Ah, but they CAN, and they will. Just one more symptom of the the creeping pestilence of wussification, quickly becoming an American pandemic.
I got some bad news for ya: It’s been worse than that for a long, long time. Not only did they put a Toyota drivetrain in THIS piece of late-80s shit, they had the temerity to christen it NOVA…thus blighting forever the name earned by yet another 70’s bowtie muscle car.
There’s no hope.
I have to admit that I have never been a big fan of the Firebird/Camero. However, I understand the frustration when something you want is no longer available.
I urge you all to be strong. Tastes in cars change over time, and when the SUV trend dies, sports cars will probably make a comeback. Hell, Nissan killed the 300 a few years ago, but it looks to be making a comeback.
1969 Oldsmobile Cutlass-Supreme Convertible - Cherry Red. I had one. Used to be my dads. Then it got destroyed when the garage collapsed in a blizzard. I was sad. I want another one. My true “muscle-car” love.
DaLovin’ Dj
Word. (At least it doesn’t have the Rush Limbaugh implications of “ditto!”) And the “options” linked are appalling. Has anybody at GM noticed that the Vibe GT has FOUR FUCKING DOORS? How the fuck is some high school kid who has saved his nickels and saved his dimes to buy a hot car supposed to get laid driving a four-door? EVERYBODY at GM is on drugs, and not GOOD ones.
I hate to say it, adam, but that new Z is the ugliest fucking thing I’ve ever seen. Seriously, there’s nothing appealing about the look at all. It seems to be an Audi TT that got pulled backwards throug a clothes wringer. Yuck.
sorry, dude! the only thing that can be overpowered (in my opinion) is purfume!
Well, the color sucks maggots from a dead goat’s ass, but other than that it looks…interesting. They stole the hood & headlight group from the latest Celica and the ass from an Acura.
It’s no Stillen 300Z/tt, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Now I KNOW they’ve lost their goddamned minds.
Nissan designers must be trying for the Ugliest Car in Show award. That new Z car means you must be under 5’5" to be able to fit inside. Anyone over that will have knees sticking out the window.
And that pickup in just funny. You know the design sorta reminds me of the original vehicle they used on Lost in Space for the 1st couple of episodes to explore the planet.
God’s toenails! That truck’s freakin’ ugly!
Camaros and Firebirds suck ass, but that SSR is cute! If it weren’t a convertible I’d even consider being seen in it. 
It’s actually one of the first sporty cars I’ve ever thought wasn’t hideous.
Um. If you twist the parts around on that truck, does it transform into a giant robot or a cheetah or a gorilla with laser-eyes or something?
Heretic. Pfaugh.
And that’s perfectly okey-dokey; because it’s a cute little “chick-car”, for lack of a more appropriate phrase, in the same vein as the new VW Beetle.
My complaint is simply that so many new cars are apparently being designed by Mattel’s Barbie division.
Cute girls look good in such cars as the SSR. I’m sure you’d be fetching tooling down the road in it – at least until its 18-volt NiCad “Power Wheels” battery died and its estrogen tank ran dry. I just wish I didn’t have to turn to something with a 6-foot bed and crappy gas mileage to retain some sense of masculinity.
They say the first step is awareness… I keep telling myself “It’s just a car, it’s just a car…” I think it’s kind of strange that this is just now making the major media. I am a member of a number of musclecar / Firebird TransAm message boards, and the closing of the St. Therese (Canada - where the Camaros / Firebirds - aka F-body car) plant is three-year-old news. It’s just that GM is finally coming clean about the closing, I guess they wanted a ‘better’ time to announce the layoffs of the workers (no ‘better’ time than the beginning of a recession, right?).
The F-bodies probably won’t be gone for long. GM has a way of regurgitating their ‘identity’ names, even if in a bastardized form (like the Nova mentioned above, or the Malibu, or even the Impala?!) Everything I’ve read & heard is that GM plans to wait a few years, possibly do a significant upgrade to the Bowling Green KY plant (where the Corvette is made, it shares the LS1 V8 engine with the V8 F-bodies), and produce a Sigma-platform based Camaro/Firebird starting in 2005 or 2006. See link to Bowling Green Daily News ( http://www.bgdailynews.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?/200008/11+gm20000811_news.html+20000811 ) - they kind of skirt the issue, but they do state that a $39M plant expansion is proposed. There is a Sigma car already in production - Australia’s Holden Commodore ( http://www.holden.co.nz/sc02_vehicle_showroom/sc02_3_commodore/ ) - which (surprise) already utilizes the LS1 engine. I’d like to think the new (hopefully) Camaro / Firebird will be similar to the existing layout - front engine w/ killer power / rear drive / coupe, albeit slightly smaller.
I have owned a '95 V6 Camaro, and now own an '01 Trans Am. I have wanted a T/A since the mid 70s, guess I watched “Smokey and the Bandit” one time too many (I was 8 or 9 when the movie came out). For what this car was designed for (relatively cheap, powerful, fast, attention-grabbing street racer), it succeeds very well (at least the V8 versions). While not as sophisticated as other current automotive designs, it is much, much improved over even the early-90s F-body generation (1993 was the first year of this F-body 4th generation).
These cars pull like beasts out of Hell. Here’s a part of my morning commute - there’s a state highway (speed limit 50-55mph) with many side roads feeding it. I have to merge into this traffic from a stop sign - I like to see how quickly I can reach speed of traffic (usually 60-65mph) from that dead stop. I can usually do it within 250-300 yards. It’s funny - no matter what ‘in’ car my friends & family are driving - on sunny days a rip with the t-tops off is ALWAYS suggested by them - convertibles included. Something about the power and image, I guess.
We had a discussion at work about cars being penile extensions of drivers (my car was used as an example). I actually agree with that statement. Would I buy a Saturn or a Honda Accord if it had a sexier image - no matter what engine or feature package? Probably… but those cars just aren’t what I WANT to drive (no flame intended). At the end of the day, as long as I’m happy with something as admittedly superficial as an automobile, I don’t care what anybody else perceives me to be.
Or, since we’re in the Pit…
gratuitous cursing
I don’t give a skunk-fucking rat’s ass what you think. (not to denigrate skunk-fucking rats…)
/gratuitous cursing
“Chick car”?
I remember seeing the SSR a while back, and I thought it looked pretty cool. Yeah, it’s different, and it could use a few more hard edges, but the styling’s interesting. I can see, however, why those who lean towards Camaros and Firebirds don’t like how it looks.
The Nissan Z a monstrosity? No way! That’s a cool ride. Did you hate the redesigned Charger too? What about the Ford Forty-Nine concept? Or the Toyota RSC? I hate to tell you, but GM may just be giving your two favorites a hiatus. They’ll probably be redesigned to look something like the SSR in the end. Will you renounce the Camaro and Firebird nameplates then?
Hey, I’m mourning over the loss of these classic road rockets too, even though their styling didn’t always grab me. But their absence means I must look elsewhere for my automotive fix.
Whoa! Just finished loading the pic of that awful Nissan truck (?) Now that’s fugly. I could paste together some cardboard boxes and paint them silver, too. Damn.
Yeah, you’ve got a right to your opinion, as do I. You just touched a nerve there. I happen to have a soft spot for concept vehicles. There’s something about them that I enjoy; maybe it’s that I know most of them will probably never hit the streets. They’re some vehicle design team’s one-off work of art.
[pit]
Yeah! Fuckin’ A right!
[/pit]
…but it’s not. Well, perhaps from a strictly pragmatic view; but under that light, a Mclaren F1 is no different from a Yugo. Four wheels, motor, and it gets you where you’re going.
When the Impala SS was a warmed-over Caprice I didn’t have a problem with it, since they at least retained the spirit; big V8 up front, drive wheels in the rear. I’ve driven a couple of those, and they’re fairly ballsy for their ponderous size. (IIRC, the original was a glorified family car too, wasn’t it?)
I’d agree with it, up to the point that people start implying it’s meant to compensate for a shortage of shtupperware.
Mid-life crisis? Sure. Baldness? Why not, I’m headed there myself; but in numerous mixed-company discussions of the subject, I’ve yet to meet a woman who’d agree that a car would make up for a truncated trouser schnauzer.
There’s a few more pungent euphemisms I could’ve used, but I figured I was already pushing it.
That one’s pretty damned nice. All the right elements - high waistline, scalloped doors, ‘arrest-me-red’ paint job.
Has Ferarri sued yet? 
It looks like a frumpy, middle-aged '56 Thunderbird after a Lowrider Magazine makeover.
The bastard offspring of a Humvee and a Beetle. I like it.
Thanks for the cool link, BTW. I like concepts as well; even the butt-ugly ones are usually fun to look at.
[sub]I’m sorry to hear your car is stopping production, but could we spare a thought for the workers who are being laid off in ste-therese, quebec?[/sub]
drowned by cries of Heretic!
Not too long ago, I read an interview with Wagoner (or however you spell his name) who, last I heard was running GM, and they asked him, “Where are the car guys at GM?” His response (lots of fucking emphasis added):"What’s a ‘car guy’?" :eek::eek::eek::eek:
Shit! Ninety nine percent of the new cars on the road I wouldn’t buy! And GM wonders why their marketshare’s slipping? Here’s a clue, guys, its because you only know how to design buttfucking ugly cars and you price them way too high! (Christ! $30K for an Aztek and it doesn’t even come with a bag to put over your head? What are they thinking?)
Ross Perot once said that GM was just crying out for some engineers who enjoyed getting their hands dirty! Obviously, that hasn’t changed a bit.
I may be out of line here, but personally, I think that everyone involved in the creation of the Aztek should be taken out and shot and their bodies strung up on display outside of every design school as an object lesson in what not to do.
Oh and racinchikki, you are most certainly prohibited from doing that to that poor Nash! Yes, I know it wasn’t their best car, but too few folks these days know what a Nash is. You may, however, do that with a Ford Pinto (assuming you can find one that’s still operable).
But, did you have curtains on it?
The new SSR is supposed to be a cross between a roadster and an El Camino, according to the OP article. But, I can’t imagine it with curtains on it and a “La Cucaracha” horn. Just doesn’t go.
Anyway, with the price of gas going way up (as I believe it should), I’ll take my brand spanking new 2002 Acura RSX Type S any day of the week. Sure, it has no low end to it, but get that fucker above 5500 RPM and it flies. I’ve closed on Camaros with it, but only after the VTEC kicks in. It is kind of unique to hear a car near redline at 8300 RPM. The gimmick 6th gear is cute also. And, I get 30 miles to the gallon.
I have to agree with Tuckerfan about the Aztec. That thing is about the most ugly thing that I can conceive of. Big, angular, ugly, expensive.
