Right now, everyone interested in General Motors stuff probably has two main objectives – either securing a C8 Corvette Stingray, Z06, and E-Ray or else fiddling with one of the CUV, SUV, and truck options. However, there are a few exceptions – albeit some of them are only virtual, rather than real.
Cars are not exactly of interest to General Motors, anymore. Buick and GMC, for example, have none on sale across the U.S. market, currently. Cadillac, mostly alone, is keeping the banner up with nothing but sedans – aka the CT4, CT5, and mega-pricey, all-electric Celestiq. Luckily, the CT4 and CT5 series can also be had in feistier or feistiest CT4-V/CT5-V and Blackwing format.
But let us be frank, even the mass-market Chevrolet is slowly abandoning them – with just the Malibu sedan starting at $25k and the Camaro plus Corvettes on the performance roster. Alas, that is only for the 2023/2024 model year, as bad things are in store for the passenger cars going forward. As opposed to Asian rivals like Toyota, Hyundai, and the lot, General Motors probably thinks it should go down the same route as the Blue Oval foe and have fewer and fewer non-high-riding options on the market.
As such, just recently, the all-mighty Chevy announced the impending retirement of the slow-selling and severely underrated sixth generation of the Camaro nameplate. That is going to happen when 2024 model year production concludes next January at the Lansing Grand River Assembly Plant in Michigan, though not before the company offers fans and collectors the chance to snatch a celebratory model titled simply the Collector’s Edition.
It will become available for the North American region, and the limited-edition package even harks back as far as the development times of the original Camaro generation by bringing back the ‘Panther’ nickname used in the past. Unfortunately, this little piece of good news falls under the shadow of the overarching announcement that while “this is not the end of Camaro’s story,” there are also no plans for an immediate successor.
As a reminder of the series’ legacy, the Chevrolet Camaro appeared on the market late in 1966 as a 1967 model year pony car expressly designed to compete with the inventor of the trend, aka the Ford Mustang. The initial generation only lasted from 1967 to 1969, followed by much longer stints for the second (1970-1981), third (1982-1992), and fourth (1993-2002) iterations. The fifth was again a bit short-lived (2010-2015), but the sixth could have been the most longeval if not for the backlash against its somber design or the arrival of the incredible mid-engine C8 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, followed by the Z06 and E-Ray.
Aside from the fact that they are a lot more expensive than a Camaro, all these Corvettes seem to fulfill more sports car dreams than the pony/muscle car, even if the ZL1 ‘Maro is comparable to its posher sibling in many respects. Anyway, the Camaro's fate is now sealed in low sales and big hype for the ‘Vette, so nothing can be done to sway GM from the current strategy of dismissal. Well, that is valid in the real world, at least. Meanwhile, across the imaginative realm of digital car content creators, we can easily find people who disagree with the current state of Chevy's affairs.
And even folks who previously had nothing to do with virtual car art can now take matters into their hands. Or rather, at the tip of the AI design tools, that is. Such is the case with Brian Mello, a YouTube vlogger dedicated to all things General Motors, who has recently asked the cool yet imperfect AI aid to imagine a fresh Chevy Camaro SS - albeit as an SUV! Based on the socialite’s all-black, modified Chevy Camaro SS, the result is brawny, and quite muscular, indeed, but also ultimately flawed. Even the human author does not like the orange details, while other fans might think that it has other quirks, as well. What about us, do we give it our CGI hall pass, or not?
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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