It's that time! Photo gallery of new and redesigned 2010 cars
Info on new 2009 cars is still coming in, but I've already got enough photos of 2010 cars to start a gallery. I expect that this gallery is going to get a lot bigger towards the end of this week when the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show gets underway. Media days are Wednesday and Thursday, so keep an eye out for photos and lots more new-for-2010 news.
And in other news -- today I will be test-driving my first 2010 car! I can't say what it is... I mean, I could, but I expect that several PR people from a well-known automaker would beat me to death with my own laptop. I will tell you -- just so no one gets too disappointed -- that it isn't the car in the photo (I wish!! Are you listening, Chevrolet? I wish I could drive the car in the photo, and by the way, the holidays are coming up, hint, hint), but it should be pretty cool. Then again, maybe it won't. Stay tuned, and all will be revealed in a couple of days. -- Aaron Gold
Photo © General Motors
Comments
Aaron;
Whats up with Chevy and the New Camaro?
The long line of hype and tantalization is starting to stretch real thin.
Is GM’s getting a Fed bailout the deciding factor on when or if the Camaro will be put to market??
Your in LA and can’t get a ride in a factory Camaro ?? I think they must all be on loan to the TV/Movie studios because I see them in a LOT of shows.
Love the new Mazda 3. The new Korean cars look interesting as well. The Ford Fusion… I love everything about that car but the looks!
Ford why do you make great but ugly cars. The Fusion looks like a cross between the F150 and the old Topaz! You guys own a big chunk of Mazda and I have seen your European cars so I know you can make cars that are not ugly.
Pontiac Sport Truck? You have GOT to be joking. What corporate crackhead thought THAT idea up? I can just see the meeting…
Sales? Plummeting. Fuel costs forecasts? Likely going up. So what do we give the folks? Let’s see…
How about an affordable hybrid or electric car? Um…no. Hey, I know! A smallish commercial diesel delivery van to fill the utterly overwhelmingly MASSIVE gap in the market? Nah, we’d sell too many of them. OOOH OOOH! I know! How about a gas guzzling, ugly ass looking caruck with a small bed, no passenger room, limited cargo capacity and crap towing capacity based on our flying out the door G8! YEAH! That’s the ticket! Kinda like the Chevy SSR ’cause we know how well THAT sold!
With ideas like that GM needs to go bankrupt to clean out the insanely deep layers of isolated-from-reality corporate refuse that obviously litter the planning department. And they want how many billions of MY taxpayer dollars?
Allen and Kevin, I think I can address both of your comments with one answer. Bear in mind that the product development time for a vehicle is 3 to 5 years. With the Camaro, GM took the wraps off pretty early, but there’s still a lot of work to do before the vehicle is ready for market. In the case of the G8 Sport Truck, it’s not like this decision was made just this past summer — even with the G8 based on an existing product (Holden Ute), the decision to bring it Stateside was probably made no later than 2006, when gas was two bucks and change per gallon.
This is one of the constant struggles between writers like me and the PR people we deal with… what’s coming in the future. “We don’t discuss future product” is the standard refrain. Do the automakers know what’s coming in 2010? Of course they do. 2011 is pretty much set in stone, and if 2012 isn’t, it’s very close. Planning for 2013 should be well under way. But the information must be trickled out, because of the fear that if a buyer knows a new Malibu is coming in 2011, she might not buy one in 2009. And so it goes.
Aaron - I agree with others, the Camaro already looks like it’s been around for a while - even though it hasn’t. The exterior looks good and aggressive but the interior looks terrible - square gauges?!? Also, the G8 (contemporary version of the old Chevy’s El Camino) looks like another money looser for GM - makes you wonder…
The Audi and the Mazda look good.
Well as far the G8 goes it may not be a terrible choice.
Gas is back down to $2 and change and in some places under $2.
The El Camino sold well for how many years? Not great but good enough. They still have a following. Truth is an El Camino like vehicle does make a lot of sense for a lot of people that currently own pickups. Very few people ever put a full load in the back of their trucks. At best they use it to haul stuff from Home Depot, a motorcycle, or stuff from a lawn sale. Now the Six liter engine? That seems to be a mistake but if they offer the 3.6 V6 then it could be a good choice.
The 6ft bed also isn’t bad. The smallest bed the F150 offers is 5.5 ft.I would be the sport track isn’t much better.
Aaron, perhaps you have a future article planned for this subject, but since there has been some talk of bankruptcy for GM here and mention of the bailout/loan….what is your feeling on it?
I personally think that even though taxpayer money is involved, and even though bailouts and government loans are poor public policy, I would still support conditional loans to the automakers. Too much of the US economy (1 in 10 jobs) relies on auto manufacturing. Plus I think that further losses in American manufacturing would result in a more volatile overall economy, national security issues, and an even worse trade deficit.
Maybe congress should appoint mediators and force the UAW and automakers back to the table to renegotiate contracts again. Help them with operating money while this is taking place and examine the soundness of their business model afterwords. Then make further loans hinge upon the outcomes of those meetings.
Trouble is Republicans are opposed to any form of government “meddling” and Democrats are firmly in the pocket of the UAW. Money will probably be doled out but there will likely be little in the way of common sense changes required to ensure that this money isn’t just a bandaid on a broken neck.
I still think, though, that if both parties would get over their partisanship, they might be able to save an entire sector of our economy. Who knows….maybe in so doing they’ll provide Americans with the sense that Congress is worth something.
Just my opinion. What’s yours?
As far as the time frame on a new car coming out I understand it is a long process but look at the Challenger. It was discussed about the same time as the Camaro but it was able to come to market early THIS year.
Obviously Aaron is in a rock/hard spot position in that his job is to report on new cars and the company’s that make them.
However manufacturers do not like to hear him bad mouthing them for there poor decisions.
In doing so it would make it hard for him to deal with the very PR people he gets the cars to drive from.
Not “always” a glamorous job you have Aaron.
Personally, I don’t see why so many people are so against the retro styling of some of the new cars. I personally love the style of the new Dodge Challenger. It’s the car that the Charger should have been. I also like the style of the new Camaro. The square gauges are a great throwback to the late 60’s cars, in a modern body design. This was what Chevrolet intended.
Of course, this is from someone who drives a 60’s musclecar for daily transportation even today. I love these designs. Keep ‘em comin’!!!!
Allen — Not true about the rock and the hard place. The automakers are OK with whatever I say as long as the reviews are fair. They don’t like bad reviews, but they won’t pull cars because of them. Most of them are car guys (and gals), they know what the score is.
Re, Challenger: Bear in mind that we don’t know when Challenger development began. Also, the Challenger is based on the 300/Charger platform, and most of the interior bits were pulled from those cars. The Camaro is based on the G8 and its ilk, but GM isn’t putting a Holden interior into the car — I think there’s a lot more design work involved. But until I drive the finished product, I can’t say if it’s any good or not. — Aaron
The Challenger really caught my eye when I first saw it at the S.D. Auto Show, 2 yrs ago. The design is awesome and so are the engine choices…even the entry level engine. What I fear is that in order to get it out sooner, they didn’t spend time on the chassis refining/handling elements. Basically, everything I’ve read is that the handling is lousy, like it’s 1970’s predecessors. That part of retro I can do without. Perhaps GM is taking their time to address all the car’s issues. Consequently, the Challenger is a NO WAY!, but the Camaro’s jury is still out, as far as my future purchases are concerned.
It is my understanding that production for the Camaro begins in January with dealerships stocking them a couple of months after that.
OK, after listening to GMs CEO Mr. Wagoner plead for a bridge loan today and saying that GMs problems were no way related to poor management but was all caused by the economy I now believe that no matter how much money the Feds pour into GM it will still be circling the black hole of bankruptcy thanks to the UAW and lack of any true restructuring plan put forth to date.
I think one of the main reasons the “new” Camaro seems like it has been around for so long, is that GM (Chevy) probably found itself in a tough spot. After they killed off the Camaro in ‘02, many disappointed fans grumbled for a few years. They started planning a replacement, but instead of doing what many auto makers do, Chevy decided to leak the earliest photos of concept after concept, starting a few years ago. Anyone remember the ‘SS’ concept? That was supposed to be the original design basis for this new car.
They knew from the onset that it would take a while to get this car to market, but they wanted to appease the fans, and prevent them from buying Mustangs in the meantime, while also gauging interest in the ‘future’ Camaro. Being featured in movies/tv shows only floods our conscience, and now Chevy’s getting the backlash of all the promise and no delivery. Unfortunately many car fans are used to hearing this story before (the DeLorean, Jaguar XJ220, ‘84 Vette), where the final product isn’t what was promised.
But I think GM is doing it right this time, because they NEED to sell these. Too much time and money spent on development for it to bomb. At least they won’t need to spend much money on advertisement (though they will anyway…). That’s my two pennies.