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Originally Posted by lbls1
One other thing I missed (rather two things); Cruze and Chevy SS. The Chevy 'SS was a remnant of the Holden line that was imported to the US initially as the Pontiac G8. The model IMO was unique in that it missed its target market twice. It missed it with Pontiac because it was not allowed a long enough run for it to get noticed. Additionally, large sedans (even in '07 and '08) was a segment in recession. There were a few players in the market at that time, but in general midsized sedans were current and popular then. The model returned in '14 as a Chevy variant without a proper name. Essentially unchanged except in its grille and cladding. It had advanced safety and luxury features, and roughly $10k higher in price. GM and Chevy didn't intend for it to be a high volume seller, but more as a way of selling out the remainder of the Holden line. Its demise was unfortunate; The car would have done well had it been introduced four or five years prior to its first launch. The car seemed to have had better than average quality, and certainly the v8 version had great power and performance abilities. If it were handled better at that time it would've made a great follow up to the '94-'96 Impala SS. The Chevy 'SS does have a slight following in the resale market, most notable by its unusually high asking price. But just think of how much better it could have performed with a few years in advance of its launch, and perhaps a different take in styling.
Cruze. To this day I can't put a finger on why it failed. Cruze was the last descendant of Chevy's small car segment, punctuated by the once popular Cavalier. Cavaliers were good as average commuting vehicles, but most viewed it as relatively crude and a bit lacking in quality. Chevy renamed its replacement as Cobalt, and at that time it was meant to signal a better quality product. I would assume that Cobalt may not have completely accomplished Chevrolet's goals, as roughly a decade (give or take a year) it was re-packaged and named Cruze. Cruze seemed to have had a decent start as it looked like it was picking up sales. Then a few years later (six or seven years) it was gone as well. It is a mystery to me as why Cruze did not succeed; Even as Chevy's current crossovers are selling well, the absence of one or two of Chevy's former lines leaves it without a good competitor to Toyota and Honda and other smaller companies entries in the small car and midsized sedan segments.
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Back in late 2015 when I decided to place an order for my 2016 Camaro 1SS, the Chevy SS sedan was being heavily discounted. I could have bought what was essentially a luxed up loaded Chevy performance sedan for the same cost of my much less equipped 1SS Camaro. I knew SS was a good performer, but I couldn't get past it's Malibu looks. That and I was pretty damned excited about the new LT1 V8 and the the new 8 speed the Camaro was getting so I went for the Camaro with no thought otherwise.
Now I sometimes wish I had thought harder and realized the SS would be such a rare car (and maybe I should have considered the fact that my family was still growing at the time lol...more room!). With the way I've kept my Camaro, the SS sedan would probably worth somewhere around 50 grand today (based on the last time I checked out used prices on those guys). With some slight performance enhancements here and there, and some mods give it a meaner look the car does look nice. Would be cool to have a "rare gem" like that.
As for the Cruze...I'll just say that I've always like that car and hated to see it go.