My 48 hours in the "D" with a Camaro

[rocketman 12]

Earlier in the week I said my wife and I would be renting a LT Camaro from Avis while we were in Detroit.....I was WRONG! When we got to the rental place, I noticed three Camaros in the lot, one of which happened to be a 2SS, needless to say, we asked the guy at the counter if it was available, and it WAS! Pics in a bit.....

I must say I don't know what exactly I was expecting, but I was in for a HUGE surprise with this car. I had sat in 2 others(2SS/RS & 2LT/RS), and have been hanging around here for over a year, so I thought I knew about the car, turns out I had NO clue. I honestly can't describe what it was like driving this beast for the first time, the only word that came to my mind was WOW, over and over again. I had read all the threads where guys would talk about how much attention the car gets, and I figured it was just people not being used to having a really cool car. The first 2-3 years that we had my Dale Earnhardt Monte, it was common for people to give you a thumbs up or yell "nice car" at you at lights or in parking lots, we also got used to people gawking at the car when we passed them on the roads(we still get this a little, pretty cool to have someone drooling over your 7 year old car), so I figured it would be pretty much the same thing with the Camaro. WRONG! Its on a whole different level with this car, people would come up to us in parking lots and start conversations about it, not just saying how cool it is, but honest to goodness discussions. We went to the IMAX theater at the Henry Ford Museum last night, and this guy kept talking to us about it all the way from the parking lot into the actual theater, not just the ticket counter and concession stand, but the theater itself, it was crazy. We had two other instances similar to that, but not as drawn out.

Driving it is another kick in the pants, literally. Our car was an automatic so therefore had the L99 with only 400 hp.....THATS A LOT of POWER, btw! It felt like I was constantly raining(play on words there, it rained A LOT in the two days we had the car )it in when driving on city streets, the car would just begin to really take off between 30-40 mph, right where I had to lift off the gas, I don't think the car liked it much. The freeway, on the other hand......HOLY COW! It lives to drive in the 70-80 mph range, I believe, and it gets there RIGHT NOW when you punch it, and glides effortlessly at that speed till you slow it down. My biggest concern with this car was what the visibility would be like, and at first it was a tad on the bad sad. The more I drove it, however, the less it bothered me. If you adjust your mirrors correctly, the blind spots are infinitesimal(yes thats from T2, couldn't resist ), and for me at 5-10, there was ample headroom, more than the Monte Carlo, in fact. One thing that seemed strange to me was that it felt like I was driving a LARGE vehicle, it almost seemed truck like when trying to park it. I don't know the reason for this, but it must have just been some sort of illusion, because its not much, if any wider than the MC, but it honestly felt much wider, and it wasn't just me, my wife said the same thing after she drove it the first time.

Well, enough chit chat, on to the pics, with captions:

The only defect I noticed, other than a door ding on the left rear fender, about a 2 inch gap where the plastic covering the A-pillar has pulled away from the headliner, no biggy, really


I just LOVE the view in the side mirrors


My wife getting ready to drive it for the first time, right after this pic she found out what NOT to do with a 400hp rwd car when its raining...lol


Night pictures of the gauges, radio, and ambient lighting, VERY COOL, btw






Gauge cluster after turning off the key


The old car vs the new car(kind of)








The Camaro is appears to be 12-18 inches shorter than the Monte




The trunk seems to be plenty big enough, it just has a small opening...oh, whats this? The Owners Manual? SA-WEET!


Gotta watch those doors


I felt kind of dumb after figuring out how the fuel door opened....







Date of Manufacture and Delivery




Pretty cool location for the windshield washer ports


Not much legroom in the back, this is with my wife having the seat up as far as should could and have it still be comfortable, she's 5-4, there's also not any headroom, at 5-10 my head was rubbing the roof


Our hotel was nice, but we thought it was missing something...


We used 11.9 gallons of gas in 48 hours




Just being goofy


You really took that picture?????


One more of THE car


I hope I don't get in trouble for posting too many pictures......

lol

[kanys]

Great story! Always nice to hear people say how much they like this car. And you cannot post too many pics of the Camaro lol.

["prima"Donna]

I agree with kanys's post that you can never have too many pictures!!!...LOL...

I also LOVE the Dale Earnhardt Monte Carlo....really, really cool...

[ahart04]

you can adjust the seat btw...people who are up to 6'4" report plenty of headroom after an adjustment...(also has been noted that the sunroof option makes it a bit tighter)

[two_wheel_mayhem]

That thing looks like a pos, mismatched front bumper.

Can't believe they didn't use the floormats.

Rental cars can be fun, did you light em up a few times?

[joerod97]

never enuff pix. we need more

[Blownhotrodder]

The different angles of the sun reflecting off the paint make the bumper look mismatched.

[Bmart]

im also 5'10, and have sat in a couple of camaro's. I have a pretty up-right seating position and noticed plenty of headroom. Im guessing the seat goes up and down a little bit? great story though! thanks for the pics.

[Vash]

Very cool report!

I am surprised still more people don't complain about the glare on the instrument cluster.

The side mirror photo is just great. thx.

[Doc]

These things don't have remote fuel filler door releases??

Oh and great post btw!

[Kenny]

Originally Posted by ahart04

you can adjust the seat btw...people who are up to 6'4" report plenty of headroom after an adjustment...(also has been noted that the sunroof option makes it a bit tighter)

I think he was talking about leg room and head room in the backseat.

[DirtTrackFan]

Nice write up. Atleast they had the right color. Where in Indiana you located? The other day I had two guys asking me about the car at a stop light, turn green they were still talking as we started to roll down the road.
LB

[RAdams]

What fun - how often can you say THAT about a RENTAL!?!

By the way, here's a little trivia comparing the dimensions of the Camaro to your Monte:
Your car is 7.5" longer and 1" taller
The Camaro is 3.2" wider and the wheelbase is 1.8" longer.

I'm betting the additional wheelbase and wider stance is what makes it feel like a much bigger car. Plus it's so rock solid and feels so well put together.

(Dimensions from edmunds.com)

[DEW]

Glad to see you made it out of our fair city "alive"..........come back soon..ya hear!