It's Official: Imperial Blue to be Discontinued...

[Doc]

Originally Posted by fbodfather

Positive comments in and of themselves do not mean anything.

I recall that I just in the past week adressed someone who was mad as heck that we'd dropped ABM, SGM, and IBM - ............yet the person ordered orange!

Bring me the data that Bright Blue sells on enthusiast cars. (...and for the record, we monitor all color penetrations for just about every car and truck built today...)

This is so very true. I remember when you guys were first announcing colors before the car went into production how there was this big uproar over the lack of blue on the SS; you guys responded with IBM and all these great positive comments were posted. I was one of those voices and ordered mine in IBM sight unseen in May of 2009.

However when the sales figures started coming in, both ABM and IBM were ridiculously low compared to the other colors. People didn't put their money where their mouth was.

Once cars with IBM started being seen I noticed the sales figures started to increase but I truly believe a lot of the low early numbers were the result of the images of the colors portrayed on the ordering website being extremely-off. The blue that was shown when you selected IBM wasn't anywhere close to the actual color. Same with ABM.

Photos of the actual colors under sunlight would have done wonders for some colors. Having said that though, I'm still surprised at the low sales numbers of blue on Camaros.

I still get rubber-necking when I'm out on the roads and people still come up to me at gas stations and such to compliment the car.



I can only imagine what the reaction would be like if it was in this color:



If I had an extra $10k laying around I didn't need I'd get mine repainted in that 566 blue.

Scott if you guys would paint just one ZL1 in that House of Kolor 566 blue, photograph it under good lighting and post it online as a possible "limited run" color, I bet you'd get orders for it. Whether or not you'd get enough orders to justify it I don't know, but if you want me to drive the test car around for ya here in Southern California to advertise it I'm more than willing to volunteer.

[bigd1276]

Doc brings up some very good points. I remember people on here up in arms over the fact that you couldn't get the SS in either blue when the pre-ordering began. Since a majority of those early pre-orders were for the SS I can only imagine people moved on to other colors. Also those early images, especially of ABM were hideous. I remember going to dealer's lots looking at other Chevy models in ABM and there was no resemblence at all to those images online. Many of us, myself included, pre-ordered our Camaros without ever seeing, sitting, or test driving them. Then IBM was on constraint for the longest time. When it finally came off constraint it was announced as being discontinued. I did a search for a 2SS within 100 miles of where I live. Out of the 50 cars that I found, there was only 1 IBM. Can't sell em if you don't make em!

[Camaro68]

Glad I was able to get one of the blue, awesome color going away.
Maybe next year, Jetstream blue.

[george]

So my dealer told me that the ABM will not get anything more than wholesale if I trade it in for the ZL1, which at this point is somewhere around 28-29K. He recommends I sell privately if I think it may be worth more. I'll keep you posted as to how this goes, but my hunch is I will not get anything more. Regards.

[ZoMBiE_KMF]

I think it would be cool if they started making a blue that was somewhere in between ABM and IBM.

[Txbatman]

Originally Posted by P3SAR

Glad I got mine before it was discontinued

[Cezr12]

Originally Posted by fbodfather

Positive comments in and of themselves do not mean anything.

I recall that I just in the past week adressed someone who was mad as heck that we'd dropped ABM, SGM, and IBM - ............yet the person ordered orange!

Bring me the data that Bright Blue sells on enthusiast cars. (...and for the record, we monitor all color penetrations for just about every car and truck built today...)

Sorry about that I didn't mean to sound overly mad or offensive. The IOM is my Dad's though...one day he just went to the neighboring city of Las Cruces to a dealership and came home with it which was kinda shocking lol

[DerbyChamp06]

HERE'S HOPING FOR A HAPPY NEW-BLUE YEAR!!!

[bigd1276]

Originally Posted by fbodfather

I think you're jumping to conclusions...........that's never a good idea.

IBM is still available......let's see what happens in the next couple of weeks.......

We're past that next couple of weeks mark. Where do we stand with a blue to replace IBM??

[BowtieBelle]

Originally Posted by bigd1276

We're past that next couple of weeks mark. Where do we stand with a blue to replace IBM??

Sent from my iPad

[ken_sch]

Love my IBM!!! Rarity factor goes up big time!!!

[Blitz]

Originally Posted by bigd1276

We're past that next couple of weeks mark. Where do we stand with a blue to replace IBM??

Blue Topaz Metallic looks like a possibility, but I would want to see it in person. Heck, the Camaro already shares the same steering wheel.

[Blitz]

Originally Posted by fbodfather

Positive comments in and of themselves do not mean anything.

I recall that I just in the past week adressed someone who was mad as heck that we'd dropped ABM, SGM, and IBM - ............yet the person ordered orange!

Bring me the data that Bright Blue sells on enthusiast cars. (...and for the record, we monitor all color penetrations for just about every car and truck built today...)

I would be curious to see the numbers that show percentage wise how many buyers order 'enthusiast' colors like Orange, Blue, Yellow, etc vs. what dealerships order for their lot and in turn sell. I would like to believe that IF dealers ordered more IBM or ABM that it would sell, but dealers play it safe and go with Red, Black, White. Again, not disputing anything said, but I would be curious to see the numbers.

My local Chevy dealer rarely if ever has an IOM on their lot that they ordered that way but look how many are out there from customers orders. Just an example. I do think a good looking blue would sell if given a chance on the lot for people to see.

Just as one lonely data point, I personally had IBM as my #2 choice but didn't like how dark it was. Sure IOM is very different from blue, but if ABM or another blue was out there, I may have gone that direction.

[SummoneR]

No joke every day I drive my car I get compliments on it.

Everyone says "I love your car!" followed by, "I love the color!!" or some variation of that.

Every time I go to the nearest Chevy dealer the sales men come out asking if I had it custom painted. They are obviously new because they had never seen an ABM. I had a guy today say "Nice color! That's not a factory color is it?" I replied it sure is, only 3900 of them are this color. It was an early production color. A girl in a Charger sped up to pass me on the road today just to flail her hands all over yelling "I LOVE YOUR CAR!! BEAUTIFUL COLOR!!" and two girls in a new VW bug did a very similar thing, waived their hands gave me two thumbs up and yelled Awesome color! Love your car! Every drive through I go through I get complements on the car, then the color. I had a total of 5 people today alone complement me on both in one way or another. Sometimes it's just a thumbs up, but if they can yell out to me they mention the color haha.

So IMHO ABM was cut WAY too soon, and now IBM. To lose all blues is a tragedy.

I do like the Topaz Metallic on the Cruze. But really ABM and IBM had something extra in them on the Camaro! On other vehicles it was kind of fugly for some odd reason. Perhaps that is why it can't share this color with the other models in the factory.