NC01TA

Went to the 2012 Motor Trend Auto Show in Greenville, SC yesterday to test drive the 2012 Camaro SS. While I was very impressed with it, especially after driving the disappointing hemi Charger (way too big and sedan-like) I find myself in no rush to run out and spend around $40,000 for one. I imagine I would feel otherwise if my Ls1 car was in rough shape with 6 figures on the odometer, but the Camaro just isn't that thrilling or that much of an improvement to make the purchase. I know I'm late to the game to observe this but many Ls1 owners are quite right about keeping their current F-bodies. These cars are a minimum of 10 years old now and I still have respect for them. Outside of the few issues that crop up, and the new Camaro will have them too over time, GM did a good job with these.

DarkFox118

iTrader: (7)

My camaro IS in rough shape with 6 figures on the odometer, and I wouldn't drop $40k on one either. I mean, at the end of the day it's paid off ya know? In order to have that much in my car i'd have to drop an additional $30k into it, and I imagine at that point it'd probably hold it's own pretty well against a 2012, no matter how many miles are on the body.

I would drop $30k on a used c6 though.. but I mean.. c'mon.. it's a c6.. it's just a better platform.. and I imagine it's going to hold it's value better than the camaro.

sure, the rs/ss and the zl1 will hold it's value well over time, and may even climb in ~20 years after the initial depreciation when collectors and enthusiasts start buying them up at discounted rates, but the flood of v6s and base models in the market are going to make the body itself easy to come by, and just like now when a v6 is just a few upgrades away from being a v8 as well.. the availability will surpress the value.

I test drove one back in 09, an rs/ss. I was impressed with the performance, but it felt like a huge car, and was very hard to see out of. The charger felt like a crown vic to me. I wasn't impressed at all with those.

BOBS99SS

iTrader: (2)

honest i drove one and the one thing i was not impressed with was the performance, its a better car for a dd but i felt it was a quick dd, i felt it was a major downgrade in performance over my 99 ss, yes its modded but still im not droping that kind of cash just for that, i would much rather pick up a c5z ,base c6 before i even thought of a new camaro

blk/slvr02ss

iTrader: (21)

Yup the car was a big let down to me after having 26 Camaro's and then geting a 2010 Camaro SS M6 and w/ bolt-on's it made 430 rwhp but still felt to heavy so i bought a LS-3 C6 and love it !

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

I felt the same way after test driving a 5th gen back in 2009. At the time, my '02 car only had about ~70k miles, but I was very happy to jump back in it on my way home from the dealer that day. Even now that my '02 has 102k miles, I'm still happier with it than the 5th gen.

It's far more likely that my '02 Z28 will eventually be traded for a '11+ Mustang or an LS2/3 C6 (or even a C5 I guess). Any of those is more interesting to me than the new Camaro.

NC01TA

I would have loved to test drive one of the new 5.0L Mustangs but Ford didn't have any test drives at the show. I liked the SS a lot but wonder if the Mustang feels even better. I believe it is lighter which is important to me. I hate going to dealerships, especially Ford ones, to just test drive with no intention of buying at the moment. I'll drive one eventually. I had a bad case of 'sticker shock' too as my wife drove a fully loaded Fiat 500 'vert that costs $26,000! I could get a MINT sub 10,000 miles 2002 Trans Am C/E for that same $$.