Chevy Camaro: My Muscle Car's More Like a Prius Than Yours

Chevy Camaro: My Muscle Car's More Like a Prius Than Yours

By Bill Visnic

DETROIT -- Back when the car business was fun and nobody knew one hydrocarbon from the next, muscle car talk was big-block V8s, cam-lobe profiles -- and, of course, mine's got more horsepower than yours.

Now, you'd be forgiven for wondering if the new-generation 2010 Camaro -- a nameplate with a storied history built around all of the above -- even offers a V8.

The new Camaro hit showrooms this week. In the information distributed to the press, the overview summarizing the 2010 Camaro carries the headline, "The Chevy Camaro -- A Fun, Efficient Sports Car for the 21st Century." There is lengthy discussion about the new Camaro's design, interior, even safety features, but not a word about the engines that power this reincarnation of the brand's most famous muscle car.

Dig well beyond the overview's details of the Camaro's Driver Convenience and Connectivity Package and its optional gauges and there is a section dealing with the Camaro powertrains, which in traditional muscle car mine-is-bigger-than-yours braggadocio are nothing to be ashamed about: a 304-horsepower 3.6-liter V6 as the base engine, and a 6.2-liter V8 that makes 400 or 426 horsepower depending on whether it's hooked to an automatic or manual transmission.

Four hundred horsepower is what you're supposed to be shouting about with your muscle car, but those bulging numbers are a little uncomfortable for a company that's looking for billions of dollars in additional bailout money while simultaneously often being accused of getting into its financial bind -- at least in part -- because of an inability to acknowledge increasing environmental concerns and shifting consumer tastes for more fuel-efficient models.
 

So what's Chevy been reduced to for the new-generation Camaro? Making headlines with the V6 Camaro's 29 mpg highway fuel economy and dishing out hollow half-taunts about how the 2010 Camaro will be more fuel-efficient that its chief rival, Ford Motor Co.'s Mustang.

The best thing Troy Clarke, GM's president of North America, could tell the Detroit News about the 2010 Camaro: The V6's highway fuel economy "is at least three miles per gallon [more] than the [Ford] Mustang."

GM CEO Rick Wagoner, perhaps mindful of his proximity to Beltway ears when making a speech in Washington, D.C., this week, also talked up the V6 Camaro's fuel economy.

The V6 Camaro's 29 mpg highway (and 18 mpg city) with an automatic transmission really is no revelation. The Cadillac CTS uses exactly the same drivetrain -- with precisely the same engine power and torque ratings -- and, at 3,845 pounds, is just 125 pounds heavier than the lightest V6/automatic Camaro; the CTS delivers 26 mpg on the highway and 18 mpg city. 

It's an understatement to say that, uh, times have changed in the three years or so since GM confirmed it was forging ahead with the Camaro. And everything GM currently does is under the microscope. But championing highway fuel economy isn't likely to do much to "green" the new-age Camaro's image in the face of determined critics. And the Camaro's fuel economy numbers are a fantasy for anybody planning to make the car live up to its looks.

Meanwhile, its unlikely economy-oriented marketing will boost the Camaro's showroom traffic. Emphasize the car's undeniably magnificent sheetmetal or talk generically about its sports-car handling (remember Pontiac's Wide Track message?).

But if you're going to market a muscle car on economy, what's the point?

Just asking.

Photos by GM

1 - GM is boasting more about the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro's fuel economy than power in this fuel-stingy, politically-sensitive era.

2 -  The 1968 Chevrolet Camaro Rally SS was all about muscle.

Michelle Krebs:  is Editor-in-Chief of AutoObserver.com. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.