Camaro Selling Briskly - but Quality Control Seems Shaky
July 17, 2009
By Bill Visnic
One of the bright spots in a bleak inventory of sales numbers for the new General Motors Co. has been the 2010 Camaro. GM executives in recent weeks have pointed to the new-age Camaro as the example of how GM can connect expressive cars with customers willing to pay full price.
Luckily for GM, the car has a receptive audience -- after just three months on the market, the Camaro made a major statement by outselling the Ford Mustang in June -- because the Camaro's launch has been anything but smooth, largely due to quality-control issues.
After fits and starts, the Camaro rollout hit another pothole this week when GM confirmed to Camaro-enthusiast website Camaro5.com that the company is suspending shipments of Camaro SSs (V8-engined) with manual transmissions while engineers investigate reports of failed output shafts.
It isn't yet known if GM will recall manual-transmission Camaro SSs already sold, but one insider tells AutoObserver it is unlikely given the low numbers involved. Through June, Chevrolet sold a total of 15,397 Camaros, but manual-transmission SS models represent a markedly smaller population.
In January, GM delayed Camaro production for one month, pushing back the start of production at its Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, assembly site from February 16 to March 16 as engineers grappled with quality-control and supplier issues.
From there, the Camaro has endured a litany of confirmed and anecdotal quality problems perhaps most entertainingly characterized by an unintentionally humorous list posted at Camaro5.com to help potential new owners scour their Camaro for quality issues reported by other buyers.
The lengthy -- and sometimes hilarious -- checklist includes such worrying entries as loose oil-pan bolts and oil-cooler leaks; "mismatched paint on parts of the vehicle;" hoods that won't unlatch, intermittent air-conditioning operation; loose emblems and interior trim pieces and misaligned and poorly fitting body panels.
The entire checklist of 65 items the forum suggests new owners inspect before taking Camaro delivery can be found on the Web site's forum here.
Photo by GM
1 - Chevrolet Camaro SS on the track.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:24 AM under GM , News | Comments (6) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
out 3 months and already quality problems. i guess you can't trust those canadian union workers either.
Posted by: ferenc | July 19, 2009 at 11:48 PM
As a longtime Camaro5 member, to say I am appalled at this piece of "journalism" is putting things quite mildly. This is nothing more than shameless yellow journalism, making a big deal out of a non-issue by reading things into the situation that aren't even there. This is cheap sensationalism masquerading as reporting, and does nothing more than confirm Mr Visnic's baseless anti-Detroit bias. First model year bugs are nothing new. Every single car has a higher than average amount of bugs that need to be worked out in early build models. You'll notice the vast majority of issues in that list were minor, one-off circumstances. The average new car has more than one defect from the factory. Out of thousands of Camaros sold, this is the full extent of a list we can put together. How can you say as fact from this data that the Camaro has more problems than the average car? You can not. Also, it is only fair to point out that the Camaro5 forums include extremely dedicated fans, who obsess over their vehicle far more than the average car buyer. "Mismatched paint" on production models has for the most part been limited to differences noticeable only by a perfectionist inspecting every detail at Pebble Beach standards.
So Mr Visnic, in the spirit of journalism, I believe it is only fair to demand you provide statistical proof that the Camaro is plagued by issues at a level significantly above that of the average new car.
Then again, what do you expect from a guy who argues Cadillac is a failing brand because sales were down this year? Toyota and Honda sales were down too, so I suppose that means they are failing brands as well.
How pathetic.
Posted by: stovt001 | July 20, 2009 at 12:54 AM
This overly aggressive coverage doesnt suprise me. Since when does Edmunds patrol fanboy sites for reliability information? How do we know similar lists of problems couldnt be found if we checked out owner's websites for other new models? This is what you call creating news. But then again Visnic hasnt met an anti Detroit story he didnt like. He doesn't even know the difference between the Equinox and SRX.
Posted by: 1487 | July 20, 2009 at 8:33 AM
The new Camaro seems to appeal primarily to a loyal group of Camaro and/or GM lovers and as such will bring out the (GM) apologists in full force. What is interesting is that these are the same people picking every nit with this car. If there are quality problems with this car it is worth reporting, especially in the current environment in which GM operates.
I have no evidence that says the Camaro is any worse/better than the average vehicle. That being said, it takes very little anecdotal evidence to get people jumping on the "plagued by issues" bandwagon. GM is in a no-win situation and any problems, especially with a high profile car, will be magnified and exaggerated.
I would like to see GM survive this period and thrive once again. Given current company leadership and its vehicle roster I doubt that is possible. GM has little to no margin of error here and their every misstep will be tracked and publicized. Funny how that can happen when the federal government has to intervene and ends up with substantial interest in the company. Though it may seem unfair GM has no one to blame but themselves.
Posted by: floucka | July 20, 2009 at 11:08 AM
"because the Camaro's launch has been anything but smooth, largely due to quality-control issues."
Where are the facts that support this claim, and how do they compare to other vehicles in a similar segment that have launched within the last 2-3 years?
If this claim is unsupported by factual industry data, I'll know to disregard any articles published by Bill Visinic and will be skeptical of any editorials published by Edmunds.
Posted by: somecarguy | July 20, 2009 at 3:22 PM
It's nearly 10 years into the 2000's and GM still can't launch a new car without defects/bugs? Camaro will not 'save GM' and the basement bloggers have insisted. When the initial newness wears off, watch out.
Posted by: tomcatt630 | July 22, 2009 at 2:18 PM