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Transformers Special Edition Chevy Camaro Unveiled

Posted by samzenpus on from the nerds-roll-out dept.

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."

47 of 299 comments (clear)

  1. Damn... by thatkid_2002 · · Score: 5, Funny

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

  2. And they wonder why..... by Immostlyharmless · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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. Re:And they wonder why..... by freedom_india · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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."

      --
      "Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
    2. Re:And they wonder why..... by DarkNinja75 · · Score: 3, Informative

      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.

    3. Re:And they wonder why..... by MrMista_B · · Score: 2, Insightful

      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.

    4. Re:And they wonder why..... by BitZtream · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

      --
      Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
    5. Re:And they wonder why..... by arizonagroovejet · · Score: 2, Interesting

      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.

    6. Re:And they wonder why..... by catxk · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

      --
      Don't be crazy anymore!
    7. Re:And they wonder why..... by bitrex · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

    8. Re:And they wonder why..... by somersault · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

      --
      which is totally what she said
    9. Re:And they wonder why..... by Paltin · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

    10. Re:And they wonder why..... by OrangeTide · · Score: 2, Insightful

      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.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    11. Re:And they wonder why..... by JWSmythe · · Score: 5, Insightful

          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.

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    12. Re:And they wonder why..... by jcr · · Score: 2, Insightful

      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

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    13. Re:And they wonder why..... by jcr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    14. Re:And they wonder why..... by jellomizer · · Score: 2, Informative

      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.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    15. Re:And they wonder why..... by wisty · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

    16. Re:And they wonder why..... by Sporkinum · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

      --
      "He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
    17. Re:And they wonder why..... by rohan972 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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."

      --
      http://marriedmansexlife.com/
    18. Re:And they wonder why..... by SydShamino · · Score: 2, Informative

      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.

      --
      It doesn't hurt to be nice.
  3. I must say... by cosmotron · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    --
    Ryan - http://www.thecosmotron.com/
  4. I don't get it by The+Creator · · Score: 5, Funny

    Can someone explain it to me with a robot analogy?

    --

    FRA: STFU GTFO
    1. Re:I don't get it by CarpetShark · · Score: 2, Funny

      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.

    2. Re:I don't get it by brianc · · Score: 4, Funny

      Can someone explain it to me with a robot analogy?

      Bite my shiny metal ass!

      --


      SIGLOST && SIGUNUSED && SIGQUIT
  5. Shouldn't they pay you ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... to advertise a franchise?

  6. $995 for by hebetudinous_rectum · · Score: 5, Funny

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

  7. Yawn... by SmlFreshwaterBuffalo · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

  8. Usually when people buy sports cars... by Procasinator · · Score: 4, Funny

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

    1. Re:Usually when people buy sports cars... by jellomizer · · Score: 2, Insightful

      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.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  9. Its only a collector's item.... by KneelBeforeZod · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you keep it in the box.

  10. About the picture by noddyxoi · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  11. New Camaro is, but the Challenger looks better! by tetrahedrassface · · Score: 4, Informative
    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. :)

    1. Re:New Camaro is, but the Challenger looks better! by SerpentMage · · Score: 2

      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!!!!!

      --

      "You can't make a race horse of a pig"
      "No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
  12. couldn't be worse by dltaylor · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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

    1. Re:couldn't be worse by Locklin · · Score: 2, Interesting

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

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

      --
      "Knowledge is the only instrument of production that is not subject to diminishing returns" -Journal of Political Econom
  13. $1000 for some stickers? help me here... by fantomas · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  14. Sounds cool . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    But does the radio work properly?

  15. In related news by SpaghettiPattern · · Score: 3, Funny

    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....

    --

    I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
  16. STEAL ME. by Civil_Disobedient · · Score: 2, Funny

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

  17. Re:How long did they take to get this out? by Remus+Shepherd · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

    --
    Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
  18. Re:How long did they take to get this out? by jank1887 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    but does it come with Ms. Fox?

  19. Re:How long did they take to get this out? by thpdg · · Score: 2, Informative

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

    --

    -Patrick

    "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

  20. Re:But who wants a Daewoo Camaro by ageoffri · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

    --
    -- Slashdot, making the Left look conservative since 1997.
  21. Bankruptcy, not bailout by Halotron1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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!

    1. Re:Bankruptcy, not bailout by Golias · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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?

      --

      Information wants to be anthropomorphized.

  22. Re:not bublebee by fractoid · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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

    --
    Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
  23. Re:How long did they take to get this out? by Pence128 · · Score: 2, Insightful

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

    --
    404: sig not found.