A few words on the Camaro...interior-wise...

[Mr. Wyndham]

This post is concerning the interior and driving experience of the Camaro. Not the performance...or the good looks, because we know how that goes already.

I had the distinct pleasure of taking the car out for a test drive today. A dealer actually used that V6 allocation like they were supposed to!!
(I also managed my way into a 2010 Mustang for Comparison's sake)

It was an IOM car...2LT auto.

Real quick -- I visited both cars within 5 minutes of each other. The Camaro looks no bigger in person to me than the Mustang. Blockier, more chisled and muscle-y? yeah...but not physically bigger by any strech.

Let's start with the Interior and all its glory...this catastrophic issue with material quality I keep reading about? Is absolutely baseless. That's about as blunt as I can be. Completely, 100% nonsense. The interior IS mostly plastic. But here's the thing....it's not 'cheap' plastic, by any means. This car utilizes very high-end plastics. Someone commented on it feeling like a basketball. I totally agree. There's a suppleness to the material that obliterates any notion of cheapness. Plus, this interior is ROCK-SOLID...nothing squeaks, nothing rattles, and there's such a robustness to it, I wonder if the panels aren't 1/2 inch thick...INCREDIBLE build quality.

You can certainly take issue with it being plastic at all. Please do; criticism breeds improvement, and there's room for it, as with anything. But stop calling it 'cheap', because it's a ridiculous allegation.........................

------Mustang side-note------
The 2010 Mustang Interior looks absolutely BEAUTIFUL in pictures. Just gorgeous. The backlit "MUSTANG" logo on the door sill looks wicked in those same pictures. And we're fed this story of supple "soft"-touch materials and "real aluminum".

Utterly and completely deceiving. The Mustang's interior is very nice in person. I haven't a complaint against it besides being too 'normal'...and that's simply personal taste. But "soft" touch dash? Are you kidding?!?! I thought it was made of the same stuff the Camaro is made of at first (same basketball feel). But you have to press so hard against it with your finger to get any notion of "soft"...I had a dimple in my thumb from doing it! So...unless you're face is slammed into it during a collision, there's no aesthetic, or feel-good advantage to this material at all, imo.

The lighting on the door sills, something I was actually excited to see....a gimmick, and nothing more -- I didn't notice they were on until the sales rep mentioned it as a selling point. (And it was cloudy and rainy at the time, so no comments here about being too sunny and bright...).

As for the rest of the interior...the seats and door panels (faux-leather as opposed to acrylic in the Camaro) were very, very good. Top-notch. But the plastics Ford used were decidedly below the quality of those in the Camaro.

Now...onto the seats.
"Not enough support"..."bad-quality leather".....WHAT?! From experience, now...I felt VERY LITTLE difference in support between the Camaro's seats and the Mustangs...VERY little. Advantage to the Mustang because they were a little stiffer. I'm 6'-0 and ~180 lbs....there was NO sliding -- and I was expecting...something. Everyone has a specific scenario...but complaints about these seats being unsupportive are, also, baseless imo. To be fair, if you're on the small side, you may experience some wiggling...but "sliding"? Hell no. I don't get it.

Finally, I constantly hear nasty comments about the car's outward visibility...B.S.....in bold, too: B.S. Frontward view is about the same in both cars. Low roofline, skinny windshield, and a big hood buldge robbing you of space in BOTH cars...

Side-to-side....I'm afraid I don't see the concern. To be fair, now -- I'm currently driving an '08 Cobalt sedan. When I turn my head roughly 30° in that car, there's a B-piller in my periferal vision, and I cannot see through the rear side window without moving in such a fashion that is dangerous on a public road.

It's the same situation in the Camaro. The door is longer...so I dare to say that driver's side visibility has actually improved for me. However, passenger side view is compromised, and the tiny rear quarter windows aren't of much use. Also, the rear window is on the small side compared to regular cars (and noticeably smaller than the Mustangs, though not by much).

Here's the thing that I feel most writers/commenters are misinterpreting...the experience IS very different from a normal car. The windows are not dangerously skinny as some suggest, but they are skinny. You'll need to get used to this, but visibility is not so terrible that it's difficult to drive. It took me ~1 minute to adjust mirrors and get familiar with the feeling. Visibility is mildly compromised, but NOT an issue AT ALL!!!

I'm sure to piss somebody off...but I finally got to experience these things for myself...and I had to comment. I feel there's some people (like me) that have been misled thanks to a constant smothering of extreme opinions.

My .02. Thanks for reading.

[FenwickHockey65]

Good review. Agreed on all points.

[GoldFire]

Thanks for the review! I'm hoping to get my car tomorrow and this gets me really excited to test all of this stuff out.

[respect is earned]

well after reading this i feel better about the interior. that was my only worry and now you've cleared things up. thanks dragoneye

[KILLER74Z28]

Originally Posted by FenwickHockey65

Good review. Agreed on all points.

X two... Lot of misinformation out there... A lot of “Negative Nancy’s” are going to be surprised when they finally get to see and feel it in person...

[Kyle.Gilmour]

Hell yea Dragon... nice write up... I would expect nothing less from you.. you're always on your A game.. just noticed we joined Camaro5 the same month. Been here a while, but you I don't post as much.. lol

I agree, I have not drove a 5thGen, but sat in 3 at the Austin show AND have had 3 2010 Mustangs as rental cars in the last 4 months. I agree on all your points... although, at night, the light up sill was pretty cool, but a gimmick for sure.

[MaroSS]

Great Review

[Ninjak]

I have to disagree on many of these points, but I am 6'4.

[GoldFire]

It was also especially helpful for me since you are apparently the exact same size as me!

[Black5thgen]

Agree 100%, plus I can drive with my arm on the door sill. I too am 6' and it may be a little awkward feeling at first but I'm used to it and it feels fine.

[Captain Awesome]

Originally Posted by Ninjak

I have to disagree on many of these points, but I am 6'4.

Could you be a little less specific? All your detailed points have confused me.

[bobby35ny]

Originally Posted by Dragoneye

Let's start with the Interior and all its glory...this catastrophic issue with material quality I keep reading about? Is absolutely baseless. That's about as blunt as I can be. Completely, 100% nonsense. The interior IS mostly plastic. But here's the thing....it's not 'cheap' plastic, by any means. This car utilizes very high-end plastics. Someone commented on it feeling like a basketball. I totally agree. There's a suppleness to the material that obliterates any notion of cheapness. Plus, this interior is ROCK-SOLID...nothing squeaks, nothing rattles, and there's such a robustness to it, I wonder if the panels aren't 1/2 inch thick...INCREDIBLE build quality.

You can certainly take issue with it being plastic at all. Please do; criticism breeds improvement, and there's room for it, as with anything. But stop calling it 'cheap', because it's a ridiculous allegation.........................

OK!!
I'll take the bait...
I sat in the car for 30min all by myself at the car show...I got there early, LOL

It's CHEAP,and it's not a ridiculous allegation! I bought the car, I would have probably bought the car even if it had a metal dashboard from the 60's, LOL

Design is cool, no doubt about that. My gripe is that they should have used soft touch, not hard plastic. They cut costs for sure in there. I know the the response, HEY, the car has IRS, we spent the money there. It's not like they took the IRS from the CTS made by ZF, they used a cheaper American Axle corp IRS. As far as the seats go, I thought they were a little wide but no worries there. I do have a seat worry. I remember a post about the car show cars had wrinkled seats, I think Scott said its becasue of tons of butts are sitting on them day in and day out. To me thats saying wrinkles are coming a few years down the road for sure.

=bobby

[catmaster1]

nicely done! couldnt agree more.

[joes3rdcamaro82/91/2010]

Great review!

The mustang door sill is sweet. The my color lets you change it to 125 dif. colors. There is also away to make the light bright or dim and off all together. My color is freaking sweet!