GM to drop Chevrolet brand in Europe!!

[The_Blur]

Originally Posted by MrWray

I am not bashing european countries in any way, so I apologize if anyone thinks so. Im just talking about the appeal of our vehicles, europe and america have always had their own standards when It comes to vehicles, good or bad. I just feel that if we continue to try and pacify a world market that it will affect the appeal to certain vehicles.I dont think that we should stop sending american cars to european countries, but to just stop trying to conform to european styling

Its hard for me to explain what im trying to say in text form

I understand what you're trying to say. I tend to agree. You don't see BMW or VW significantly changing their cars for the US. A Beetle is a Beetle all over the world, and that Beetle is distinctly German. Why should the Camaro be anything less than distinctly American?

Of course, I also understand that millions of dollars in research go into demographic research, and I'm just a humble car buyer. What do I know? I certainly can't tell you what I would buy if I were Japanese or British or French.

[Macina]

Well, i do understand i think. And the American muscle car look is what made me walk in to my chevy dealer and order my camaro! But at the same time many of the American car manufacturers depend on beeing able to compete with european and asian manufacturers on this global market. I mean after the crisis in 08 fiat now is the biggest shareholder in Chrysler (bought 2012).. They even call the Chrysler 300, lancia something something over here. Maybe thats a reminder of what happens if you dont please the "world" buyers..? Even so, as i said, the American muscle look is why i bought the camaro! Wouldn't want it to look european... Bah! Dont know where im going with this.. to late, time to sleep!

[90503]

I think to complain about "European styling" on "American" cars at this point really serves no purpose....Imported European cars to the US have enjoyed a remarkable success from US buyers...So much time has passed since the acceptance in the US marketplace for European cars, and their styling, that to try to intentionally avoid it in US car styling would be not only impossible, but suicidal for US car makers....

[Macina]

And i love the 2014 refresh! Dont think i would have been happy if i bought a earlier model! Just looks so mean!

[Angrybird 12]

I guess people forgot the second gen Camaro was euro inspired... 43 years ago.

[G-Oil Guy]

God the "MURICA F*CK YEA" mentality in this thread is a little much.

[Mikes SS]

I don't know what to say but here goes...the license plate area on the '14 refresh is definitely European oriented or why else would it be so big? So I can see both sides of the arguement, it saves GM tooling costs to have one rear fascia si I can see it from their perspective.

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by MrWray

Apparently you did miss something, did you not read the very first post by the OP? and im talking about all this euro influenced crap that the auto makers are doing, it seems like there is a trend going on now where they are making vehicles with subtle euro styling trying to pacify a "world" market instead of an "American" market, and if they keep going this route in the coming years that our vehicles will look more european and lose alot of the american appeal.

Yes, I did read the OP. And every other post in this thread. I've also read the press release from the GM media site that all this is based off of.

But I'm not entirely sure that the OP read the press release because it never said this:

Only the corvette will be sent to Europe from now on.

The closest is when they said that they will "tailor [Chevrolets] presence to offering select iconic vehicles -such as the Corvette" in the 2nd paragraph. But they said vehicles and I don't know what else would qualify as iconic besides the Camaro.

So whatever your fears of a Euro Camaro, they shouldn't be diminished by this.

On the other hand, I don't have a clue where those fears are even coming from. Nothing on the Camaro today looks European. 2nd Gen? Sure. 3rd? Nope. 4th? Not really. 5th? Absolutely not. So there is no 'trend' towards European styling on the Camaro.

Beyond that, we haven't seen anything at all of the 6th gen. I haven't even heard GM whisper a single word about what the 6th gen will look like. So we have nothing at all what-so-ever to claim that it is, or will be, (or won't be) influenced by European design ideas.

Which brings me to something else ... would it be such a terrible thing if the Camaro borrowed a little bit from, say Lamborghini? I ask because Lambos are undeniably European, but they don't really look anything at all like say a Fiat Multipla. And there are already some general similarities between the 5th gen Camaros & current Lamborghinis, stylistically at least. They both feature hard edges leading to an almost faceted exterior. The cars are so bold & brash that its almost cartoonish. And that is precisely what people love about them. Its also what people hate about them. But the point is, you can't really use 'European' as some sort of catch all term to describe styling. Compare Lamborghini, Fiat, Jaguar, and a Volvo. All are European, none look at all similar. And if you are concerned about Chevy's looking like Fiats, well thats more of a problem for Dodge.



On the larger issue of global vehicles ... there is a huge difference between a Cruze & a Camaro. A Cruze has to be economical transportation and appeal to everyone who is looking for that. To do so, you have to make certain compromises. Camaros don't have that problem. If someone outside of North America wants a Camaro, they want it for the exact same reasons that you want it: they want a badass American muscle car. Making the car look more mainstream for the Belgians or Slovakians or whoever would probably backfire.

[CamaroJoe96]

I don't understand why this seems to be a "good" thing... The more cars GM sells, the better for the company. Nobody wants to go back to the "government motors" jokes again... Pulling away from Europe can only hurt us IMO

[FenwickHockey65]

Originally Posted by CamaroJoe96

I don't understand why this seems to be a "good" thing... The more cars GM sells, the better for the company. Nobody wants to go back to the "government motors" jokes again... Pulling away from Europe can only hurt us IMO

Because the Chevrolet brand has been more of a liability in Europe than an asset.

Remember that GM has Opel/Vauxhall in the European market as well. They were trying to position Chevrolet as the entry-level brand beneath them but Opel/Vauxhall have traditionally been the Chevrolets of Europe. As a result they competed for the same consumers who went to Opel/Vauxhall much more than Chevrolet. Chevrolet sales in Europe have always been dismal because of that.

Pulling Chevrolet out just strengthens those two existing brands, who are way more popular in the first place.

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by FenwickHockey65

Because the Chevrolet brand has been more of a liability in Europe than an asset.

Remember that GM has Opel/Vauxhall in the European market as well. They were trying to position Chevrolet as the entry-level brand beneath them but Opel/Vauxhall have traditionally been the Chevrolets of Europe. As a result they competed for the same consumers who went to Opel/Vauxhall much more than Chevrolet. Chevrolet sales in Europe have always been dismal because of that.

Pulling Chevrolet out just strengthens those two existing brands, who are way more popular in the first place.

And Opel & Vauxhaul are probably a lot harder for GM to kill off in Europe than Chevy is.

[meissen]

Originally Posted by Angrybird 12

I guess people forgot the second gen Camaro was euro inspired... 43 years ago.

To most people on this site, the Camaro was invented in 2006. There is no history of the Camaro prior to then.

[ThingFish]

Good grief, it's like a meeting of the bizzaro Jeremy Clarkson club in here.

So the Camaro is somehow too "Euro?" Put a small four banger diesel with a 4,000 rpm redline at 60hp with a four speed manual transmission in it, then maybe we can start to talk of it as "Euro."

You wanna see Chevrolet's idea of "Euro" design? Here it is--

[ssrs2lt]

I knew this thread would blow up, especially the Chevy defenders vs non defenders or whatever role each side plays. What was NOT in the article was how the Chevy pullout would affect the Camaro design. I would assume Chevy will have LESS income translating into fewer resources which may impact Chevy capabilities.