MT: Challenger and Camaro face a case of bad timing

[Scotsman]

Originally Posted by TheMadHatter99

It's hard to argue with a lot of his points and frankly I'm not sure I disagree with him. I've had a feeling for a while now that we'll see the Camaro for a couple years and then sales will dwindle and GM will cut it yet again.

Within the rant lies the solution:

"I've suggested in the past that the Camaro, at least, could switch to the coming Alpha small rear-drive platform after the new one's product cycle runs out about 2015 or '16. But that platform, being developed to give Cadillac a BMW 3 Series-fighter, is probably too costly for a Chevrolet.

Now please tell me, why would Alpha be any more expensive for Chevrolet if Cadillac and itself are owned by the same company??? That makes NO sense. This writer is just another hater of all cars domestic, and he lives here. Shame.

Ironically, the proposed new CAFE standards don't necessarily encourage such downsizing, anyway. The standard classifies car sizes by "footprint," or the space between tire patches. In other words, wheelbase and front/rear track. Replace the Camaro with a car on a smaller platform and CAFE would require a higher mpg standard, anyway."

This guy must have hit the snooze button on GM's latest powertrain tech. With their new engines there's no reason why GM shouldn't be able to make mid-size RWD cars fuel efficent. Mark my words, it will happen. It's quite simple, either GM will rise to the occasion and adapt to new trends and standards or they will continue to run when things get a little hard. A company as big and as profitable as GM opting for the ladder strategy is simply inexcusable regardless of the cost.

[Mr. Wyndham]

Originally Posted by Scotsman

This guy must have hit the snooze button on GM's latest powertrain tech. With their new engines there's no reason why GM shouldn't be able to make mid-size RWD cars fuel efficent. Mark my words, it will happen. It's quite simple, either GM will rise to the occasion and adpat to new trends and standards or they will continue to run when things get too hard. A company as big and profitable as GM opting for the ladder strategy is simply inexcusable regardless of the cost.

Actually...the biased writer made a decent point. (I must've glazed over that part the first time through...)

Due to the rules of the CAFE standard, smaller wheelbase vehicles would be required ot meet higher standards than those with bigger "footprints". I believe it was intended to make it more fair for, say Impalas, to meet the requirement, when little things like the Aveo won't have any trouble doing it (Not all cars are equally capable of 35mpg). But now, makers like Porche need to get their cars to meet 40+mpg, because the dang things are so small!!

So technically, if GM put better engines into a Zeta Camaro, it might prove easier to reach the mpg standards, than if they did the same with a small-wheelbase Alpha platform. However, this is all moot if Alpha's wheelbase is anywhere near as big as Zeta's. Supposedly its wheels are "pushed to the corners".

[Scotsman]

Originally Posted by Dragoneye

Actually...the biased writer made a decent point. (I must've glazed over that part the first time through...)

At the least -1mpg? Come on now.... Of course the wheels will be pushed out to the max on Alpha, look at Zeta!