GM's 'Gotta Have' Camaro V-6, Foe at Ford Says

[Mr.DJ]

GM's 'Gotta Have' Camaro V-6, Foe at Ford Says

A Ford expert says that if Chevy does build the Camaro, it should consider offering a lower-priced V-6 version.

General Motors is committed to "gotta-have" cars, vehicles that consumers will stand in line for — checkbooks in hand.

Gotta-have cars, GM says, will win back buyers who have fled the automaker to help it increase market share and, more important, profits in North America.

The Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky roadsters are two examples. They are in far greater demand than supply.

On this year's auto-show circuit, it unveiled the concept of a sure gotta-have: the Chevrolet Camaro.

But if GM thinks it can attract buyers by bringing back a high-powered, V-8 Camaro sports coupe, it better consider offering a lower-priced V-6 version as well.

So says the man who stands to do battle with Camaro if and when Chevrolet gives a production thumbs up. Hau Thai-Tang is director of advance product creation and head of Ford Motor Co.'s SVT performance division.

Ford hasn't had to worry about a Camaro rival for its Mustang coupe since Chevy mothballed the car after the 2001 model run.

So it's not only surprising Thai-Tang is willing to offer his competition advice, but it's also rather odd that he hopes Chevy gives Camaro the go-ahead and that Dodge does the same for its concept Challenger coupe.

"Chevy easily can take a Vette engine and do a high-performance Camaro, but the trick is to do an affordable V-6 model because if it doesn't, it will struggle," Thai-Tang said in a recent interview.

Thai-Tang, by the way, was chief engineer on the latest-generation Mustang before being promoted to his current post.

"Keep in mind that 70 percent of Mustang sales are the lower-priced $20,000 V-6 models, not the $25,000 V-8s. Chevy has to make money on an affordable $20,000 V-6 Camaro to be able to support a higher-priced, high-performance V-8 version," he said.

Thai-Tang's not worried about a more crowded field.

"Competition helps the sports car breed. People interested in Camaro and Challenger are people interested in sports cars," Thai-Tang said, adding that the Camaro/Challenger concepts spurred interest in the Mustang. Lots of auto-show visitors made their way into a Ford showroom to see how the Mustang stacked up against the concepts.

"Camaro and Challenger are only concepts now, but the strong interest in them helps us. Motor Trend even did a Mustang versus Camaro comparison, and Camaro isn't even built yet."

However, Thai-Tang is proceeding as if Camaro and Challenger soon will be built.

He noted that Ford offers a 300-horsepower V-8 Mustang for about $25,000 and the 500-hp V-8 Shelby GT500 Mustang for about $40,000, adding "there's room for some cars between those cars with a mild performance enhancement, though not to 500 horsepower."

Hmmm. A niche for Chevy and Dodge to explore?

As with the previous-generation Mustang and its Bullitt version that drew on the popularity of the fabled Steve McQueen movie, some limited-edition Mustang derivatives are under consideration.

Thai-Tang won't say what or when, though one example would be the 325-hp "Rent-a-Racer." Ford recently inked a pact with Hertz to offer such versions of Mustang called the Shelby Mustang GTH.
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Thanks to ChallengerTalk.com forum member Vanishing Point for the link
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Source: cars.com
by Jim Mateja, Chicago Tribune
photograph by Emily Lindberg, cars.com

[allhemi]

"Keep in mind that 70 percent of Mustang sales are the lower-priced $20,000 V-6 models, not the $25,000 V-8s. Chevy has to make money on an affordable $20,000 V-6 Camaro to be able to support a higher-priced, high-performance V-8 version,"

This says it all!!! And the same goes for DCX and the challenger.

[Afterburner]

I dunno. That's a lot for Vines and his hand wringers to think about for the next 7 months while they build their "fast" business case. We here can think much faster than that, and Ford outhought us all and got multiple levels of product to market already. But we must all consider that it takes a LOT of hard work to hold onto third out of three major US manufacturers. Chrysler has been at this game for a long time, you have to give credit where credit is due!