Chevrolet Camaro: Flash in the pan, or here to stay for awhile?

For starters, the new Camaro sheds a few pounds and inches from its show car iteration, but is still quite eye-catching. Two models, the LS and LT, will come standard with a 3.6-liter 300-horsepower direct-injected V-6 engine. Three hundred horses sounds pretty good, but if you want the take-no-prisoners performance model, the SS, it will come standard  with a 6.2-liter 422-horsepower V-8 engine. (The SS? What was wrong with calling it a Z-28, we wonder? If you’re going to revive a car from the past, how about getting the trim names and badges correct, while you’re at it?)

Although the General hasn’t released full fuel-economy figures for these engines yet, they do say that the V-6 engine will get 26 mpg on the highway, whereas the thirstier V-8 engine will deliver 23 mpg.

As for price, the Camaro looks to be the priciest of the new pony cars—right now, the Mustang’s base price is $19,735, and the Challenger lists for $21,995. Chevrolet is estimating the Camaro to start somewhere in the $22,000 range—which, come to think of it, may be nearer to where the competition may find itself in another year, as prices are bound to increase at least a little bit for Ford and Dodge as well.

Prospective buyers of the Camaro (or the Mustang or the Challenger) might also want to check out the Honda Civic Si, which offers a similar package, yet has better fuel economy—21 mpg city, and 29 mpg on the highway. Compare that to a thirstier Mustang, which only gets 17 mpg city, 26 mpg highway. For some people, that could be a deciding factor.

So we’ll have to see what happens when the Camaro goes on sale in a year or so. It certainly will garner a lot of attention from the start—the Challenger, and the redesigned Mustang did, as well. But then sales should start to level out, and it’s at that point that we’ll see whether Chevrolet wants to keep their performance pony in the model lineup for keeps, or only for a few years.

via Orlando Sentinel