up earlier and or accept they lost the argument.

I hate to bring this up but the Camaro (or any of the pony cars) have never been really all that practical, they all have pretty poor rear seat room (good God the 4th gen has a seat cushion but no seat). Headroom is tighter than a typical sedan, agreed the 5th is tight if you have a tall torso which includes me but my head is in the head liner of a 2nd Gen when it has aftermarket seats. The rear seat head room in the Mustang is a joke unless your 5 feet tall. Trunk space is good in the 5th gen, opening is not user friendly but for the rest of the F-bodies they have tiny trunks (remember the Camaro brough us the spacer saver spared to have any kind of trunk room). Blind spots, all new cars have horrid A-pillar blind spots due to roll-over standards. Does the new Camaro have these issue.......yes in spades but the 1 st gen had them too, just put it in prespective.

[Chad-1stGen]

Well I for one was disappointed to see the Camaro lineup killed off after 2002. One of the things I had in mind with respect to "practical" was that if GM doesn't make the car appealing enough it won't sell enough units. Its news to me and I'm happy to hear that it is outselling the Mustang. While personally, I've never purchased anything with 4 wheels that wasn't GM I wouldn't hesitate to take a new model Mustang over the Camaro. Especially, the Boss version with the new 5.0 motor

[crustysack]

I really don't think the word "practicality" comes into ANYONES mind who is contemplating purchasing this Camaro- its a 2 door sports car. All this car needs to do is look cool and go fast- I think it looks cool, I can not say personally how fast it goes since I have not driven one. If you want practicality buy a minivan, or a Prius.

[Chad-1stGen]

Ok let me rephrase, the 5th gen Camaro is a crappy sports car. It's too heavy. The headroom is the worst of any sports car I've been in. The visibility is the worst of any sports car I've been in. There are other options out there that are superior (Mustang, Corvette, etc).

[Vegas69]

I'm really starting to get the feeling you don't like the new Camaro. ha