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I very nearly bought an SS in the fall right after they came off stop sale due to the seat belt fiasco. I ended up getting a 2SS camaro instead. To be honest with you, I suspect that the build quality and reliability of the SS is probably better than the Camaro. It has been around for longer, older platform, etc. I don't recall there being massive threads of people complaining about the diffs, paint quality, etc. As an overall package, it is also a more utilitarian car than the Camaro by a mile. In some ways, I question whether I should have gone that route instead of the Camaro but there are certainly pros and cons to each option.
Personally, I would at least go test drive one. I think it is a very compelling option for replacing the M5 considering the maintenance cost of those at this time. I currently own an e36 M3, which I plan to sell in the spring, and I am very much aware of the steep upcharge in maintenance for the M5 vs. the much more pedestrian service needs of that generation m3. One thing that I will suggest to you is to carefully consider the manual. The automatic is not nearly as good as the 8 speed in the camaro and I am pretty sure that it doesnt have cylinder deactivation so there is no fuel economy savings to be had with the auto in the SS. I drove a manual and liked it quite a bit.
Part of the reason why I ultimately chose the camaro was because I was going to take some heat from my wife about have 3 manual trans cars that she could not drive since I didnt really want the SS if it had to be an auto. The camaro was a decent compromise since the auto is reasonably good as far as autos go. Of course, she hasnt driven the car once since she is scared to death of it, I think, lol, but that is another story. At least she can drive it if she absolutely has to. There were other factors as well... the audio system is much better in the camaro, for instance, whereas the SS is starting to get a little long in the tooth now. Performance is certainly better as well although the SS is no slouch.
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