"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
12/11/2015 at 21:14 • Filed to: reviews, camaro, chevrolet
7
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"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
12/11/2015 at 21:14 • Filed to: reviews, camaro, chevrolet | 7
| 1 |
The Camaro RS is the one you buy when you want an SS but realize the monthly payment on that would eat up the spare change you usually spend on NASCAR tickets. Traditionally the RS has punished you for this with an economy car exhaust, lethargic V6, and an interior that crumbles at the slightest hint of a breath. Gladly, Chevrolet seems to have realized how many misers want to own a big boy muscle car and have rejuvinated their lower power offerings for the new 2016 generation of car.
Edit: I might be an idiot. I thought RS was a trim level, it turns out to be an appearance package. This Camaro is a 2LT/RS.
I went into this car knowing absolutely no numbers about it. Cost, HP, torque, fuel economy, nothing. I didn’t even know the new generation of Camaro was out until I stumbled upon this thing at work and proceeded to take these photos. Here are some of my impressions on it.
Appearance
The Camaro is, to some, a subtle refresh of the previous gen. A few softer lines, a bit busier front fascia, yet squintier eyes, and different tail lights. All of this “refresh” styling hides the fact that the Camaro now sits on an entirely different chassis, something that is very difficult to notice in photographs but becomes readily apparent when sitting in or walking around the car. The new generation feels much smaller. Much lither. It carries less visual weight in person than the previous generation did and feels much less pony car and much more sports car.
Some of the busy lines are indeed gone, such as the vertical crease that formed the “waist” of the car, and some ‘pinch points’ such as the one that used to be at the base of the B pillar at the top of aforementioned crease have been dissolved and smoothed out into flowing curves. I do wish they would fix the bottom of the doors, though. So unnecessarily busy.
I remain undecided on the new headlights. I can’t really decide if they are angry, or giving me a judgemental squint. The vertical light strip can go away, too.
Interior
One of the things that saddened me about previous generations of Camaro was the interior because it ruined the entire car for me. Many touch points were neglected and many materials looked nice in pictures but in “real life” lighting looked tacky and cheap. Rattles on two-year old cars were common and I have yet to meet a Camaro door card that doesn’t wiggle about.
The new Camaro is a mixed bag in this regard. The change is much like the C6 to C7 Corvette, where the C6 was a serviceable sports car interior, and the C7 obviously pulled more than a few people from the Cadillac division for its well-appointed, comfortable, and very sturdy interior. The new Camaro feels solid, with pleasing touch-points and sturdy everything. While this may just be a V6 this is still a decently-optioned Camaro, so I’m not sure what things are like on the low end but this is still better than previous gen top-of-the-line cars were. Unfortunately, the door card still has a lot of flex in it. Would it kill anyone to use a few more plastic snaps around the edges so it doesn’t wiggle around so damn much?
The steering wheel is very VERY nice. Love the size, love the flattened bottom, love the feel of the material. The gauge cluster is mostly digital, but still retains a physical speedo and tach.
Hey! That’s a stick shift! Shift knob feels kind of awkward in the hand. Some things never change. And if you look to the right you see one of the things I take issue with, but also applaud: those damn air vents. What the hell ? They’re both clever, ugly, convenient, and odd. They swivel around and you twist the knob in the center to open and close them as you would expect, but if you grab the gargantuan chrome ring around the already-enormous vent and give it a turn you control how hot or cold the air coming out is. It’s an interesting concept but is the one feature that has garnered the most controversy amongst my coworkers.
Neon light strips because Camaro is now a discotheque. ‘Murica.
Lighted kick plate because sports entry-lux, red white and blue because ‘Murica.
The infotainment still works more or less like every other Chevy, though the screen itself is MUCH improved. Appears to be a much higher resolution than older models, and is the first I’ve seen that is actual capacitive glass (such as most modern tablets and phones) instead of a plastic screen. It feels, again, much more solid than previous setups and the position falls to hand very easily for actually, you know, touching it.
‘ Murica
Engine
Yup. It has an engine. A something something V6 making something something power variable valve timing just kicked in yo. Power is delivered much more pleasingly through the rev range than the previous V6, and it makes an absolutely wonderful noise, but there is one big fail: the throttle response is garbage. From a standstill if I lay into the gas pedal a little bit there’s a very noticeable beat before the engine response. I’m not sure if this is an electronic throttle thing or a tune thing or a Chevy thing or a Camaro thing but it’s rather annoying and I didn’t have enough time with the car to figure out how to engage Sport mode to see if that fixed things up so take this with some salt licks.
Wow, look at all that plastic.
Transmission
Can’t complain a lot. Six speeds, decent throws, weighty shifts that are rather nice. As I said in the interior section, I really dislike the shift knob. Clutch is smooth. Very smooth. Buttery smooth. Kind of annoying because I don’t have the feedback I enjoy in other cars.
Handling
I don’t have a picture for this one :( Handling is definitely improved. I don’t feel like the skidpad rating is much higher, nor is body roll greatly reduced, but the car feels lighter on its feet and weight transfer/changing directions happens in a much tighter, less sloppy manner.
Conclusion
If the C7 and new Camaro are indications of the direction General Motors is taking Chevy then I am very pleased to be working at a Chevrolet dealership. Interior fit and finish is an enormous leap in the right direction, with the introduction of more premium materials and taking cues from the fantastic interiors coming from Cadillac. The exteriors are getting a bit more mature and gaining a new level of refinement I am not used to from GM. Cars like this make me excited for the new versions of mundane cars such as the Spark, Sonic, and Cruze, which I will hopefully be able to do a review of similar to this one shortly after they hit our lot.
Jake is a Kansas teenager who works at a Chevrolet dealership as photographer and valet. His hobbies are being controversial for no good reason and coming up with stupid plans and dreams that are forgotten within weeks just for giggles. He
will
build that mid-engined Civic. Someday. Probably.
Bman76 (no it doesn't need a WS6 hood) M. Arch
> Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
12/11/2015 at 22:16 |
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I think it looks considerably better than the Mustang, and I don’t mind the Mustang.