Quote:
Originally Posted by Lenny
You may need to add me to the list of "defectors". I went to a dealer and had a lengthy discussion. They didn't seem well informed on getting one. I gave it a lot of thought..... GM is several years late on the muscle car entry. The car got so heavy they had to make the hood out of aluminum. The engine compartment got so crowded they had to put the battery in the trunk. And the "packages" and tire sizes! What were they thinking? Why so many different sizes and why the ones they selected? Did they look at how much those tires cost to replace? To get an SS you get two different sized tire sizes and can't even rotate them. Want the spoiler on the V6? If so, it's $1450 because you have to take a bunch of other stuff that you may or may not want. Don't want the spoiler on the V8? Too bad - you're taking it anyway. I have driven the chevy trucks with the VCM and don't want anything to do with that - thus no V8 if I want my wife to drive the car (she can't drive a manual tranny). So for this 51 year old man who was REALLY looking forward to the camaro - a camaro that I believe looks better than those of the 60s - I think I'm going to pass. As much as I don't want to do it, it's probably going to be another import. Sorry. I really did want one, but not like this.
|
I hope you find something you like. I agree on the dealer issue, it's a pet peeve of mine when a dealer doesn't know their product. I tend to research the hell out of major purchases so I get driven nuts alot.
I think Chevy sees the different size tires as a feature-not a committee decision. I would bet someone actually bucked a committee to do this because it's more expensive. A lot of people really like that but I can see your point as well. As far as the VCM- that's the active cylinder cutoff for fuel right? That I believe you are simply stuck with in America today. They've got to get those corporate mileage estimates up while still meeting the consumer demand for ~400hp engines. That's a rock and a hard place.
I hope you can find an American car that you still like and fills the bill for you. I know you said you don't care where it's from, and I'm not normally overly jingoistic-but there are some really good American products out there right now.
**edit: I just double checked something, the Challenger R/T in manual only does not have the ACM and offset tires. The automatic does have the ACM. So if you don't mind a manual, there's an alternative.