[RocktimusPryme]

Im sure its hella fun to drive. I still say for that price I would rather buy a lightly used CTS V. I mostly chimed in to say I thought the 6 speed version wouldnt appeal to many.

[goatless]

Originally Posted by RocktimusPryme

I thought the 6 speed version wouldnt appeal to many.

While you are likely correct, I still find it sad that "car people" feel this way. The six speed is one of the things that would actually draw me to this car (despite its rental car appearance. ) I've always owned at least one car with a clutch pedal since I started driving. Manual trans cars are getting harder to come by everyday now. As soon as we sell my wires old car we will be clutch-less. Her new car was only available as an automatic.


The problem with the SS as I see it- It is a very capable car, especially for the money. There is very little else that can do what it does anywhere close to that price range. BUT...very few people actually buy a car for it's capabilities. They buy for the image it projects. There is no status to be had with a Chevy sedan.

[Overkillphil]

Not sure where that odd thinking comes from but someone not liking something does not mean they are "out of touch with current offerings".

"Opinions vary" in this world and some of us feel the car is ugly and the styling is typical elcheapo, outdated Chevy dollar store packaging. Despite them being handed a nice looking Pontiac G8 and having several years (and I'm being generous with the time) to take it to the next level regarding styling, they instead turn it into something that looks like a warmed over vanilla envelope Chevy fleet car.

I'm sure the performance is great and it has much of the latest goodies that "shoppers" want. But it seems like one of those cars the user has to constantly make excuses for. The G8 deserved better.

Thankfully, it appears to be soon put out of its misery.

[bird72]

Was hoping they had SS pictures but all I could see were these shots of some 4 door sedan looking thing that looked like a bunch of other generic cars these days. I am out of touch on new cars so what do I know....

[Will]

Originally Posted by bird72

Was hoping they had SS pictures but all I could see were these shots of some 4 door sedan looking thing that looked like a bunch of other generic cars these days. I am out of touch on new cars so what do I know....

Other than the "retro" styled offerings of GM, Ford, and Chrysler they all look the same. I think that's all you need to know.

Yeah, the SS has fairly generic styling, but IMO it's a lot cleaner and easier to look at than some of the competition. It's not an ugly car, it just doesn't stand out. In short it's a sleeper, kind of like a 340 Dart or Nova SS back in the day. Why does every performance oriented vehicle have to be a caricature of some car from 50 years ago?

[The Champ]

Originally Posted by Will

Why does every performance oriented vehicle have to be a caricature of some car from 50 years ago?

IMO - they don't.

But to some grumpy old men, evidently they do...

[72projectbird]

Man some of you are harsh on the poor ol' car!

Its nice to see a big V8 rwd car being made again! Im just glad that Chevy didn't name in the Chevelle and ruin the name.

[RocktimusPryme]

Originally Posted by 72projectbird

Its nice to see a big V8 rwd car being made again! Im just glad that Chevy didn't name in the Chevelle and ruin the name.

I couldnt agree more there!

The new Chargers are really nice cars. I had one as a rental. But man I wish it werent called a Charger. Too many doors.

[Sirrotica]

Originally Posted by 72projectbird

Man some of you are harsh on the poor ol' car!

Its nice to see a big V8 rwd car being made again! Im just glad that Chevy didn't name in the Chevelle and ruin the name.

I believe chevy already did that, does Malibu ring a bell? Another name for the chevelle...................

Just for grins, Chevy was really POed that Pontiac got a RWD 4 passenger performance car in 2004 and took a GTO and did an engineering exercise of a chevelle on the GTO/Monaro car. Because Holden could only produce so many units for the US market and Pontiac had already spoken for those cars chevy was never going to get any RWD chevelle/malibu RWD performance cars. It's not because chevy didn't want the GTO/ Monaro bodystyle, it's just that there was no way Holden could produce that many cars for the US market. I believe it was Car Craft or Hot Rod that had an article showing the chevy version of the chevelle on a Monaro/GTO RWD platform. It was retail red with black skunk stripes.





Now with Pontiac gone chevy can have their Holden built platform, only thing is the packaged it so poorly and priced it so high, no one seems to want one except the police departments. There was talk of the SS being offered to police departments as cruisers, not sure what happened to that proposal.

The down under police used the GTO/Holden cars as cruisers:

[Sirrotica]

Why does every performance oriented vehicle have to be a caricature of some car from 50 years ago?

That's a great question!!!!!

Everyone thought the retro mustang was a great idea until it came time to update it. Ford had no where to go with it and ended up with the 2015 version of a 69 car. Aesthetically (to me) it doesn't look nearly as good as the 2005 did. Sales of the Mustang have dropped off steadily since 2005.

Crapmaro, proves chevy fans will buy anything with a bowtie on it, or maybe not as the SS isn't selling, In my eyes it's a fail............

Chevy felt no need to retro style their flagship performance car (corvette). So much for the need of old looking, new performance cars. The corvette seems to need no retro shot in the arm to sell well.

Challenger, compared to the originals it was intended to look like, it's 4300# overweight and over sized. Seeing the original next to the retro version shows how large the retro version is. Same basically underneath as the charger 4 door "muscle car"...................

Chrysler will have the same problem in the near future updating a retro car. Where do you go with it? When you mess with the headlights, taillights, and grille trying to keep the same body lines it ends up looking pretty hideous. Ford has already tried that plan with the mustang. In the long run a retro car ends up painting the manufacturer into a corner, with no graceful exit.

The chevy SS (G8 wannabe) has had really poor sales since it's introduction. Approximately 2500 units in 2014. The G8 sold over 4 times as many cars, as did the GTOs 2004-2006. I never want to hear that the (limited production) GTO/G8 was a sales failure after the chevy SS that was much better promoted than the GTO/G8 was, fell far short of both the GTOs and G8 sales. All 3 limited production cars built by Holden division of GM. When all is said and done the chevy SS in 3 years won't outsell one year of GTO/G8 sales.

The GTO was to gain foot traffic into showrooms and celebrate the 40th GTO anniversary, and it did that. Not everyone looking for a car is going to buy a GTO. They can afford to look at one, and then buy something more affordable/practical from Pontiac dealers. The SS will probably serve the same purpose, to gain showroom traffic and down sell a lesser priced car.