Transformers Special Edition Chevy Camaro Unveiled

roelbj writes "Automotive stories are few and far between on Slashdot, but today's news from Chevrolet might just make a few readers' mouths water at the chance to own their own Bumblebee. Today at Comic-Con, General Motors officially announced the 2010 Chevy Camaro Transformers Special Edition. The $995 appearance package can be applied to LT (V6) and SS-trim Camaros in Rally Yellow with or without the optional RS package."

Comments

Damn...

[thatkid_2002]

I don't want a Bumble-Bee! I want a Crazy Frog!

Re:Damn...

[ImRoadKill2]

Would you all hate me if I said I wanted this!!! 472$ for the rally stripes.. Pff, It's freaking Transformers.

And they wonder why.....

[Immostlyharmless]

GM is sinking faster than an anvil in a swimming pool....1000 bucks for 472 dollar rally stripes and some tacky emblems applied in a couple of spots? WOW....HOW about 472 bucks for rally stripes and 500 bucks into a decent aftermarket exhaust? Its obvious they are smoking the good shit in Detroit...

Re:And they wonder why.....

[freedom_india]

Neither GM nor Chrysler will "get it".
Why should they?
They have governed by finance pros instead of by engineers.
Finance pros are more concerned with short-term profits than long term growth.
It takes someone with FORD CEO's instinct to think ahead.
And being finance pros, they can blackmail the government into funding them into eternity.
Gordon Gekko was absolutely right when he said: "The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of the unfittest."

Re:And they wonder why.....

[DarkNinja75]

Honda sells a special edition motorcycle (CBR1000RR Repsol edition) for $1000 more than the original, even though the only difference is the color of the plastics and rims. You can buy the plastics from Honda separately for $500, and pay a local shop $100 to paint the rims. GM isn't the only one who charges more for a special edition when it can be had for cheaper some other way.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[MrMista_B]

If they survive, it means they were the most fit to survive. That is proven by the fact of their continued existance. Value judgements are irrelevant to evolution - it's a process, not a pathway.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[BitZtream]

Because some people won't mind over paying a little over the going rate to get it like that fresh from the factory. Perhaps cause it's cool and they have too much money to care, or perhaps the really aren't THAT into the performance other than to talk to thier non-car people friends. Maybe the just don't want to worry about getting a hassle if they need warrenty repair work from a dealer.

Just a copy of reasons that come to mind. Its only a few percent increase price, the car companies do well on these deals because it requires you to buy a bunch of other options to get a configuration they will add this package to.

My last car purchase resulted in me getting every option except the smoking package because I had the money and knew I'd like the features and would never get around to adding them later. It was just easier to have them do it. Yes, the after market optins were "better", in both price and performace, but not enough to justify the work and inconvience later. If I really wanna make it a hot car I'll need far more expensive upgrades across the board.

If you think a muffler upgrade on it's own makes you car special in anyway then you are a poser. Posers are who the are aiming for.

Anything that legitimately makes them more money is a good idea. We're not talking about penis enlargement pills level of ripoff here.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[arizonagroovejet]

I really don't think this is the big 'OMG this is why GM fail' deal you're trying to make it out to be. GM are by no means the first to offer a special edition of a vehicle where some will say that the extra cost cannot be justified by the extras that are included for the money. I can't be bothered trying to locate and link specific examples, but I do know that on at least a couple of occasions Top Gear (very popular UK car themed entertainment programme) have mentioned a special edition of some car or other and expressed their opinion that the value of the included extras is less than the premium being charged.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Immostlyharmless]

I used an exhaust upgrade as an example because it was one that was cited in the linked article. RTFA much?

Re:And they wonder why.....

[catxk]

The issue is that the government allowed those companies to grow so large. I heard one tenth of all jobs in the US are connected to the three auto companies. That number is enough to scare any politician into a bailout.

Thus, the issue is not that the government steps in with rescue funds, the issue is that the government, by allowing mergers, allowed for those companies to grow so large that their survival becomes an issue of national economic stability. One can only hope that the government will take this opportunity to hack n' slash the brands out of the company (like GM is doing with Swedish SAAB at the moment) and make sure a similar situation can never arise again.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[tetrahedrassface]

Did you see where they were marketing the camaro to gay men?

Re:And they wonder why.....

[bitrex]

Did the government just allow for the companies to grow so large, or could one say that the government actively encouraged the growth of oligopolies in certain sectors due to effective lobbying by those sectors? Corporations love competition when they are on the offensive, but they hate it when they are on the defensive, and many American corporations (for numerous reasons) have been on the defensive of late. So, the FedGov hates competition, large corporations hate competition - sounds like a match made in heaven! It seems only when this two peas in a pod arrangement goes sour, and the screwups of the corporate siblings threaten their government brother, that there is realization (too late of course) that this match may not have been for the best.

I'll admit that I don't know a great deal about Libertarian philosophy, but how anyone who works in an economic capacity for the U.S. government can perform their job and say that the government upholds free-market capitalist ideals with a straight face is beyond me. Free market rhetoric must be just some kind of obfuscation to deflect the fact that the much of the US economic system is really a kind of corporate-socialist hybrid, and has been for quite some time (perhaps beginning truly in earnest after World War 2, and the incredible increase in economic power the U.S. was able to obtain when the government and industry joined forces). It appears to be the logical and efficient solution when it works (look at what China has managed to do under this kind of arrangement in the span of only about 20 years!), but watch out when it falters.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[somersault]

Actually if they survive it just means they survived, not that they were "most fit". I haven't kept abreast of the news but I heard about GM having trouble years ago, and if they are still struggling then it could just mean that they used to be very fit, but now are just struggling along on reserves and will die if they don't improve matters. Were they one of the companies helped by the government 'bail out' recently? The bail out was presumably affected by 'value judgements'..

My but it's fun to argue about pointless things online.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Paltin]

UGH.

A catastrophic confluence of Smith and Darwin.

What Smith didn't realize, is that humanity doesn't act rationally; what Darwin didn't get, is that he was just recapitulating Smith's tenet's in a world there they worked.

In any case, evolutionary standards are inappropriate for discussing economy. Except in theory- theory which doesn't work in real life.

Mista B, you're proposed superiority of selection fails in the face of human morality. Just as the dreams of eugenicists failed... and for the same reason.

Man is not bound by survival of the fittest. We can choose what is moral, what is right-- and what will survive.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[morghanphoenix]

You mean like EA Hasbro? Wonder what would happen if people decided to stop buying the crap they churn out as they milk the IP of every company they've bought.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[wvmarle]

It's apparently a good example of the whole being worth more than the sum of the parts.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[catxk]

That Communism and Capitalism is pursuing the same endgame has been stated over and over by several scholars. If so, I believe you must make a distinction between the capitalistic technicality and libertarian philosophy. Capitalism is the system in which US politics and corporations has been living in the last half-century or more. To me, it seems as this system is working towards an inevitable end, which would be the total corporate-socialist hybrid you mention, in which a one company, one government rules all.

The solution to that problem would be liberalism in the sense Adam Smith intended it. A diverse economy so large that the small companies it consists of has no possible to in any substantial way influence the larger whole. In an economy ruled by Adam Smith, company mergers would be unheard of and one bankrupt car manufacturer among the tens or hundreds in the market wouldn't even make headlines. If the US car manufacturing market as a whole would lose its advantages compared to Chinese manufacturers, the US companies would go bankrupt one by one, probably at a slow and manageable rate, causing no major distributions to society and surely, they would not gather much attention from politicians.

To me as a European, that would mean cheaper and better cars, produced in China and cheaper and better whatever the US market would start producing instead.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[SerpentMage]

No this is an example of why GM will fail. In the movie why on earth did they choose a Camero? Oh yeah because it is a manly car. Frankly Bumble Bee could just as easily have been a Volkswagen Beetle! Or another fuel efficient vehicle from GM. For example it could have been the Opel sportster or Corsa, etc... You may say, "why should they be politically correct?" Ever watched a movie from the 30's or 40's or 50's? A large number of them are REALLY tacky because of the props they chose, and frankly a large number of them are pretty unbearable to watch.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[OrangeTide]

The difference is you can't finance a $600 mod, but when you add it as a $1000 package on top of the price of a car you can make payments on it. Dumb yes, but this is how consumers think. And why it is so very easy to sell car buyers all these packages.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[michaelhood]

Well, that's what it meant before we started nationalizing auto companies..

Re:And they wonder why.....

[JWSmythe]

    I look at it this way. I have a 2000 TransAm WS/6 edition. It's a special edition car, and always will be.

    I've known of people who buy the V6 Firebird. They'll swap in the LS1 engine. Then they'll get the body parts from aftermarket vendors to match (nose, hood, tail wing, etc). Then they'll get the logos, decals, etc. They'll put it all together, and have pretty much the same car. Sometimes they'll forget something, like the suspension, exhaust, original wheels, etc. It won't quite be a WS/6, even though it will look like it. Regardless of how perfectly they reproduce it, mine will always be an original WS/6. Theirs will be a modified car similar to the WS/6.

    If they ever go to sell it, a VIN search will show that it has the wrong engine, and that particular one didn't come with WS/6 performance package.

    To a collector, my car with very few modifications is worth a whole lot more than a car made to emulate it.

    In my area, with the mileage and options my car has is will sell retail for $11,300. Someone who modified a regular Firebird (Formula) to look like my WS/6, assuming the dealer overlooked the fact that it was modified from original (which lowers the value), it would only retail for $8,400. As a private sale, the modified car may go for more, but that's all in your salesmanship.

    You're not only paying for $20 worth of plastic trim, you're paying for the fact that a particular vehicle was originally sold as that vehicle.

    Would I buy the Transformers special package? Probably not. It's kinda silly and childish. But hey, whatever. Some people may like that. It will remain a special edition car, which will always have it's bragging rights. What if someone just adds on their own parts later, and says it's the special edition? Well, when you look it up, you'll find that it isn't. You'll also likely find that they missed some detail in their conversion.

    When I work on cars, that's something I hate more than anything. Someone along the line will have converted something, and then you have to figure out what they did so you can get a replacement part that fits. I don't know how many hours I've spent in parts stores with a broken part, asking them to look up various years and models of similar cars to see what some small part came off of.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Ever wonder why finance pros are the once in governance in most corporations? Because they have these things called people skills that a lot of engineers lack (but think they have).

Re:And they wonder why.....

[jcr]

The issue is that the government allowed those companies to grow so large.

No, the issue is that the government is using usurped power that the people never granted to keep these companies around after they've failed. The government is looting wealth from everyone who has dollars, to give to incompetent organizations like GM's management and the UAW, to allow them to continue their failure.

-jcr

Re:And they wonder why.....

[samurphy21]

I'm one of those people you talk about. I'm such a menace under the hood. Not only do I buy parts off similar, but superior, cars to swap into mine, I've been known to backyard up my own modifications to intake, exhaust, and other areas, just for fun. I actually hate taking my car to a mechanic for fear of them having exactly the issue you describe.

Right now, I've got an 04 Subaru with a 'custom' air intake, basically just a cone filter directly mounted to the throttle body, with the PCV valves replumbed back in to the cone filter. Its kind of a monstrosity, but it sounds SO good, and I refuse to put it back. I recently took it in for a repair to the accessory pulley and my mechanic raised quite a few eyebrows. (He's got at least 5)

Re:And they wonder why.....

[jcr]

Capitalism is the system in which US politics and corporations has been living in the last half-century or more.

I WISH!

No, you're not even close. The system that our government and the larger corporations have created isn't capitalism, it's a rehash of mercantilism. Capitalism is a system of free markets, in which information is conveyed through profits and losses. By insulating larger players from their losses, the government robs us not only of the wealth they loot from us through taxation or inflation to give to these incompetents, but they also keep resources misallocated.

-jcr

Re:And they wonder why.....

[jcr]

To a collector, my car with very few modifications is worth a whole lot more than a car made to emulate it.

What kind of collector would buy any GM car made after the mid 1970s?

-jcr

Re:And they wonder why.....

[jellomizer]

Don't forget the upgrades prices are with your car total price so you are paying for it via your car loan. Which means you don't need to wait to save up the couple of thousand for these upgrades. Or try to get the bank to loan you more money for extras which may be harder then getting the money for the car. Plus you pay it off with the price of your car. So you can make it part of your normal budget.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[wisty]

A company that gets bailed out is fit, just like a virus or tumor. The same could be said for certain business practices. A parasite can hurt its host and still be successful.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[jcr]

No, that's the sales guys you're thinking of.

-jcr

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Mashiki]

Apparently you missed the part about the Asian automakers being down 56% in the last few quarters too. *waves a giant clue bat* It's not just a north american automaker problem.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[jo_ham]

You'd be surprised. Here in the UK there's a Morris Marina owner's club, and those heaps of junk would have been more appealing if they'd used the metal to craft giant metallic dog turds on wheels.

One man's meat, and all that.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[yeahthisisrob]

True, but the owner of that emulated WS/6 is still paying the much cheaper insurance of a V6. Pros/Cons.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[DebianDog]

As the owner of a Trans-Am with modifications as good or better than a WS6. I 100% agree. I lost track of how many "car people" have asked me, "Nice car. Is that a WS6?" Then I go into an explanation of the "what's different".

I would not mind a Camaro, but I can not ever image the day someone asking me, "Why didn't you but the Transformers edition?"

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Sporkinum]

And if you are lucky, in 40 years or so, the car will be worth the $32k you paid for it when it was new. By then though, $32k will be worth $10k.

Concerning the V6? $25k new, so I would say yours lost value quicker, as if that made any difference.

Moot point, really. Both lost value like crazy.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[somersault]

I didn't say that they weren't fit - their very survival is an indication of some element of current fitness or at least past success. I'm just saying that the "most fit" companies didn't even need a bailout (at least among European and Asian car manufacturers).

Re:And they wonder why.....

[rohan972]

What Smith didn't realize, is that humanity doesn't act rationally;

No, you just don't understand the term in the context it's being used in.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_choice_theory
"The 'rationality' described by rational choice theory is different from the colloquial and most philosophical uses of rationality."

Re:And they wonder why.....

[jimbolauski]

Don't you mean they are smoking good shit in DC

Re:And they wonder why.....

[drinkypoo]

Because some people won't mind over paying a little over the going rate to get it like that fresh from the factory.

You should have said "because some people are ignorant". Factory paint is usually pure shit, especially from GM. Even when they hand-paint a car (rare) it looks like dog doo. Orange peel for ever!

If you think a muffler upgrade on it's own makes you car special in anyway then you are a poser. Posers are who the are aiming for.

Actually, most factory mufflers are super-restrictive to make a quiet sound, even on so-called performance cars. Replacing the full exhaust system can net over 10 horsepower on cars with big engines and small exhausts... even while making zero other changes. I mean, the top model has 426 HP, that's a tiny percentage.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[The_AV8R]

Neither GM nor Chrysler will "get it". Why should they? They have governed by finance pros instead of by engineers.

I'm an engineer, and the marketing department at my company will always get over double the budget of my design dept. This is normal, and simply a question of marketing. It has nothing to do with any mismanagement of GM at all, actually. Seth Godin's blog, although usually vague and general, gives a bit of insight into this matter. Moral of the story: People don't buy what's best, people buy what they want. GM is just providing an option to cater to something people would want, and making good money doing it. It's not like they were sacrificing any performance for the add-on. If anything, they're managing their resources even better by doing this.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[digitalhermit]

I sort of agree..but then.. hmmm

It's almost like the diamond manufacturers telling you that diamonds bought in some places are better than others... Or telling me that mined diamonds are somehow better than perfect manufactured diamonds. They say it's all about the pedigree. I saw BS; it's all about the marketing.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[powerlord]

Which is all fine and well if you are the one maintaining it, or selling it to someone who understands what they are getting.

To reverse the common Slashdot method of swapping cars and computers, its like comparing a stock MacPro to a custom built rig running OSX.

You can get near identical specs, and if you're the one using it, great.
  -You know what you're getting into
  -You have "bragging rights" of building it cheaper
  -You may (or may not) have overlooked some detail that will bite you down the line
  -You may be able to sell it to someone who knows what it is, but for probably less than a real MacPro (and the pool of potential buyers is less, excluding people looking to throw Linux/Windows on it)

It doesn't detract from the Hackintosh machine being cheaper than "do-it-yourself", but Joe Sixpack, if he wants an "Apple workstation" he is just going to get a MacPro and not try to build his own.

Likewise, if someone DOESN'T really work with cars much, or mod them, and wants a "Transformers car" he is probably going to just buy the package.

BTW, sounds like some fun work you've done to the Subaru. Anything that makes people do double-takes is usually a "good thing" (TM) ;)

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Sun.Jedi]

What kind of collector would buy any GM car made after the mid 1970s?

There is probably collector interest for almost any year 'vette, but I think you are right in that after the '74 big block or '75 convertible, there isn't much else. I am not a fan of the anniversary editions, or those stupid pace car editions. What about the 80's Hurst olds 442 or the Buick Gran Sport? Maybe there is niche collectors for those and some of the other "performance" upgraded -- late model impala SS, Monte Carlo SS, etc..

I would rather drive it, than L@@K at it, myself.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[mrrudge]

Finance pros are in governance in most corporations as the function of most corporations is to make money.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Dalroth]

Go drive a Pontiac G8 or a 2009 Cadilac CTS. Ever driven a Corvette? Even the 2009 Impala is a pretty nice car. My buddy's mid 90's Pontiac Bonnevile got about 180,000 miles on it with no major work when he finally junked it. My 91 Grand Am wasn't a great car, but it was good enough for the price and got the job done without too much hassle. My father has an 84 Corvette. It's not the best Corvette ever made, but it's still a great ride.

Not all GM cars are bad. Some are really bad, yes, but GM has made good cars and will make more good cars in the future. We just need to prod them enough so that ALL their cars are good.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly. No one would buy anything from GM to collect after the mid 1970s. Except for the Buick Grand National. Or a ZR1 Corvette. Or a 20th Anniversary Trans Am. Or a Northstar Cadillac Alante. Or a Gran Sport Corvette. Or a car they owned growing up. Or a car I may have just forgotten about that is worth collecting.

Hmmmm, maybe some collectors have different taste afterall...

Re:And they wonder why.....

[MachDelta]

They tried to get Volkswagen to sign on for the movie, but VW refused to have anything to do with warfare or violence as a result of their WW2 history. GM went balls deep with the movie, so naturally one of the leading robots would have to be a new GM model.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[swattz101]

The issue is that the government allowed those companies to grow so large. I heard one tenth of all jobs in the US are "connected" to the three auto companies. That number is enough to scare any politician into a bailout.

Connected does not mean own. Connected includes the parts manufacturers, Rail and road transportation for both parts and finished products, steel and other metal mining and manufacturing companies that make the materials, Auto Insurance companies, Glass manufacture companies, fiberglass manufacture companies, electronics manufacture companies, Health insurance for all of the above types of companies, fuel or electricity for all of the above types of companies, fuel for the autos themselves, refining and transportation of said fuel. Take it a little further in the indirectly related, and you can add the grocery stores that the employees use to feed themselves, the education for the children said employees...... I'm sure I could come up with more that are directly or indirectly related, if I really try hard.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, there's ALSO the fact that GM made such a big deal over how the Camaro was in the 2007 movie and then failed to deliver it until early 2009. And then it'll only be late 2009 or early 2010 for this special edition. How fucking stupid do you have to be to get your super expensive marketing machine in gear two or three full years before you even have a product to sell?

Re:And they wonder why.....

[ThrowAwaySociety]

If they survive, it means they were the most fit to survive. That is proven by the fact of their continued existance. Value judgements are irrelevant to evolution - it's a process, not a pathway.

Governments taking a hand in supposedly private companies is like God reaching down and shaping species from clay. It ceases to be evolution when external forces selectively intervene in the process.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Anonymous Coward]

GM didn't do too well when Robert Stempel was chairman either. And he was one of the greatest engineers in automotive history (the '68 Hurst Olds was his baby).

It takes someone with FORD CEO's instinct to think ahead.

I think you misspelled "Toyota or Honda" there

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Man On Pink Corner]

Then I go into an explanation of the "what's different".

Not only that, but you can take pride in the custom work you did, as opposed to taking pride in your ability to write a bigger check to the dealer. Meanwhile, the guy with the WS6 is scared to change the oil for fear of damaging its "originality."

So IMHO you're doing it right.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Stormwatch]

I guess their WW2 past is just the excuse. They probably had seen Michael Bay's previous movies and refused to have anything to do with that talentless hack...

Re:And they wonder why.....

[NewWorldDan]

It's a high margin niche item. They only have to sell it to a few hundred fan boys to really rake it in. On top of that, some of those idiot fan boys might have been out looking at a Mustang instead. It's one of those stupid promotions that doesn't have to move a lot of units to be profitable. That said, I'll be impressed if they can get even 100 losers to by this idiotic package.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Nimey]

You're not just paying for the rally stripes and emblems, you're also paying the studio for the license to use Transformers stuff.

In other words, a fool and his money are soon parted.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Anonymous Coward]

bunch of mumbo jumbo bs of the financial educated of the short term profits vs long term growth. What are you going to growth on without short term profits?

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Brewmeister_Z]

Or go to Burger King and get a kid's meal. You might get the Decepticon logo toy that opens up to reveal the Fallen. You could take a couple of those and mount them over the brand emblems on your GM vehicle and now have a Decepticon styled car for less than $5 (cost of meal and double-stick tape). I joked about doing that with my black 2007 Pontiac Grand Prix. Just have to give it a cool Transformer name now.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Sethb]

I think Top Gear is on a mission to destroy all those Morris Marinas...

Re:And they wonder why.....

[hibiki_r]

But something that resembles mercantilism ends up being the equilibrium point in most real markets: As companies get bigger, they seek competitive advantages politically, either by making a government larger and using their influence over it to gain an advantage, or by just trampling over a small government, making themselves a de facto government.

The powerful will always trample over everyone else, whether they are called a corporation or a government.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Three cheers for knocking. Your MAF sensor hates you.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[SydShamino]

Have you seen factory add-on prices for ANY car? BMW charged me $550 to add an iPod jack to my wife's car, and now wants to charge me $800 for mine. You can buy a third-party interface for $135.*

In this case, of course, not only is there the usual vendor markup, but there's also the licensing cost. Your third-party company putting an autobot logo on your car can be sued.

* Of course if you buy the third-party kit, you have to pay BMW for a software update anyway.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[GodfatherofSoul]

Why do people keep slamming GMs cars? Their problem was how they invested their earnings. Note, Ford produces practically the same stuff and didn't need a bailout.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[wasmoke]

I believe this package is aimed at people like myself, who think this is fucking SWEET no matter what. Of course, first I'll have to come up with $995...and a Camaro...hmm

Re:And they wonder why.....

[furby076]

GM is sinking faster than an anvil in a swimming pool....1000 bucks for 472 dollar rally stripes and some tacky emblems applied in a couple of spots? WOW....HOW about 472 bucks for rally stripes and 500 bucks into a decent aftermarket exhaust? Its obvious they are smoking the good shit in Detroit...

$1,000 for custom stripes, custom emblems (on paint, emblems on car, etched into the leather), custom rims, is about right for the car market. There may be other things with this car (e.g. it may be the big engine model) - but i am not sure.

You will have a really hard time finding a high-end aftermarket place to paint on the rally stripes correctly. Then the wording. Plus getting the emblems = very difficult if not impossible. The leather etched emblem? not likely. The rims? Not likely. Plus someone had to design these.

Face it - while it may be transformers - this article is not for the /. crowd

Re:And they wonder why.....

[drinkypoo]

Regardless of how perfectly they reproduce it, mine will always be an original WS/6.

No matter what, neither car will be worth any real money, and both cars are slow.

You're not only paying for $20 worth of plastic trim, you're paying for the fact that a particular vehicle was originally sold as that vehicle.

Classy customs are worth more than all but the most valuable all-originals. Those guys aren't getting the full money for the car because they're incompetent. If you actually put every option on the car, and rebadged it, nobody would know, not even most dealers. Unless they know the option kit vin code they will probably never notice.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[The Slashdolt]

You haven't taken into account the premium that bidders at the barret-jackson auto auction will pay for this in 20+ years. Long-term future prices of collector cars are determined, at least partially, by their scarcity.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Main Gauche]

GM is stupid because they're charging too much, and the customers are stupid because they're paying it? You can't have your cake and eat it too:

GM is sinking faster than an anvil in a swimming pool....1000 bucks for 472 dollar rally stripes and some tacky emblems applied in a couple of spots?

First you're ripping GM for charging a lot. You want them to price at cost instead? Yeah, that'd make a tidy profit!

Or are you saying that at $1000, no one is going to buy this option? I'll take that bet in a heartbeat.

Or are you making the naive argument that "they'd sell more if they lowered the price."? (Suppose they could sell 700 units of these at 1000 bucks a pop, or they could sell twice as many, 1400 units, at your price of 472 units a pop. Which is better?)

WOW....HOW about 472 bucks for rally stripes and 500 bucks into a decent aftermarket exhaust?

Second your beef is with the customers who buy this option, not with the company who charges an arm and a leg for it. You realize this has nothing to do with the competence of GM management, right?

Its obvious they are smoking the good shit in Detroit...

I can spot at least 5 moderators who were down wind.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[oakgrove]

Some people go nuts over these things .

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Immostlyharmless]

First you're ripping GM for charging a lot. You want them to price at cost instead? Yeah, that'd make a tidy profit!

Or are you saying that at $1000, no one is going to buy this option? I'll take that bet in a heartbeat.

Or are you making the naive argument that "they'd sell more if they lowered the price."? (Suppose they could sell 700 units of these at 1000 bucks a pop, or they could sell twice as many, 1400 units, at your price of 472 units a pop. Which is better?)

Somehow, I'm relatively sure that if you look at the numbers of units sold with rally stripes vs the numbers of units sold with the Transformers package, that the numbers will definitely be in excess of a 2:1 ratio. Also, there have been numerous articles written lately that explain how its much more expensive to produce some of these very limited edition packages because of the excess cost of the manpower required to produce them. (Now lets draw the obvious conclusion that very limited numbers, combined with higher cost of manufacturing add little, if anything, to the bottom line of a company as large as GM.) The point of my comment, which obviously went way over your head, was that in these stark economic times, this isn't a very good example of what I would call streamlining a company.

Recent articles I've read point to the fact that japanese and the korean car manufacturers have managed to lower costs quite a bit by offering 3 or 4 base models with very limited options available to them (save for dealer installed quickies).

Re:And they wonder why.....

[TheLostSamurai]

To a collector, my car with very few modifications is worth a whole lot more than a car made to emulate it.

What kind of collector would buy any GM car made after the mid 1970s?

-jcr

My 1995 Trans-Am was the best car I ever owned. I sold it in 2005 with 150,000 miles on it. The current owner has placed over 40,000 of his own miles on it and the car has never needed any major repairs, aside from the usual stuff. It was also way more fun to drive than my current 2006 Mustang GT.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[DrData99]

And by adding it to your loan and spreading out the payments over 5 or more years, you get to pay interest on the upgrades. $1000 of upgrades paid off at 7% for 5 years will cost you $1188. Almost 20% more!
How cool is that?

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Rev. DeFiLEZ]

$2112.43 != $500

I would also expect to pay a lot more than $100 for painted rims. its $50 just to take them off, unmount tire, remount tire and back on bike.

Part Number: 61110-MEL-D10ZA
Description: FDR, FR. (TYPE1)
Price: $143.57

Part Number: 83150-MEL-A11ZA
Description: SHELTER SET (TYPE1)
Price: $397.74

Part Number: 64450-MEL-A11ZA
Description: COWL SET, L. (TYPE1)
Price: $270.69

Part Number: 64350-MEL-A10ZB
Description: COWL SET, L. (TYPE1)
Price: $235.80

Part Number: 64400-MEL-A11ZA
Description: COWL SET, R. (TYPE1)
Price: $270.69

Part Number: 64300-MEL-A11ZB
Description: COWL SET, R. (TYPE1)
Price: $235.80

Part Number: 77210-MEL-D10ZA
Description: COWL, RR. ST (TYPE1)
Price: $283.19

Part Number: 64100-MEL-D10ZA
Description: COWL (UPPER) (TYPE1)
Price: $270.95

Re:And they wonder why.....

[i.r.id10t]

Wait 40 years.....The basic trend for classic cars is as a group gets to be about 50 years old or so, they finally have the $ to get the car that they always dreamed of, which is typically whatever was brand new and hot when they were in their early teens.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[IgnoramusMaximus]

This has been of course the religious mantra of the "Free Market Cures All" deity worshippers. The truth however is that outside of over-simplistic religious market-fundamentalist scriptures, "free market" has historically devolved into corrupt set of oligopolies every time it has been tried in the real world. There is a historical and repeatedly demonstrable correlation between market liberalization and ascension of mega-conglomerates, oligopolies and outright monopolies.

This is so because like Marxism, which sounds appealing and reasonable on paper, dog-eat-dog capitalism is also outwardly well reasoned, while internally riddled with devastating inconsistencies and instabilities, which are only too keen to present themselves when the dogma meets the reality.

It seems that most of our "systems" are only functional in accordance with their theory only on very small scale and fall apart as the scale changes from village/commune level to nation or global one. Communism works quite well in religious communes, which to this day are quite successful, in their own way, and capitalism works well when applied to small scale businesses dealing with well understood everyday items, like potatoes, pots and blankets. On the large scale however, communism becomes essentially unworkable, which is why all of the so-called "communist" states in fact practised State Monopoly (i.e. the state had the monopoly on all production), and similarly every so-called Capitalist state has in fact practised some convoluted scheme centred around a pseudo-Feudal economic order. It would appear that corrupt, unjust, oppressive variations of Statism or Feudalism are the point into all of the attempts at improvement eventually "stabilize" at.

Until the next revolution that is.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[StikyPad]

Actually, despite the protests of both you and the parent poster, the Camaro is currently the best selling GM vehicle, and they've had to increase production to meet demand.

And with the Chevy Volt, despite any reservations I personally have about the vehicle, it's clear that they're not putting all their eggs in the retro-muscle car basket. If I had extra money to play with these days, I'd be betting long on GM stock. Yes, the government isn't likely to let them fail, but at the same time it's in their best interest to thrive, not merely survive. I think the criticisms of GM have been valid for the past decade or so, but they've already made some major changes, and going forward I expect to see them become more competitive, not less.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's be clear.... the only reason why Ford didn't have to get bailed out by the government is that they were in much deeper trouble much earlier than GM or Chrysler. Automotive industry pundits were talking about potential bankruptcy for Ford long before the current financial crisis. Ford was just lucky enough to negotiate enormous loans back in 2006-2007 to keep itself afloat before the credit markets went into the toilet. It had absolutely nothing to do with their "thinking ahead" - just the fact that they were in much more serious trouble earlier than the others.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait. . .It doesn't transform?

Screw that then.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[JWSmythe]

    I wasn't saying that customization is a bad thing. Hell, that's how modern cars came about. If people weren't taking stock cars and turning them into hotrods back in the day, most of the performance cars on the road today simply wouldn't exist.

    It just a matter of the value of the vehicle. A new Camaro SS will continue being worth more than a regular Camaro with the SS badge and mods, even if they're effectively the same.

    I've done some things to my TransAm WS/6. Most collectors won't mind, but my work, since it's all fairly standard for this kind of vehicle. I'm coming up on 100,000 miles on it, so in about another 50,000 miles I need to consider swapping the motor for a new one anyways. :) I'm thinking a 383 would be nice. And of course ported and polished heads, improved intake, etc. You know the rule, right? There's no replacement for displacement. After that, I know I'd ruin the collector value, but I'd be ok with it.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[JWSmythe]

What kind of collector bought a 70's car in the 70's? Not too many.

    You're usually looking at 25 to 30 years out when people start getting nostalgic. So, buy a brand new Camaro SS Transformers edition, park it in a garage, and take it out once a month to keep it alive. In 30 years it'll be worth significantly more than it was bought for today. Well, assuming the economy doesn't completely collapse in the next few years. :)

Re:And they wonder why.....

[JWSmythe]

    Mine is only slightly modified, because I'm happy with it. :) When the time comes and it needs something, like I finally wear the engine out at 150k to 200k miles, then I'll consider more stuff. Right now, I'm about to hit 100k miles, and the only thing it kinda needs is the spark plugs changed. It still has the original ones.

    I've seen some very nicely modified cars. I'm sure yours is nice. Well, not positive, but I'm taking your word on it. More than likely if we met in a parking lot and started talking about cars, I'd be impressed. :)

    I used to have the same problem with my '82 Firebird. That was my first car that I did substantial work to. It started out with a 2.8 V6, and ended up with a 4 bolt main 350, and absolutely every inch of the drivetrain had been modified or replaced. People would ask if it was a TransAm, and I'd have to try to explain that TransAm is a submodel of Firebird. This was the standard Firebird heavily modified so it was faster and handled better than the stock TransAm. La, la, la, they glazed over almost immediately so I was always wasting my breath.

    Now that I have a WS/6, they still glaze over when I'm talking but in their mind my car may as well be a rocket ship. :)

Re:And they wonder why.....

[JWSmythe]

As a great man once said.....

    I'm not compensating for anything, other than the fact that I can't run at over 150mph.

   

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Don853]

Factory paint hasn't been 'pure shit' since at least the 1980s. I've lived in Pennsylvania my whole life, and even with this state's bizarre addiction to road salt very, very few cars made within the last 15-20 years need paint unless they're involved in a collision.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Often times vehicles get little modifications like that for reliability, not just look. A prime example is the 2002 airbox on a Jeep Liberty is a better design than those found on 2005-later models; it's quite common to see someone replace the top half of the airbox with a 2002 top -- it leaks less.

don't you have a part number off the part itself that you can search the internet for?

Re:And they wonder why.....

[scottv67]

>I'd be betting long on GM stock.

There is no such thing as GM stock.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[jellomizer]

Ahh.... But if you were smart and you invested your upfront money you can be making 10% for the investment then paying the 7% thus still making 3% on top of that. There is a real value in paying over time even with interests. Then paying upfront.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Anonymous Coward]

your tax dollars at work

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Paltin]

Heh.

Scroll down to the part of the wikipedia page where is says "Criticism"

"Both the assumptions and the behavioral predictions of rational choice theory have sparked criticism from various camps. Some people have developed models of bounded rationality, which hope to be more psychologically plausible without completely abandoning the idea that reason underlies decision-making processes. For a long time, a popular strain of critique was a lack of empirical basis, but experimental economics and experimental game theory have largely changed that critique (although they have added other critiques, mainly by demonstrating some human behavior that consistently deviates from rational choice theory, see cognitive bias).

In their 1994 piece, Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory, Green and Shapiro argue that the empirical outputs of rational choice theory have been limited. They contend that much of the applicable literature, at least in Political Science, was done with weak methods and that when corrected many of the empirical outcomes no longer hold. When taken in this perspective, Rational Choice Theory has provided very little to the overall understanding of political interaction - and is an amount certainly disproportionately weak relative to its appearance in the literature (Green and Shapiro, 1994).

Schram and Caterino (2006) contains a fundamental methodological criticism of rational choice theory for promoting the view that the natural science model is the only appropriate methodology in social science and that political science should follow this model, with its emphasis on quantification and mathematization. Schram and Caterino argue instead for methodological pluralism.
"

In other words, people don't act rationally by the definition of rational choice theory, either. Rational choice theory is weak and not predictive in the real world quite often.

In any case, the modern version of the theory is much more complex and sophisticated then that proposed by Smith--- so my statements stand.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[jcr]

As companies get bigger, they seek competitive advantages politically,

Yes, they do, and this is why it is imperative to keep the power to favor one business over another out of the hands of the political class. Politicians like Obama and McCain will vote for blatantly unconstitutional measures like the TARP bailout, because they have been bought and paid for. One possible partial remedy for this would be to prohibit any business that receives bailout money from making any political contributions. It should be a condition of receiving the money.

The powerful will always trample over everyone else, whether they are called a corporation or a government.

They will if people let them. In this country, we used to have a means to limit the accumulation power: the constitution. Unfortunately, since 1913 at least, the federal government has routinely ignored it when they wanted to do something like incarcerate people for their race, or steal all the gold in private hands.

Today, however, with the second great depression staring us in the face, there's a growing movement to restrain the government to work within its legal powers. I'm actually far more hopeful about the USA becoming a free country now than I was two years ago.

-jcr

Re:And they wonder why.....

[DarkNinja75]

They sell it as a kit. And I wouldn't pay (or trust) anyone else to take the rims off my bike. And I do know a local shop that will powdercoat rims for $50 each.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[freedom_india]

Dinosaurs too survive today: in the form of Birds and Lizards.
They too, in a sense, have survived.
T-Rex could have survived too, if God/superior power/etc had propped it up inspite of what markets say.
U talk as if Survival alone means they are fit to survive and perchance to live.
Nope.
I can survive an accident and end up losing my arms and legs. Doesn't mean i live.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[mvdwege]

As companies get bigger, they seek competitive advantages politically,

Yes, they do, and this is why it is imperative to keep the power to favor one business over another out of the hands of the political class.

Are you really this naive? As companies get bigger, they have more money to finance campaigns for politicians who can change any laws that try to keep this kind of power concentration from happening. Witness the deregulation of your banking industry, your media industry, your telecommunications industry.

No, even your vaunted Constitution is not safe. Enough lobbying, enough money spent, and enough votes are bought for an Amendment. Or votes are bought to buy off immunity from prosecution.

In short: if you trust in laws to keep your politicians from selling political favour, remember who makes the laws.

Mart

Re:And they wonder why.....

[Bob9113]

Mostly just tagging your comment for myself for future reference. Well said -- the mercantilism perspective is a good one -- I've been using "corporatism", but mercantilism is a term people already know.

Is there a distinction to be made between government which is biased toward business and government which is biased toward large business? If so, would that fit a mercantilism / corporatism dichotomy? Is there a better term for a government which has laws which favor large business?

Re:And they wonder why.....

[StikyPad]

Sure there is. It's still a publicly traded company, it's just not listed on the NYSE during bankruptcy.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[shiftless]

I've done it both ways. I've built some custom hot rods that would blow your mind, and they were all a lot of fun. But there's something to be said about having a STOCK (or stock with a few bolt ons) car that runs and drives exactly like the factory intended, that you never have to fuck with, just jump in, turn the key and go. Then if it breaks you can just go down to the parts store and get the right part in minutes, instead of having of look up parts for 15 different cars to get the right one.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[shiftless]

What kind of fantasy world do you live in? In the world I live in (the real world) a real, all original '69 Camaro SS is worth heaps more than a clone, and a limited special edition car, even if it's only a stupid badge and trim package (such as a '70 Mustang Mach1 "Twister") is worth something just because it's limited edition and not the same as one of the hundreds of thousands of "regular" cars produced that year.

Those guys aren't getting the full money for the car because they're incompetent. If you actually put every option on the car, and rebadged it, nobody would know, not even most dealers. Unless they know the option kit vin code they will probably never notice.

You have no idea what you're talking about. The VIN code states the engine configuration, and anyone who knows anything about the car they're buying (especially dealers) is damn sure going to notice the difference between a V6 and a V8, or a plain jane Firebird and a WS-6 Trans Am. What, you don't think people (especially dealers) look up VIN codes? And of course you are assuming that someone is actually going to go through all the trouble to swap EVERY unique piece onto their plain jane Firebird to make it look exactly like a factory built, completely unmolested WS-6, and that's rarely ever seen.

No matter what, neither car will be worth any real money, and both cars are slow.

I have a pretty much stock '02 SS and it will still kick most other stock cars asses any day of the week. Low 13s in the 1/4 with 106 mph trap is not considered slow by any means, even today. Sure it's slower than these 400-500+ HP supercars coming out, but it's pretty damn easy and cheap to get 500+ horsepower out of an LS1 motor too. The only reason you said his car was slow was to be a dick, plain and simple. Odds are, you're some insecure Evo driving douchebag. Do us all a favor and crawl back into your hole.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[jcr]

In short: if you trust in laws to keep your politicians from selling political favour, remember who makes the laws.

What did I say that could possibly be construed as trusting politicians to obey the law?

-jcr

Re:And they wonder why.....

[scottv67]

>It's still a publicly traded company, it's just not listed on the NYSE during bankruptcy.

You aren't thinking of MTLQQ.PK, are you? Because that isn't "GM". That's the ugly little pieces of the old GM that were left behind in the bankruptcy process. The collection of "good" parts of the old GM (such as the company that is selling the Camaro) is not currently a publicly traded company.

One of these days in the not-so-distant future, the price of MTLQQ.PK is going to go to zero.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[StikyPad]

Good call... I haven't been following it, so I just assumed they were temporarily delisted.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[mvdwege]

You made a glib statement that the power to do business favours should be kept from politicians. How were you going to implement that?

Mart

Re:And they wonder why.....

[jcr]

How were you going to implement that?

Ideally by voting corrupt politicians out of office. If push comes to shove though, the people have the right to dissolve a corrupt government.

-jcr

Re:And they wonder why.....

[jcr]

This has been of course the religious mantra of the "Free Market Cures All" deity worshippers

It does not follow that because you worship the state, that those of us who prefer freedom must be worshippers of something else. The market is something we use, the way we use language. It conveys information about priorities and preferences.

-jcr

Re:And they wonder why.....

[IgnoramusMaximus]

It does not follow that because you worship the state,

I "worship" nothing of the sort. Worship, being associated with absolutism, also known as "fundamentalism", is the exclusive domain of believers in simple "solutions" as fixes to complex problems, like for example a naive and simplistic notion of "free market" being somehow capable of addressing a vastly complicated problem of resource-related relations between individuals.

that those of us who prefer freedom must be worshippers of something else.

The so-called "free markets" have nothing whatsoever to do with "freedom" beyond a very superficial coating of propaganda to make their true consequences hidden and to make them more palatable to those who are unable or unwilling to look into the matter to any depth.

The market is something we use, the way we use language. It conveys information about priorities and preferences.

A "market" and the "free market" ideology are two completely different things. A market is indeed just a tool, no different from a road or a waterway, a means of connecting people or localities for a particular purpose of exchange of resources. "Free market" ideology on the other hand is a fundamentalist religion which holds as its base commandment that trading on markets must have no constraints, and if the religion's believers manage to bring about such unrestricted trade, their deity will, by means as miraculous as they are demonstrably illogical, bring about solutions to a vast array of complicated problems of human civilization.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[jcr]

How many years did you have to practice to get so pompous?

-jcr

Re:And they wonder why.....

[IgnoramusMaximus]

Pompous? You mean when did I stop being awed by surfaces of shiny objects and learnt to look beyond their superficiality? I think I was about 5 or 6 at the time, all those years ago. But then again, it appears that a lot of people never did grow up, as the ever plentiful abundance of wildly popular religions quite clearly demonstrates, be they dealing with matters of after-life, sexual reproduction or in the case of our discussion, economics.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[jcr]

You mean when did I stop being awed by surfaces of shiny objects and learnt to look beyond their superficiality?

No, I mean when did you start to believe that verbiosity is a substitute for having something worthwhile to say?

-jcr

Re:And they wonder why.....

[IgnoramusMaximus]

No, I mean when did you start to believe that verbiosity is a substitute for having something worthwhile to say?

Translation: "Jcr be hearing none of them long words, many words be confusing Jcr, Jcr be having no use for words, Jcr be wanting to eat, bash heads, grab loot from all weaker then Jcr ... and fuck! Gah! Jcr be wanting 'fphree... ftree... furree market'!. He be hearing in 'furree market' there Jcr can bash heads and get loot by fucking everybody over! No confusing long words in 'furree market'! ".

Re:And they wonder why.....

[jcr]

Translation

Try looking up what "translation" means. Hint: it's not a magic word that rationalizes whatever nonsense you decide to pull out of your ass.

bash heads, grab loot from all weaker then Jcr

Project much?

The free market is a system of voluntary exchange. Bashing heads and grabbing loot is what governments do.

-jcr

Re:And they wonder why.....

[David Rolfe]

Bashing heads and grabbing loot is what governments do.

-jcr

In fact, it's exactly the reason that we (civilized people) form them. That way, I can spend my life doing something more useful than making sure that I'm the best at bashing heads and grabbing loot.

Re:And they wonder why.....

[IgnoramusMaximus]

The free market is a system of voluntary exchange.

Oh yea! There is a lot of "voluntary exchanges" that occur when one is born into insurmountable debt and hungry and in need of a shelter! "voluntary" work as an indentured slave or "voluntary" death in horrible pain! So many "voluntary" choices that one could almost turn violent from being overwhelmed by them ...

And that is just one of many merry ways in which a wealthy enough "entrepreneur" of the "free market" can make slaves out of great many "lazy losers". In fact for a quick tour of what can be done one has to only look throughout history of the US Gilded Age. And that is of course far from an exhaustive list, a whole new vistas of enslavement beckon with the new technologies, "micropayment" schemes and what not.

Bashing heads and grabbing loot is what governments do.

May I introduce you to one Mr. Rockefeller. Or maybe Mr. Carnegie?

I must say...

[cosmotron]

...this is pretty awesome. That being said, they absolutely should make a Decepticon option for the appropriate cars.

Re:I must say...

[RockWolf]

That being said, they absolutely should make a Decepticon option for the appropriate cars.

Mercury Marauder.

You said appropriate, not GM.

/~Rockwolf

Re:I must say...

[Destoo]

The one I wanted to get was the Scion XB for Soundwave in the Animated series. I'll definitely need to try one once they are available around here.
Although the real one looks much smaller than in the show.

I don't get it

[The Creator]

Can someone explain it to me with a robot analogy?

Re:I don't get it

[zmollusc]

Curse you! With only 16 comments so far, I was hoping to be the first to ask for a car analogy, but yours was cleverer!

Re:I don't get it

[CarpetShark]

Can someone explain it to me with a robot analogy?

Imagine you're a kid on one of the twelve colonies, and Apollo saves you from being lost in the extras. You beg Apollo for a Cyclon that you can order about, to shoot up your enemies. Apollo goes to see an engineer, and brings back a dumb, annoying person dressed up in a robot suit, calling him Muffet. So you take Apollo's gun while he's playing with the "dagget", and hijack a Viper instead.

Re:I don't get it

[chooks]

Actually, I was hoping for an explanation using an intellectual property analogy...

Re:I don't get it

[brianc]

Can someone explain it to me with a robot analogy?

Bite my shiny metal ass!

Re:I don't get it

[AmberBlackCat]

For all the robotic warriors out there, they're selling a special edition of the Roboton blaster, and they're calling it the Super Roboton blaster. And they're charging a fortune. But you could get basically the same cannon for less money if you take a regular Roboton blaster and slap on a Megaton scope and a picture of Newt Gingrich's face.

Re:I don't get it

[Actually, I do RTFA]

A prototype Bumbleebee Transformer robot was built, and is available to the public. Unfortunately, it's still in pre-alpha, as the autonomy and transformation circuits seem inoperable and unaccessable.

Re:I don't get it

[Anonymous Coward]

So you take Apollo's gun while he's playing with the "dagget"

DAGGIT you insensitive clod

Re:I don't get it

[Anonymous Coward]

It's like a car, that doesn't turn into a robot.

Shouldn't they pay you ...

[Anonymous Coward]

... to advertise a franchise?

Re:Shouldn't they pay you ...

[Gerafix]

You would be lucky if you didn't get sued for copyright infringement. I can see it now, you're cruising down I-95 and all of a sudden there's twenty police cars behind you a la OJ Simpson.

Re:Shouldn't they pay you ...

[Anonymous Coward]

This is America, buddy. The same country where people think it's cool to stick a giant Nike swoosh sticker on the back window of their Camaro (a.k.a. the White Trash Corvette). There are enough stupid people here to do free advertising for just about any company. This post is brought to you by Fascism: Welcome to it.

Re:Shouldn't they pay you ...

[isfry]

Ever notice that the Ford Bronco was replaced with the Ford Escape?

Re:Shouldn't they pay you ...

[portforward]

That was FUNNY!!! Man, I never have mod points when I want to use them.

Re:Shouldn't they pay you ...

[Nimey]

You'd think so. But haven't you seen all those wankers wearing clothes with Tommy Hilfiger logos, or Nike logos, or other corporate advertising? Those people *paid* *extra* to advertise for those companies, because they think it makes them look cool, or more desirable, or some damn thing.

I have clothes with corporate ads on them (mainly Boeing and ATI), but they were free items from trade shows, which I think is a fair bargain.

Re:Shouldn't they pay you ...

[Spyderman_26]

Crap! I meant to mod you funny and accidentally hit overrated.

Like Ford, I Have a Better Idea

[Greyfox]

That idea being that I shock their marketing department with a tazer until they come up with an idea that doesn't make me vomit in my mouth. I'll work by the hour, GM, call me.

Oh, and by the way, that color of yellow is really hideous. Actually, any color of yellow is really hideous.

Re:Like Ford, I Have a Better Idea

[somersault]

Oh, and by the way, that color of yellow is really hideous. Actually, any color of yellow is really hideous.

Bumblebee has always been yellow and one of the favourite characters on Transformers. Most guys wouldn't get a car that colour sure, but if they're Transformers nuts then they definitely would consider it. I was thinking about putting a couple of Autobot badges on my own car recently, but decided against it for now. I'm seriously thinking about Starscream style tattoos all over the bodywork though, that would just look damned cool (even without the Transformers association).

Re:Like Ford, I Have a Better Idea

[sunking2]

Honestly, how many Transformers nuts are out there that A) can drive, and B) can afford a new car. and C) are nerdy enough to want to spend $1k on something so stupid.

This has FAIL written all over it. On the plus side it won't cost them any extra money in tooling, however the marketing department should have to give back their salaries for wasting everyones time.

Re:Like Ford, I Have a Better Idea

[somersault]

Honestly, how many Transformers nuts are out there that A) can drive, and B) can afford a new car. and C) are nerdy enough to want to spend $1k on something so stupid.

Probably quite a lot? Most There are bound to be a lot of Transformers fans are in the age range of late 20/early 30s professionals with no kids and a bit of spare cash, which is kind of the intended market for this car anyway, surely? I was originally shown the Transformers movie by guys who will be about 29 at the moment, both were married in the last few years, but still don't have kids. As you say it won't really cost them much to add this to the cars, and they'll be making a hefty profit on each unit they do sell. Perhaps Hasbro helped with the initial design costs too, they must be rolling in cash so they can take a hit, and stuff like this is great publicity.

Re:Like Ford, I Have a Better Idea

[somersault]

Just a note that I meant the original cartoon movie rather than the Michael Bay one.

I didn't think the first new Transformers movie was great the first time I saw it, but I really enjoyed Revenge Of The Fallen - it inspired me to purchase and watch all of the original series :) I'm 25 and don't remember much of Transformers from when I was a kid.

Automotive stories....

[Slurpee]

Automotive stories may be few, but automotive illustrations on the other hand....

$995 for

[hebetudinous_rectum]

the only Camaro option that won't help you get laid.

Re:$995 for

[Anonymous Coward]

...by someone you'd be interested in

Re:$995 for

[Anonymous Coward]

Honestly, does a Camaro (a.k.a. the White Trash Corvette) attract any women besides high school girls or trailer trash bar-room queens? Intelligent women eventually realize that the Camaro is a cheap piece of shit, and that the personality of the guy driving it is the same.

Re:$995 for

[ab0mb88]

Convincing women to imagine they are Megan Fox isn't going to hurt your chances any.

Re:$995 for

[Anonymous Coward]

A camaro is the corvette engine in a cheap body. So it depends on what you are buying it for. A corvette shows you have enough money to buy the whole package. A camaro says you have enough money to buy a car that goes really fast in a straight line. How would you like to be the guy in your corvette with your girlfriend in the passenger seat at a stop light. And some guy in his cheap camaro pulls up and blows your doors off?

Yawn...

[SmlFreshwaterBuffalo]

...wake me when this is offered on a VW Beetle.

Re:Yawn...

[lxs]

And you can wake me when it (or it's prospective owner) actually transforms into a sentient humanoid.

Re:Yawn...

[Anonymous Coward]

And not that crappy new Beetle, either!

Re:Yawn...

[Anonymous Coward]

Not going to happen unless you do it yourself. VW wanted nothing to do with the movie or any sort of warfare or violence. Hence why Bumblebee is a Camaro and not a Bug.

Re:Yawn...

[2obvious4u]

This is the post I was looking for! Bumble bee wasn't a Camaro, yeah in the new movies he is, but to anyone who grew up watching the original he'll always be a bug. I've been watching "Pimp my Ride" on speed the last couple of weeks, and I'd love to see someone "pimp" a classic VW bug into a "classic" Bumble Bee.

Re:Yawn...

[Anonymous Coward]

For the win, get an old Beetle and paint it up like a WW2 German aircraft, complete with Iron Crosses and tail swastikas. Then take pictures.

Re:Yawn...

[Hillgiant]

Not just "been done", but "been over done".

Re:Yawn...

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been watching "Pimp my Ride" on speed...

I think I'd have to be on speed to watch "Pimp my Ride", too.

Usually when people buy sports cars...

[Procasinator]

... they do it to impress girls. And, with a bright yellow transformers car, I think you might struggle. Oh wait, this is slashdot, nevermind!

Re:Usually when people buy sports cars...

[CountBrass]

Actually, and I don't understand this myself, one of the most popular colour for Porsches is 'Speed Yellow' which is a similar garish yellow to the one on the car in the article.

Re:Usually when people buy sports cars...

[will_die]

Here they are just tring to impress Michael Bay.

Re:Usually when people buy sports cars...

[jellomizer]

Oddly enough cars really don't impress girls that much. It actually impresses the guys more, and the girls follow the guys, so you may improve your exposure chances.

After looking at the pictures. I kinda wish they didn't put the transformers logo on it. Just the Autobot symbols so it looks like the character. Putting the logo on it reminds me of those cheap $3 costumes for Halloween where you get a mask and a plastic smock with the picture of what you are supposed to look like, its name and what show it is from. Just so when you go trick or treating the adults can properly guess who you are and make you feel like you actually did a good job in choosing a cool costume.

Re:Usually when people buy sports cars...

[Anonymous Coward]

Oddly enough cars really don't impress girls that much. It actually impresses the guys more,

That is what impresses the girls. Girls wants the alpha male that impresses all the other guys. The guy with the largest... engine, so to speak.

At first I was surprised you seemed oblivious to this fact of life but then I remembered that this is slashdot.

Re:Usually when people buy sports cars...

[MachDelta]

Yellow is synonymous with racing. Because it stands out so much, lots of teams have used it as either a base or accent color to make their car more visible. So in the same train of thought, someone driving a "look at me!" expensive sports car is also more likely to choose an eye bleeding red/yellow/orange for the attention factor, while miss soccer mom will be just peachy with her white/silver/black Suburban.

Re:Usually when people buy sports cars...

[pemerson]

Actually, and I don't understand this myself, one of the most popular colour for Porsches is 'Speed Yellow' which is a similar garish yellow to the one on the car in the article.

Do you have a source on the #s of each colour that Porche makes / sells for recent model years, or are you just going by what you see? I've always wondered how the colors break down.

Re:Usually when people buy sports cars...

[pemerson]

According to one source I found on the net published in October of 2008 (link)

In Europe, 35% of new cars are silver, while Asia goes even farther to 37%. North American buyers only choose silver 20% of the time, however, because white (18%) and black (17%) are both gaining ground. Red (13%) and blue (12%) are also popular, with categories like 'naturals' and 'other' bringing up the rear with 9% and 7% respectively. Green gets just 4% of the market.

Re:Usually when people buy sports cars...

[geek]

I couldn't disagree more. I'm from CA and have thus experienced shallowness on a level virtually unheard of anywhere else on Earth. I know at least 7 girls right now who seriously will not date a guy that doesn't drive a Porche or otherwise expensive car. Cars are status symbols and most women, whether they admit it or not, are all about status symbols. They want the successful, hot guy with the SUV and sports car because it represents financial security.

There is a reason you don't see hot women with couch potatoes unless the couch potato is rich as fuck. Every single date I've been on, the first two questions EVERY woman asks, "What do you do for a living?" and "How much do you make?"

Editions

[Fotograf]

Call me when they offer petersbild or mustang with To Punish and Enslave on the side

Car Analogy

[Razalhague]

I'm having trouble understanding the story. Could someone make a car analogy please?

Its only a collector's item....

[KneelBeforeZod]

If you keep it in the box.

Hmm...

[BlitzBrain]

Now only if we can get Megan Fox....

Re:Hmm...

[Anonymous Coward]

Nah being Slashdot shed make ya ride bitch.

Re:Hmm...

[bagsta]

With the appearance package you can get as many Megan Foxes :) as you like... :P

About the picture

[noddyxoi]

The marketing picture used in the link makes use of a visual illusion that is achieved by overlapping the two tyres surfaces from opposite corners. This effect draws a tyre that is very wide and we associate it with power and stability.

Re:About the picture

[Anonymous Coward]

Yea? Then why is it not in focus?

Chevy Spark

[codecracker007]

The real deal will be when GM launches the 2010 Chevy Spark on which the Skids were based

New Camaro is, but the Challenger looks better!

[tetrahedrassface]

The new Camaro has some design issues that really irk many people. One is the 'Joker' front end that looks like a big, stupid, Cadillac CTS on acid. The second is the rear sheet metal. It looks like the design team just quit, and it doesn't look good at all. The third are reports of super bad visibility, and a cheap interior.

That is why I love my Challengers more and more. They have the great lines of inspired design, and while there is always something faster out there, you can't outrun ugly. Here is a nice image comparison of a Challenger and a Camaro: Challenger and Camaro via autoblog. Yet to each their own. At least we live in a day and age where all three historic cars are available at the same time: The Dodge Challenger, Camaro, and Mustang. If you want one you better get one quick though. As the new CAFE standards are implemented these cars will likely go away by 2012. It is 1972 all over again.My SRT8 Challenger gets fair mileage. My R/T Challenger got 26mpg on the highway. I think the Camaro's are comparable. And thank you editors for posting a car story! I love cars. :)

Re:New Camaro is, but the Challenger looks better!

[SerpentMage]

I love cars and actually wanted a Barracuda. But frankly the cars you mentioned are old fashioned! They are nostalgia for times WAY BYGONE! I find it weird that they do this. After all how many 57Chevy's look alikes were being built in the 70's! NONE!!!! Instead what I REALLY crave is a tesla! A car that beats the pants off a Ferrari and is environmentally friendly! WHERE DO I SIGN UP!!!!!

Re:New Camaro is, but the Challenger looks better!

[Ogive17]

Touching on that.. doesn't it seem sad that the only success stories coming out of Detroit these days seems to be the resurrected muscle cars from the 70s?

This Camaro hits two generations. My generation which grew up playing with transformer toys and my parents' generation which grew up with the muscle cars. Retro is sooo the "in" thing right now.

Re:New Camaro is, but the Challenger looks better!

[Dare nMc]

Actually the tesla is fairly comparable acceleration to the camaro. 4.3s 0-60 for the camaro 4.0 for the tesla. camaro has a higher top speed, and higher power to weight ratio. The tesla will burn through it's first $36000 (yes you can pay $14g today for a battery in 5 years) battery in 100k miles, the camaro would need $4 per gallon gas to burn though $18,000 in fuel during the same miles.
The V6 camaro would be slightly slower, but @ 30 mpg epa, it is a greener car than the tesla in my book.

Re:New Camaro is, but the Challenger looks better!

[Palmateer]

Hmm... My brother owned both a '72 'Cuda and a '70 Challenger. I used to drive the 'Cuda around because my brother's back was so bad it hurt him to drive in it. Anyway, they had wonderful interiors; good materials, wind-down rear quarter windows, nice stitching, back seat wide enough to lie down on at the drive-in. We also had a 1975 Dodge Colt (Mitsubishi) which was styled in the image of the Challenger/Cuda, especially the interior. Nice. I've seen the prototype pictures of the new Challenger and it had a very slick looking dash, BUT the production dash/interior I've seen looks incredibly cheap and lifted from a lower-end 300. Did they finally change this for 2010? On the outside the car looks great (maybe a bit tall) but I found the interior just killed it for me. From what I've seen of the Camaro, I can't complain. I really liked the 1st gen Camaro/Firebird and this does a pretty good job of recreating that muscular look... even in yellow.

Re:New Camaro is, but the Challenger looks better!

[Anonymous Coward]

The car's got a big ass. How very American of it.

Pig iron, I've got pig iron.

[CountBrass]

Unfortunately it requires you to buy an American car.

Has the American car industry actually managed to get a whole 100bhp/litre out of a normally aspirated car yet? Or install suspension that wouldn't feel more at home in a super-soft bed?

Top Gear regularly make the joke that American car engines are made out of pig iron. And that was certainly true when I considered, for a whole 5 minutes, buying a Ford Mustang. A modern performance car with a *solid* rear axle and a lump of volcanic rock for an engine? No wonder I went out and bought European instead.

Putting this 'appearance pack' on a Chevrolet is like putting lipstick on a pig.

Re:Pig iron, I've got pig iron.

[xer.xes]

What European brand offers an engine reach 100bhp/l normally aspirated? And then again, why does it matter?

And with respect to american sportscars: I think the ZR1 is the quickest production car to go around the nurburgring at the moment.

Re:Pig iron, I've got pig iron.

[Marcika]

And with respect to american sportscars: I think the ZR1 is the quickest production car to go around the nurburgring at the moment.

It was for maybe about 2 months in 2008. Right now, there are at least 5 faster cars, one is a Dodge Viper, three of them are Italian, and the fastest one is British. (Not that it matters, mind you, given that you can be almost as fast on a good motorcycle for one tenth of the price and twice the coolness factor...)

Re:Pig iron, I've got pig iron.

[CoonAss56]

Evidently you missed the episode of "Top Gear" where they drove 3 American hot cars-(Cadillac,Corvette ZR-1, and Challenger), went to Bonneville and set personal speed records, then went on to declare that these cars were some of best they had ever driven. So get that snobbish spoon out of your ass, wake up and learn that EVERY car builder makes some shitty car. Maybe you have forgotten have lousy British electrics-(Lucas) almost fried Jaguar until Ford bought them and modernized the lot.
Don't be painting all American cars with the same brush due to ignorance.

Re:Pig iron, I've got pig iron.

[.mario1607]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurburgring_lap_times#Production_vehicles

No, it's not. The quickest at the moment is the Radical SR8 with 6:55, and that's a 4 year old record... Second place is a Dodge Viper SRT-10 ACR, so the american cars are not that far behind. The engine in the SRT-10 ACR is a 8.4l engine with 600bhp though, so it doesn't exactly cross the 100bhp/l mark. The SR8 on the other hand has a 2.6l engine with 363bhp, so it crosses it just fine...

Re:Pig iron, I've got pig iron.

[Bill Dog]

Has the American car industry actually managed to get a whole 100bhp/litre out of a normally aspirated car yet?

I don't know, but a better answer is "who cares?". There are no autobahns in America where the top-speed-determining (drag-overcoming) horsepower can be fully utilitized. A majority of us are city dwellers, and the only fun we can have (that engine performance bears on) legally is punching it at a stoplight, and that's about twisting force. So the better question is, has anyone other than the American car industry actually managed to produce for very long any affordable model lines with available normally-aspirated generous torque?

Or install suspension that wouldn't feel more at home in a super-soft bed?

The 1970's called, to tell you that it's no longer the 1970's. What hampers American cars' handling IMO is weight. When they re-did the Mustang they made it larger and added a few hundred pounds. The new Camaro is a few hundred more than it was when it was cancelled. The GTO was the same. The Charger and Challenger are 4000+ lb porksters. Ain't no way that's going around a corner confidently. Only the Corvette actually lost weight in its last remake.

...Mustang. A modern performance car with a *solid* rear axle and a lump of volcanic rock for an engine?

With the exception of the super-charged Cobra one year, the V8 Mustangs have had the aluminum block 4.6L for the last 15 years or so. That the V6 model is still an iron block (it's an old pickup truck engine that's supposed to be replaced next year, along with the 4.6L) and both have live axles in the rear is a means of keeping the cheapest model dirt cheap. This makes it suitable for rental fleets, and otherwise keeps sales sufficient to prevent its cancellation like we've seen with its ponycar competitors.

Re:Pig iron, I've got pig iron.

[CGordy]

I know it's not the answer you were looking for, but in motorcycles, that sort of specific power output (100bhp per litre) is below average. For example, Aprilia, Ducati and BMW all have engines that produce more than 150 bhp per litre in their superbikes. BMW's new 1 litre superbike is supposed to produce 200 bhp/l, and they (obviously) build cars as well, so it's not a question of whether they have the technical expertise to produce those engines or not.

I suspect the reason that they don't put these type of engines in their cars is because there is a longevity and maintenance trade off - most people don't do 100,000km on their sports bikes, and my bike has a 6000km (~4000 mile) interval between services (12000kms between major services). It may be that GM and Ford believe their customers will tolerate a less durable drivetrain in their sports cars cars as a trade off for the increased power.

Another factor is probably that it is easier to meet fuel efficiency standards in high performance turbo vehicles than in naturally aspirated ones (although a turbo will drink just as much when used in anger). If the US gets mandatory fuel efficiency requirements, I suspect that the flagship models from GM and their ilk will start using turbocharging.

Re:Pig iron, I've got pig iron.

[ageoffri]

Unfortunately it requires you to buy an American car.

It is sad that thanks to decades of brainwashing by rags like Consumer Reports American cars are considered bad. Have you seen the ratings since the mid to late 90's? While on average the big 3 get lower marks then Honda and Toyota the difference is often statistically insignificant. Just check out JD Power rankings.

Has the American car industry actually managed to get a whole 100bhp/litre out of a normally aspirated car yet? Or install suspension that wouldn't feel more at home in a super-soft bed?

HP/liter doesn't matter except in size limited racing or where vehicles are taxed based on engine size. Do you know how the small engines get past 100hp/liter? They do it by being high spinning motors. HP is based on torque and rpm, so if you spin a motor to 7,000 rpms you make more HP. One reason that domestic motors have lower output per liter is because they are much bigger motors. How about we compare torque output, those high revving motors have very little torque. All other things being equal if you take a larger motor making the same HP as a smaller one, the larger motor will be more drivable.

Top Gear regularly make the joke that American car engines are made out of pig iron. And that was certainly true when I considered, for a whole 5 minutes, buying a Ford Mustang. A modern performance car with a *solid* rear axle and a lump of volcanic rock for an engine? No wonder I went out and bought European instead.

Depends on what type of performance you are looking for. Many people who buy Mustangs are still more interested in straight line performance such as drag racing. In those cases a solid axle is much better. The Mustang Cobra's used in drag racing have had problems with wheel hop which can destroy the IRS.

Putting this 'appearance pack' on a Chevrolet is like putting lipstick on a pig.

Purely subjective. I know of several people who pre-ordered Camaro's that went with aftermarket stripes to more closely match the movie car. Though based off the conversations and looks I've gotten in my 2010 Camaro, I'd say you are wrong and many people love the looks of the new Camaro.

Re:Pig iron, I've got pig iron.

[RedK]

The thing with the 100bhp/liter thing is that it only measures peak horsepower. As anyone who's not a Magazine car enthousiast knows, peak values mean absolutely nothing. What good is having a peak of 200 hp at 9000 rpm out of a 2.0L engine, if everything under 8000 rpm gives you 85 bhp. You should look at the area under the curve and not the peak. That'll tell you the whole story about your engine's performance.

Obligatory link to pulled Gay Camaro commercial.

[tetrahedrassface]

Yup, here it is in all the glory it can muster. lol GM Viral Marketing gone horribly wrong.

And yes folks this was a real internet commercial that GM pulled the plug on

Don't blame me!~ lol

couldn't be worse

[dltaylor]

They take an iconic American model, one with a decent racing history (Penske in Trans-Am, for example) and make it look like a stupid cartoon toy, so that only someone with the mentality of a 14-year-old would want one, then turn it, literally, into a cartoon toy look-alike?

After Ford botched the Mustang suspension and engine, then "fixed it" by ruining the styling, and Chrysler built a seriously overweight Challenger, my last hope for a factory "pony car" was Chevrolet. Ain't gonna happen now.

You can pretty much build a '60s Mustang or Camaro body from parts, and use some late-model items like 4-wheel discs, EFI, and 5/6-speed transmissions, plus some "lessons learned" suspension bits to build a really nice daily driver, cruiser, race car, ...

http://www.dynacornclassicbodies.com/ford_models.html

http://www.dynacornclassicbodies.com/gm_models.html

Re:couldn't be worse

[drinkypoo]

You can pretty much build a '60s Mustang or Camaro body from parts, and use some late-model items like 4-wheel discs, EFI, and 5/6-speed transmissions, plus some "lessons learned" suspension bits to build a really nice daily driver, cruiser, race car, ...

You will spend at least as much doing that well. If you take it down to white body and paint it back up (which is what you'll have to do with a car that old) the paint job alone will probably cost you a good three grand, and that's after you have the parts sandblasted for about another $300 usually. And have you looked at the price of IRS conversions for first generation Camaros? Which, mind you, are typically not going to be done as well as the factory suspension on the new Camaro? Sorry, but you're not going to produce a superior driving machine that way, and most people don't have the necessary skills, let alone the time, space, and money.

Re:couldn't be worse

[Anonymous Coward]

I completely agree.

Re:couldn't be worse

[Locklin]

so that only someone with the mentality of a 14-year-old would want one

Isn't that the market for muscle cars?? /ducks

Re:couldn't be worse

[dltaylor]

It's the difference between starting from "scratch", more, or less, and building what suits you, and buying whatever the manufacturer tries to foist onto you. Sort of like Linux or *BSD vs. Microsoft Windows or OS X. You really can build a "superior driving machine" that way, since "superior" means so many different things to people. In my case, for the Camaro, STUPID-UGLY is not "superior", and I've been in '69 Camaros that have been tweaked into very good-handling cars. Probably would cost more than a new one, but I would simply be embarrassed to be seen in a new Camaro, so it doesn't matter.

If the previous version of the Mustang (I really do like the styling) had been built on the Jaguar S-type platform's suspension, as they teased us it would, and had it had either a Jag' engine (normally aspirated or supercharged) or a developed version of the Windsor small-block, I'd have one. Failing that, if the Challenger were 700-800 pounds lighter, making it about the same as the '74, I'd buy one now.

Re:couldn't be worse

[stewbacca]

How many years of mediocrity does it take for something to stop being iconic? Mustangs and Camaros have been crap since about 1970.

Re:Transformers

[CarpetShark]

I wish they would release a Camaro that really transform to an autobot.

I'd bet on Honda before GM.

$1000 for some stickers? help me here...

[fantomas]

Not a big car fan, not an American, so help me here and correct me if I've got it wrong.

The deal is you pay $1000 and you get some stickers to stick on your car?

Maybe they stick the stickers onto your car as well, so you don't have to do it and presumably they put them on nice and straight?

Wow, if this is what you get they'd better be very nice stickers.

Re:$1000 for some stickers? help me here...

[Anonymous Coward]

No, it actually changes into a robot.

Re:$1000 for some stickers? help me here...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yea... 98% of Americans who are into cars will find this laughable. The other 2% are posers or just really like their transforms. Please note that some people in America think they are into cars or try to look like they are, but really aren't. Rule of thumb: if they took it to a shop and paid someone to rice out their car or hot rod it they probably aren't that into cars unless they were helping the guy.

Re:$1000 for some stickers? help me here...

[Jeff DeMaagd]

It's not just stickers, stickers don't cast shadows like this:

Badge:
http://www.autoblog.com/photos/2010-chevrolet-camaro-transformers-special-edition/2159531/

Also, the sill plate doesn't look like it could be made on the cheap:
http://www.autoblog.com/photos/2010-chevrolet-camaro-transformers-special-edition/2159534/

I didn't see any mention of interior changes.

Stickers could probably be made privately by a vinyl graphics cutter for less than $100, I don't know about that emblem or sill plate.

Re:$1000 for some stickers? help me here...

[steelfood]

If I'm going to pay $1000 for stickers, they better get me a blow job every time I'm driving. Only, these stickers will probably have the opposite effect.

Re:$1000 for some stickers? help me here...

[Anonymous Coward]

The big thing is that the car as a whole is registered, documented, and built as a "special edition" car. In the long run, those tend to be worth a LOT more when sold in comparason to the identical car, but non-special-edition.

Re:$1000 for some stickers? help me here...

[Bruiser80]

I didn't see any mention of interior changes.

There appears to be an embroidered logo on the center arm rest.

Accessory packages are usually expensive because the components they use (GM certified accessories) are really expensive. If you REALLY like all the components in the package, it makes sense to get it. If you only want ONE of the components (maybe you only want the exterior badges), you can get those dealer-installed for a lower price.

Or better yet, get a knock-off and pay 25% the price :-)

BTW, if this is truely an accessory package, the dealer is installing it anyway - parts are thrown in the trunk at assembly.

Re:$1000 for some stickers? help me here...

[Bruiser80]

Did you ever have Transformers growing up?

Those stickers were impossible to get applied squarely, even if there was a recessed or embossed surface for it to go on! And don't even think about repositioning once you start sticking them. ;-)

Seriously, $1000 for two mounted badges, vinyl stripe set, custom sill plates, and embroidered arm rest (all installed) sounds about right. The "GM Certified" accessories available for my car start at $200 for engine louver screens - about 0.25 m^2 of cut screen material. Moral of the story - get aftermarket whenever possible!

Re:$1000 for some stickers? help me here...

[Anonymous Coward]

Those aren't stickers! Haven't you ever opened up a brand new camaro? Those are decals. :)

Sounds cool . . .

[Anonymous Coward]

But does the radio work properly?

In related news

[SpaghettiPattern]

In related news it is alleged that Nissan will do a pokemon rice job on the Z370. It will however be $100 cheaper.

WTF! Are xformers so geeky that they a Chevy deserves an article on /.? Sure, car crisis and shit. But hey!
When the original series was aired I used to take the piss at xformers --con and -tron and all with an all American deep voice. Cars transforming into robots, both goodies and baddies.

How lame can you get? What's the next level of unlikeliness? Oh shithe that 'll be Tolkien of which hoards of devotees are on /. I see and smell my karma burning....

Re:In related news

[CelticWhisper]

In related news it is alleged that Nissan will do a pokemon rice job on the Z370. It will however be $100 cheaper.

I'm only interested if the spoiler looks like a Pidgeotto wing.

Re:In related news

[lucas_picador]

Agreed. I thought this was "News for Nerds", not "News for 13-year-olds with Down Syndrome".

What next, a ./ story about Mattel's upcoming "Own Your Own Real-Life My Little Pony" contest?

Re:In related news

[Anonymous Coward]

It's more true than you know!
I was at Tyson's Corner mall in Fairfax County Virginia once years ago, and just happened to be there on the same day as a giant Pokemon convention.
The grand prize for some kind of sweepstakes was a special edition VW Beetle painted to look like Pikachu, with plastic ears. (That's right, Pikachu ears.)
The odd thing was that nearly everyone there for the Pokemon convention was too young to have a driver's license.
Would anyone here dare drive that around town?

Re:In related news

[Anonymous Coward]

Just FYI, the special edition pokemon car was the silver Lugia PT Crusier. I they came out in 2001. There were only 5 made, and nintendo used them for about two years as 'street team' cars for pokemon promotional events. Eventually, nintendo gave them away to the fans in various pokemon related contests.

Re:In related news

[Anonymous Coward]

well you could be right, but dont hate cause you didn't think of it first, and while you are pissing on stuff they make loads of money too bad you dont.

Get A Nice Green One With A Rear Spoiler...

[pandrijeczko]

...then when you get bored pretending that you are piloting a vehicle-morphing robot, you can pretend you are Virgil Tracy rushing to the scene of a huge disaster in Thunderbird 2.

Thus you will keep your options open despite having a tiny penis.

Re:Get A Nice Green One With A Rear Spoiler...

[pinkushun]

In addition to having a tiny one that can transform!

Re:Obligatory link to pulled Gay Camaro commercial

[jcr]

this was a real internet commercial that GM pulled the plug on

Who ordered that commercial, and has the SEC looked into whether they were shorting GM shares?

-jcr

Meh

[anarkavre]

Call me when it actually transforms.

Decepticons are among us...

[bagsta]

I hope not to find Megatron in your way...

Re:Kill yourself

[thatkid_2002]

Why is this person modded troll?

I wanted to see the effect of making a lame joke as the first comment - as the comments closest to the top no-matter how mediocre are always modded too high!

God bless the trolls. Sometimes they point out the obvious!

this licks...

[nimbius]

a day late and a dollar short GM is coming up with this bullshit? the specs on this are the ones from the first movie (no longer marketed/marketable) and its basically (as parents have said) just the camaro with stickers.
I already know a guy who added decepticon logos to his mustang, which was damned cool at the time, but for a production car company to not keep up with hollywood is somewhat unheard of.
in ghost in the shell, nissan used it as a chance to showcase their newest SUV with the plate number "san ku ni san." youd better believe people could walk out of a theatre and buy one that day.
BMW rolled an entire series of short films staring cars that yes, you could buy and drive just like in the movies. James Bond had been doing this for years with the jag brand. hell, even national lampoons vegas vacation cashed in on EXISTING brands that could be sold to the public (hummer, corvette, etc...)

point to make: ball dropped GM. you offered a car to the public that DID NOT EXIST in production until TWO SOLID years from the movies release date. no one wants the old car from the old movie as is even hinted in TFA.

to be fair though, good job on bringing the safety of the vehicle up to a competitive level. and good job increasing the stock vehicles fuel efficiency. although realistically anyone buying this car wants muscle, not a sticker-clad gas sipper i think.

I bought these and it worked

[Anonymous Coward]

I put these on and at the first gas stop Megan Fox got into my car.

She told me how life sucks and how she prefers lesbian strippers, and then got out. But for three seconds there...

Re: Meta Parody?

[TaoPhoenix]

Any room for a consumerist Meta-Comment here? Buy the car sans package, buy your own $50 stickers courtesy of Hasbro, do it yourself, and dare anyone to call you a poser? Then when the fad is over you can remove the stickers and be back to the stock model.

News for people that even nerds think are sad

[Anonymous Coward]

and have too much spare money.

stupid movie

[FudRucker]

i did not like the first transformers movie changed channels on the TV after a few minutes, and i wont bother to watch the second one either. machine technology has made some great strides but i think the transformers idea is just beyond the sci/fi to reality scope of possibilities...

nice chevy, yellow is not my favorite color for a car, i would prefer plain white for a light color or dark metallic blue for a dark colored car would suit me, and lose the stripes - stripes and other flashy crap are for teenagers and older men suffering a mid-life crisis.

STEAL ME.

[Civil_Disobedient]

Those Autobot fender badges are going to get stolen faster than a Chic bass line.

Re:STEAL ME.

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course, you could also go up to the GM parts counter and order them. Or, if your parts dealer is unfriendly, talk to your local body shop and have them place the order for you.

Yes, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, but does it transform?

jesus

[hamburger lady]

i saw one of those in front of my house a few days ago with the autobot badge and everything. i thought it was some lamer's attempt to make his car look cool.

but jesus, its an official version of the car?? man, no wonder GM sunk.

Re:jesus

[Palmateer]

I saw one last night! I was driving down the road and this thing was just sitting in a driveway with the lights on 'looking' at us as we went by. I had to call my 10 year old son's attention away from his Nintendo DS (playing Transformers Autobots of course). "Hey, It's Bumble Bee!" I couldn't tell if it had the logo or not... or Ms. Fox inside. The car looked very nice though, and they build them not far from where I live (Just outside of Toronto).

How long did they take to get this out?

[phelix_da_kat]

Ok, this special edition comes out in 2010.. how many months after the film was released?

I thought ties-in were to be released before or during the film?

This is why US Auto makers are suffering. It needs to work smarter, not just rely on tax dollars and bail outs.

Re:How long did they take to get this out?

[Remus Shepherd]

2010 model cars are on the showroom floor in fall, 2009. That's how the car business works. My bet is that they'll time it with the T2 DVD release.

Re:How long did they take to get this out?

[Jose]

sometimes it takes a while for companies to catch on to the latest trends, and demands of today's culture.

Re:How long did they take to get this out?

[jank1887]

but does it come with Ms. Fox?

Re:How long did they take to get this out?

[thpdg]

The 2010 model year Camaro is the currently shipping model.
http://www.chevrolet.com/camaro/

Re:How long did they take to get this out?

[Brewmeister_Z]

So is the version they are giving as a prize from the contest with the first Transformer DVD? Why did it take so long to get the Camaro into production? I know the first movie used the concept 2006 Camaro panels on a Pontiac GTO.

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Features/articleId=121044

GM could probably avoided their bailouts and bankruptcy if they could have allocated more to cars that people want instead of competing with styles the Japanese car makers are doing and taking a loss on them.

Re:How long did they take to get this out?

[bertoelcon]

I saw an ad for this at the theater before the movie started so I am not sure how this is near "new" at all.

Re:How long did they take to get this out?

[Scragglykat]

2010 Camaros have been on showroom floors for over a month now... early release!

Re:How long did they take to get this out?

[ResidntGeek]

*giggle* Oh, you...

Re:How long did they take to get this out?

[Ihmhi]

Actually, yes. Yes it does.

Re:How long did they take to get this out?

[tobiasly]

but does it come with Ms. Fox?

What about just a Bee-otch air freshener?

Re:How long did they take to get this out?

[Pence128]

Am I the only one who thinks this is utterly retarded?

Convertibles the real transformers

[Webcommando]

I once made a demotivational poster that read:

"Convertible - Face it: the closest you will ever get to a transformer."

I happen to have a hard-top convertible that feels very much like a transformer when it opens (must have been a mechanical engineer's dream assignment).

Engines that produce 100bhp/litre

[CountBrass]

The E46 M3's 3.2L engine produces 343 horse power. That car came out in 2000. The newer E90/92/93 produce over 400 bhp from a 4L engine.

Source: wikipedia.

In the 1950's there were Porsches being produced with over 100bhp/litre, variants of the 356's flat-four: so you could say the US motor industry is still at least 40 years behind the European ;)

Re:Engines that produce 100bhp/litre

[Dunbal]

Brake horse power and horse power are not the same. And brake horse power is more suited for diesel engines. Please refrain from comparing apples and oranges.

Re:Engines that produce 100bhp/litre

[Anonymous Coward]

The E9X M3 has 414.

And they can turn corners too, I'd love to see that Camaro POS run twisties.

Dinan makes a 4.6L for the E9X that puts out 503HP

Ford GT

[CountBrass]

Did you happen to see the episode where Jeremy Clarkson's Ford GT turned up? Brand new. It broke down so many times when he tried to drive it home he had to get it towed.

Is this the quality you are talking about?

Re:Ford GT

[CoonAss56]

Still picking just *1* incident out of how many cars that there are in the world? Do you think that if you buy a Ferrari for $250,000 that it is an everyday car? Evidently you don't know shit about cars period.

Re:Ford GT

[Anonymous Coward]

You would think that Ford would ensure that the rather expensive car they supplied to possibly Britains best-known motoring journalist was top fucking quality though, wouldn't you? If JC got a bad one, heaven help Mr Anonymous.

Re:Ford GT

[armanox]

I don't think that Mr. Anonymous can afford a Ford GT. A bit far from a car intended for normal consumers.

Great example of

[Dunbal]

Your tax dollars at work. Go go US gov't!

new car vs Health Insurance

[Anonymous Coward]

I have to wonder how many people would rather have a car payment then a Health Insurance Payment. How many of THOSE people are included in the Americans without insurance numbers?

Re:Obama's bizarre distraction...

[smittyoneeach]

Where health care and Government Motors converge is in Progressive Utopialand.
You'll drive to your Obamacare appointment in your Transformers Edition Camaro as a result of the new Bill of Rights, as promulgated by FDR:
http://slashdot.org/~smitty_one_each/journal/196922.
We've just got to shrub off this hedge of bad numbers left by Bush,
raze the thicket of hate speech emitted by right-wing talk radio,
and call the copse on any Tea Party protesters that show up at their Congressman's office wondering WTF.

But who wants a Daewoo Camaro

[Anonymous Coward]

Too bad nobody wants Camaros or Corvettes since Chevrolet totally destroyed its brand image by including rebranded Korean shit. Die-hard Chevy fans all around the world were stunned then angered by that incredible move.

Re:But who wants a Daewoo Camaro

[Bruiser80]

My Corvette still turned heads this morning when I drove it to work. I guess they didn't realize that it's just two Aveos glued together ;-)

Re:But who wants a Daewoo Camaro

[ageoffri]

16,000 pre-orders say you are wrong. The 2010 Camaro has been one of the most successfully new car launches ever for GM, while it has not been problem free it has been far lower then any GM car. For any manufacture this would be considered a good launch. Since production started in March, over 26,000 have been made. Most are not sitting on lots for very long unless the dealer is greedy.

Re:But who wants a Daewoo Camaro

[Anonymous Coward]

At the Oshawa plant in Canada, they have even been working overtime building Camros while they are having a hard time practically giving away other GM models...

http://www.autoblog.com/tag/oshawa+overtime/

Re:But who wants a Daewoo Camaro

[stewbacca]

If by "rebranded Korean shit" you mean the Astra, than I think you have confused "Korea" with "GM-Europe" and shit with "Better car than what GM-United States can produce".

The reason nobody wants Corvettes is because they are garbage in comparison to other high-end niche super-cars, and the fact you can buy two Camaros for the price of one Corvette, and get similar performance. The reason nobody wants to buy Camaros is because they are terribly engineered, overweight, ugly, POSes, so they buy Australian built Pontiacs that aren't as ugly, run just as fast and cost the same. The reason people don't buy Australian built Pontiacs, is because nearly every other car company in the world makes a better car for the same amount of money. In short, GM doesn't get it.

Don't forget...

[Thelasko]

to go through the check list when you take delivery. You don't want to be stuck with a lemon.

Re:Don't forget...

[ageoffri]

That list can be applied to any brand new car. Many new Camaro's including mine have been problem free.

Re:Obama's bizarre distraction...

[Anonymous Coward]

Where health care and Government Motors converge is in Progressive Utopialand. You'll drive to your Obamacare appointment in your Transformers Edition Camaro as a result of the new Bill of Rights, as promulgated by FDR: http://slashdot.org/~smitty_one_each/journal/196922. We've just got to shrub off this hedge of bad numbers left by Bush, raze the thicket of hate speech emitted by right-wing talk radio, and call the copse on any Tea Party protesters that show up at their Congressman's office wondering WTF.

Or easier yet - Send all the Dems packing. w00t!

Well, not by a woman

[Rix]

But a yellow car is like a left ear piercing. It's code for teh ghey.

!bailout it was a bridge loan (NT)

[objekt]

nt

I'm taking a massive shit while posting on /.

[Anonymous Coward]

God bless WiFi! *HHHHNNNGGGGHHHH!!!* Hey, that one looks like Michelle Obama - complete with sausage arms and Neanderthal brow!

I knew I'd seen her somewhere before...

http://i.realone.com/assets/rn/img/5/4/9/8/17988945-17988948-large.jpg

Forget the Camaro

[residieu]

I want Bumblebee! Not a Camaro, I've got to go look for a yellow Volkswagon Beetle (The original Beetle, not the lame copy)

Re:Forget the Camaro

[GodfatherofSoul]

This is something that bugged me about the 1st movie in a nostalgic way. Bumblebee was the dorky little scout, not the ass-kicking hotrod. Even if they had to go w/ a GM product, they could have made it one of their smaller cars like an Aveo.

obligatory reference

[jollyreaper]

Rifftrax Transformers, after Bumblebee changes from old camaro look to new camaro look

"Soundtrack direct to you from Kill Bill"
"Wow, it's the 2007 Camaro which is crappier and worth less than the old one!"

Re:Obama's bizarre distraction...

[Anonymous Coward]

Obama's already thought of that. In anticipation of huge Democrat losses in Congress in 2010, he's enlisted ACORN to "help" with the 2010 census so that he can massage the demographic numbers and facilitate gerrymandering to guarantee permanent Democrat control of Congress. Obama is no stranger to numbers fraud. He IS from Chicago, after all. This is the same guy who got a sweetheart land deal from convicted felon Tony Rezko, and who won his election to the Senate by having all other choices kicked off the ballot. You should prepare yourself for him to invent some pretext to allow him to stay in power indefinitely. Why do you think Obama was so angered by the perfectly legal actions that the Honduran Congress took in booting Hugo-Chavez wannabe Miguel Zayala out of the country?

Pretty cheap appearance pack.

[foniksonik]

Wow, who knew we were only $1000 away from a Camaro that transforms into a robot!

Re:Pretty cheap appearance pack.

[atomic-penguin]

I'm pretty sure that the real Bumblebee (despite being a VW Beetle), doesn't have 42 strategically placed Autobot medallions.

Just make sure...

[Abalamahalamatandra]

to take this 68-point checklist with you of all the things that have a good chance of being wrong with your new Camaro, and check them all before you take possession from the dealer.

I mean seriously, isn't the Camaro supposed to be the showcase of GM? If things are bad enough that a group of Camaro fans create this list, what does that say about GM's statements that they've improved quality in the past few years?

Re:Just make sure...

[ageoffri]

I'm on the forum that generated that list and your interpretation is way off. That list was generated by a board with thousands of posters. Most new Camaro's don't even have one of these problems. A few of them like the battery cable were caught very early and a recall done. Manufacturing was changed and it hasn't been a problem since.

I'd suggest you and other GM doubters check out http://www.5thgen.org/ or http://www.camaro5.com/ , you will find that these cars have been put together so well that people are nit-picking things like no leather cover for the car manual.

Re:Transformers

[Icegryphon]

For the LAST TIME
The Japanese Agriculture Ministry Is Not In Charge Of Gundam!!!

Bankruptcy, not bailout

[Halotron1]

Seriously, people forget so soon...

The "bailouts" were the free money given to banks who screwed themselves.
$20 billion to Bank of America
$45 billion to Citigroup

Overall, $700 billion in TARP money set aside for banks who are in trouble, with no restructuring.

GM got a few billion in federal loans, the government is buying about $50 billion in shares, and they have to restructure their organization.

GM Chapter 11 Reorg

Seriously though, we shell out almost a trillion in bailout TARP money in 2008 to save the banks and everybody says "whew!"
We shell out less than 10% of that and everybody spits on the auto industry.

GM's filing ($82b) was not even close to the record for the largest bankruptcy filing.
Last year Lehman Brothers and WaMu declared bankruptcy for $649 billion and $333 billion.

Chapter 11 bankruptcies

I'm not trying to say that GM wasn't mismanaged, any company that goes bankrupt obviously wasn't run right.

I'm just getting sick of everybody spitting on the auto companies, pretending like they are the only reason we are in this mess of an economy.

Part of the reason GM had to get bankruptcy protection from the government was because the banks wouldn't loan them any of the TARP money they were given. Too busy giving bonuses to their executives I guess!

Re:Bankruptcy, not bailout

[Golias]

I can agree with you that TARP was amazingly toxic and still insist that the GM bailout was also amazingly toxic.

And in fact, I do. The Bush/Obama Era (a phrase which I'm sadly getting very used to using) has been marked by irresponsible, continuous and ever-escalating raids of the treasury.

And where the fuck did all the war protesters go? When we were losing soldiers daily in Iraq & Afghanistan under Bush, it was the worst thing ever. Now that we're losing soldiers daily in Iraq & Afghanistan under Obama (with the Iraq draw-down going EXACTLY according to Bush's old time-table), everything is peachy-keen. WTF?

I voted third-party, but those of you who voted for Obama should be far more pissed at him than I am. On civil liberties, war policy, domestic spending, everything that matters, he's just GWB with a bad health-care plan who likes playing with car companies. It's sick.

But he doesn't have that dopey smirk or stupid-sounding Texas drawl, so I guess it's all good, right?

Re:Bankruptcy, not bailout

[Anonymous Coward]

Drawing down a war slowly is different from starting on unnecessarily. And it's a lesser of evils comparison often; McCain likely would have invaded Iran and set any hope of social progression there back another 30 years.

Re:Bankruptcy, not bailout

[Golias]

Drawing down a war slowly is different from starting on unnecessarily. And it's a lesser of evils comparison often; McCain likely would have invaded Iran and set any hope of social progression there back another 30 years.

Far be it from me to rush to the defense of anybody as batshit-crazy as McCain, but Obama seems at least as likely to drag us into war in Darfur or Honduras or $DEITY-knows-where out of neocon-ish motives as McCain would be to go into Iran. He's certainly already done a fair amount of saber-rattling in his short stint in office so far.

Obama sounds thoughtful when he discusses foreign policy, but the actual actions of his administration so far are pretty much an exact continuation of Bush's, with the exception of being much more friendly to Central American communist despots.

All this is beside the fact that I'm not talking about the "lesser of evils" comparison of the last election (which was a false choice that I'm proud to have rejected). I'm saying that the war which was regarded as an ATROCITY which MUST END NOW by teaming throngs of silver-haired protesters every single day on the busy corner near my home, which is still going on (and still drawing down in Iraq on the same time-table... while escalating in Afghanistan), is suddenly no big deal and not worth standing around with a cardboard sign over anymore.

If I were a cynical person, I would suspect that the motivation for many of these "war protesters" was entirely about getting their favorite party elected, and not really about the war at all. Now that their guy is finally in office, what's a few dead soldiers?

Re:Bankruptcy, not bailout

[freedom_india]

Why would the banks be forced to restructure when they own the place?
If i own a Bank, i own a few borrowers.
If i own a Congress, i own the the population.
Seriously, do you think any of the congressmen and senators would have even allowed a proposal to force any [campaign donating] bank to restructure?
That would involve truthful declarations, risk-based investments, etc., all of which would result in no donations to congressmen.
Its a symbiotic relationship. Banks need to maintain status quo, congressmen need money [more than oxygen].

Re:Bankruptcy, not bailout

[Anonymous Coward]

"But he doesn't have that dopey smirk or stupid-sounding Texas drawl, so I guess it's all good, right?"
Not really ... I voted for him, and I'm disappointed. Disappointed and not angry because I don't feel that the actions are malevolent, exactly .. something I very strongly felt was the case with Bush.

Re:Bankruptcy, not bailout

[Anonymous Coward]

You seem to forget too soon yourself. The banks "screwed" themselves at the insistence of the government, thanks to Clinton's credit reform, and the Federal Reserves' meddling. The government was interfering in every section of the economy, demanding that banks make loans they knew were not good. We must also not forget the people who accepted these loans, knowing full well it was too good to be true, some of them probably never even planning to replay them in the first place. I know, everyone wants to blame "big" banks, and "evil" CEOs, but no one held a gun to people's heads and made them agree to a variable rate loan that they could not pay if it changed even 1/8th of a percent. No one threatened to break their legs if they didn't take out 2 lines of credit on their homes to go on vacations or buy a new car (what's the math on 5% for 30 years or 8% for 6 years?). The banks were pimped out by Congress, Clinton, and Bush.......and the people showed up to get the merchandise, who's innocent here? Oh, right, it's the people that bought houses within their price ranges, didn't spend money they don't have, and pay their bills on time.

You're last sentence is gibberish, bankruptcy protection is when you go into bankruptcy. GM was purchased by the government, to save the Unions and make sure their free ride doesn't end. You want people to stop spitting on the auto companies so that you can spit on the banks. How many GM executives are giving up their salaries and bonuses?

Over the past 13 years, I have bought 7 Chevrolet vehicles, 3 of them Camaros.........I will never buy another one as long as they are funded by legalized theft in the form of taxes on my labors.

Missing option

[furby076]

It needs to randomly spout out short music clips.

Automotive Stories

[dcollins]

"Automotive stories are few and far between on Slashdot..."

What? Slashdot is like the information superhighway itself, where every story that passes by is expressed in terms of a car analogy.

I wanted a camaro...got a Scooter...

[jameskojiro]

I wanted a camaro but all my family was able to afford was something that was 100 bucks so I got a Scooter.

Damned annoying Go-bot that can only tell knock-knock jokes.....

not bublebee

[conspirator57]

bubblebee was a bug. camaro ftl.

Re:not bublebee

[fractoid]

This. A thousand times this.

What also really annoyed me was the kid's attitude, in both movies. "I'm 17 and I've never had a real job. Oh, yeah, this is my first car. It's a 2010 Camaro. Yeah, maybe 350hp at the wheels. Nah, I know, it's a piece of junk." What. the. FUCK. is wrong with this kid? A brand new muscle car just JUMPS into his lap and he's like "meh, who cares". Seriously. Make him drive a fkn Geo Metro for three years so he knows how good he has it.

In fact on second grumpy thoughts, that applies to all you Americans. $30k US (that's what, like, $35k Australian these days?) for a 400hp V8 muscle car? We pay that for a fuckin' Camry. The cheapest half-decent 'sports' car would probably be the Ford XR6 Turbo which goes for what, $70k new? How the hell do you get such nice cars so cheap? :/ No wonder all your car companies are folding. Grrargh. **CARNERDRAGE** :P

Re:not bublebee

[Anonymous Coward]

... wait ... you have cars in Australia now?

Re:not bublebee

[smudge]

In fact on second grumpy thoughts, that applies to all you Americans. $30k US (that's what, like, $35k Australian these days?) for a 400hp V8 muscle car? We pay that for a fuckin' Camry.

Americans would have to pay $30K for a Camry too. Of course, we could then afford insurance and gas for the Camry. I can't IMAGINE the insurance on a hot camero for a 17 year old boy.

Re:not bublebee

[conspirator57]

apparently my 'm' key was dysfunctional. or i was. whatev. bumblebee wasn't a freakin camaro.

Re:not bublebee

[Anonymous Coward]

The Camaro SS is actually about $45,000 at a dealership due to the demand. You can obtain a BMW 335i for about the same price brand new at a BMW dealership. The 335i is faster and it's a BMW ffs.

The Camaro is an extremely bad value.

Re:not bublebee

[Anonymous Coward]

some of us want more diesel cars that get better fuel economy yet dont skimp on performance (twin turbos are nice).

i'll never own a v8 gas powered vehicle, and doubt i'd ever need a v8 diesel.

Re:not bublebee

[fractoid]

The '8' in a V8 refers to the fact that it has eight kangaroos tied to the engine block kicking the crankshaft. The 'V' refers to the fact that they run on VB. Likewise your F150 utes run on Fosters, I'll never understand why you still fall for that.

Sometimes if we want to go very fast we feed them Bundy but after about a mile the male kangaroos stop kicking the crankshaft and start kicking the female kangaroos. :(

Re:not bublebee

[fractoid]

I guess my gripe is that sure, we pay the same for a Jap family car as you guys do, but if we want something with a bit of pep we're out of luck. Then again our government would put a speed limiter on a Zimmer frame so I guess it's regulations related.

Re:not bublebee

[Anonymous Coward]

In fact on second grumpy thoughts, that applies to all you Americans. $30k US (that's what, like, $35k Australian these days?) for a 400hp V8 muscle car? We pay that for a fuckin' Camry. The cheapest half-decent 'sports' car would probably be the Ford XR6 Turbo which goes for what, $70k new? How the hell do you get such nice cars so cheap? :/ No wonder all your car companies are folding. Grrargh. **CARNERDRAGE** :P

The irony being, the Camaro in question was designed by Holden in Australia.

Re:not bublebee

[Anonymous Coward]

Your language is revolting!!

Re:not bublebee

[MBGMorden]

I can't IMAGINE the insurance on a hot camero for a 17 year old boy.

Whether or not you consider it honest or not (IMHO it's just a loophole to take advantage of), many people do as follows: you setup your insurance policy with specific drivers in the house listed as the "primary" driver on one car or another, but all drivers are covered on any of your vehicles. So regardless of who is primary on what, everyone can drive all the cars, but the rates are set by primary driver.

So what you do is you list your 17 year old as the primary on one of the parent's cars. When I was 17 I had a Camaro, but my mother was listed as the primary driver. My dad was listed as the primary driver on my mom's older Nissan Sentra, and I was listed as primary on my dad's 15 year old beater pickup truck (my dad drove a company car to work and back so the truck was just for his weekend hunting/fishing trips). Everything stays legally covered that way but the rates stay cheaper.

Re:not bublebee

[Anonymous Coward]

f off smeg

But Will It Last?

[blueZhift]

As tempting, as a longtime Camaro owner, as this is, I'm more concerned about whether the new Camaro is a durable, high quality product. I generally try to stay away from version 1.0 of anything, especially GM these days. Now don't get me wrong, my 98 Camaro has on the whole been a surprisingly good car, but it does have it's quirks as it approaches 100K miles. My much younger 03 Venture though is almost a total lemon...so I'm going slow on any more GM for now...

It should be free...

[Anonymous Coward]

... Seeing as MY money went towards this crap, it should at least be free. Fucking GM.

Better deal

[chord.wav]

Not to offend Megan Fox, but I think you could have her (or the desperate-for-sex decepticon chic) for one night for less than that.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Priorities?

[stewbacca]

So in the midst of bankruptcy, what better way to boost the bottom line than to offer a $1000 "visual package" gimmick? Hey GM, how about concentrating on making cars that are AT LEAST as reliable as those from South Korea first, THEN play with your marketing money once you pay back the federal government?