So the plan was to leave the house at 11am to get to the Convention Center by 12, but of course we left late because the wife took forever to get ready. I'll give her credit though, we were only 45 minutes lates today so that's an improvement. Anyway, my mission today was to see an compare all three muscle cars from the Big 3 with as little bias as possible. I'm pro Camro through and through, but if a discussion about the cars ever came up I wanted to make sure I was being as well informed honest with myself and who I'm speaking to as possible. This is kind of long, so if you aren't really interested in the subject you may want to back out of this thread lol!
So, we start in the accessory hall where there are at least 5 Challengers. I've seen them on the streets before, but never still and up close. The car doesn't look as big in person as it does on the street or in pictures but it's still a ver tall boat. Now don't get me wrong, it's a nice car, but you can tell that being based on such a large sedan platform Dodge probably wasn't able to get the proportions they really wanted. The tail-end is where the problem lies; the decklid is far too long ad the rear wheels stick out way beyond the c-pillar insted of being tucked under it. Secondly, the interior is simply uninspired. When we got upstairs my wife and I sat in one and I told her to remember what the interior looked like. Then I took her to a Charger... she said they're the same. An Avenger? Same. A 300... SAME. And not just the SAME, but boring (aka uninspired). It does have pros though... the gas cap is a really nice touch, and it has a cool "oh shit" handle on the center console. The long panel of rear lights looks tastefully vintage and overall the car does have an aggresive demeanor.
All the time we're at the Dodge display I keep looking over at the Chevy area for a sign of the Camaro. We're sitting in a Black Malibu and as I get out I spot a small red light out of the corner of my eye... it's the CAMARO BLACK. I grab my wife and powerwalk in its direction with as much composure as I can muster but as I ge closer that all just melts away as I was assaulted by it's full glory and that of it's silver brother. I know others have said it several times before but pictures absolutely do this car NO JUSTICE! It's a great size (not too big, not too small) and the proportions are perfect. After seeing the pre-po's the concept seems like an exaggerated, cartoonish caricature of the real deal. I was worried that the 275's on the rear wouldn't be wide enough for me but they look great (although I'll still be upsizing). It looks as though you can fit another inch on the street side w/o any problems and if I'm lucky another inch inside. I also wasn't crazy about the standard grill but that looks great also and in no way clashes with the lower grill on the SS. The matte black treatment it got on the BLACK looks perfect for me. There's a very acceptable amount of fender gap, but once again I wouldn't turn down a 1" drop. The interior looks GREAT... very stylish, classy and high end. I asked the botth professional (who was kind of rude to me last year) to turn on the ambient lighting. He did it, but it was so bright you really couldn't appreciate it, but I got an idea of what they're going for. The one complaint I had is that the black interior doesn't look very... black, more like a dark grey but nothing a good coat of Armor All can't solve. Also, the booth professional recognized my Camaro5 shirt and wanted me to say hi to TAG who he says he met in San Antonio with Scott (he loves your SS!). I hung around there for about an hour and helped the guy sometimes while he was fielding questions from the crowd. He knows his stuff but NO ONE knows the 5th gen like we do. I also ran into another board member there also, Scottsman. Cool guy... we discussed the ultimate value that the Camaro is, griped about the UAW and Congress teasing the Big 3. To sum that all up in the nutshell I was not only NOT disappointed, but also surprisingly blown away by the brilliant simplicity of the execution of this car. I know it wasn't just me because my wife (who loved the Challenger after seeing one at work) said after seeing the car she understands my obsession and she'd be more than happy to pitch in for the car
. Also all you could here from the thick crowd that constantly surrounded it was "now THAT'S a car", "all that for 23k?", "Can you believe THAT is 11k less than the Challenger", "this blows away the Mustang downstairs" and my personal fav "Ok, now I know what my next car is gonna be".
We passed throuhg the exotics hall and this may sound crazy, but honestly after seeing the Camaro these cars did very little for me. Maybe they're just too high falootin'.
Now to the end... my wife's feet were killing her (high heels at an auto show?
) but I convinced her to come with me to see the new Mustang so I could get her unbiased opinion. After getting to the display the first thought that entered my mind was "this car looked alot better in the pictures online". Seriously, I think the redesign was a step backward from the current design. The car seems to have lost it's soul and class. It looks like they tried so hard to keep up with the Camaro and Challenger that it did jut way too much, like a woman with too much makeup on. There are tons of unecessary "accents" and body creases that take away from the simple, muscular class of the current body style. The back end looks like a full diaper and the new grill and headlights looks cheap. For some reason it reinds me of the late '90's/early 00's version mixed with a Celica (
). The interior was nice(er), but like the Challenger's its center stack is boring and unispired. Also, the "soft" plastics the media drooled over aren't that soft and end at the interior door panels which feel like the surface of a plastic tackling box. The seats look really nice though, especially the oxblood ones, but I don't know if it was me or all the people who sat in the car today but they already looked deflated and worn. They also didn't have too much bolstering like the Challenger did. The good, well.. um (I'm actually thinking here) um... (2 minutes later, still thinking) I already mentioned the seats huh? Oh, it's new(ish)! For a second opinion I looked to my wife, but she wasn't there. I called her and she was sitting at a table about 20 feet away... she said the Mustang wasn't interesting and her feet hurt.
After that we left, got some bar b q and I talked her ear off about all the appearance mods I can finally settle on after seeing the car up close.
WHEW that was long!
