truth about domestics

According to the year end sales figures from both Ford and General Motors, the Mustang has beaten the Camaro for overall pony car champion in 2009.  The redesigned 2010 Ford Mustang sold 66,623 units while the all-new 2010 Chevrolet Camaro sold nearly as many copies, coming in second with 61,618 units sold in 2009.

While this might appear to be a clear win for the “Stang, you have to remember, the Camaro wasn’t on sale the full year, but then again, the 2010 Mustang only came on the scene in February.  The 2010 calendar year should paint a better picture of the true pony car wars, especially with the new 5.0L Mustang GT coming…for more details, head on over to Autoblog.

One of the cars I have been most looking forward to for the past year or so, the rumored 5.0L is finally official!  Autoblog has put together two separate posts based on Ford’s official press releases.  The first is on the car itself, discussing the changes made to accommodate the all-new 5.0L aluminum V8.  The second article takes us through the 5.0, explaining all of the high-performance pieces that went into this engine to make it durable and powerful enough to compete with the Challenger and Camaro.  Both articles are well worth a read and also provide some great shots of the new car and its powerful new engine.  Makes me yearn for warmer weather even more than the 20 degree days here in Michigan…

(Image source: Ford)

Automobile magazine named it’s list of 2009′s All-Stars and the list has some big names on it.  Cars from Audi, BMW, Porsche, and Jaguar all made the list.  The surprises are the 4 domestic cars that made the list!  The Dodge Ram 1500, Chevrolet Camaro, Ford Flex and Fusion all made the list!  This just shows you how good these cars really are!  What I can’t seem to put my finger on is which automakers are not in the 10 All-Star list…lets see…oh wow, NONE of the Japanese automakers made the list!  That’s SOO weird!  I thought their cars were the best of the best???  This surely must be a mistake.  Or the magazine just knows what true car fans know, that the Japanese cars are too boring to be All-Stars.  For more on the list, head on over to Automobile magazine.

(Image source: Automobile magazine)

The car you see above is a rolling tribute to the Camaro pace car from 1967.  They share a similar paint scheme and styling but that’s where the similarities end.  This is, after all, a new generation of Camaro!  For all of the details, head on over to Autoblog.

(Image source: Autoblog)

Ok, this car has pushed me to my breaking point.  It’s one thing to be totally into your school’s sports teams, but do you have to ruin a perfectly good 2010 Chevrolet Camaro in the process?  I mean, couldn’t he just have put a flag on it on game day or something?  Eh, not my car I guess.  Let us know what you think in the comments!

It’s a funny world that we live in today.  Companies are using the internet to market their products but that same internet can come back to bite them.  Honda found that out the hard way when they released pictures of their new Accord Crosstour on Facebook and the opinions left were less than favorable.  To make matters worse, Honda started deleting the negative comments and actually had employees leave positive feedback without stating they were a member of Honda’s workforce.

The blogs lit up again when stories came out about 2010 Camaro SS owners having transmission issues and the complaints were quickly blown out of proportion.  So, to help calm any concerns, GM’s own John Fitzpatrick, marketing manager of Chevrolet’s performance cars, went on the blog and left his own comments and GM’s official response to the situation.  He let owners know the issue has been corrected, all cars affected are covered by GM’s 5 year/100,000 mile warranty and they would stand by that decision.  For all of the details, head on over to Autoblog.

(Image source: GM)

In an interesting bit of news, General Motors announced that the 2011 Buick Regal would be entering production in early 2011 at the Oshawa assembly plant in Ontario.  Then they slipped in a bit of news that the 2011 Chevrolet Camaro convertible would also be starting production at that time.  Say what!?  The Mustang will finally have some drop top muscle car competition and that can’t be bad for sales.  For more, head on over to Autoblog.

(Image source: GM)

Fesler-Moss has created two different versions of the 2010 Camaro, a more “base” package, and then the Limited Edition Package.  The first starts around $50,000 and offers a supercharger and some fancy bodywork.  The second package adds the LS9 from the Corvette ZR1 and only 60 will be built, which probably explains the $150,000 price tag.  For more pics and details, head on over to Autoblog.

(Image source: Autoblog)

The masses have spoken, and horsepower is their answer!  According to Edmunds’ Inside Line, nearly two thirds of all of the 47,000 plus Camaros sold since April have been the SS model packing a 6.2L V8.  The SS models go for at least $8,000 more than the base V6′s so I’m sure General Motors is happy the ratio of V8 to V6 is so high.

(Image source: GM)

Bob Lutz lets another line out of his head, this time about the possibility of a turbo version of the Camaro.  I am not really surprised at this, plus, it’s not the first time a turbocharger and the new Camaro have been brought up.  Supposedly GM was working on a high fuel mileage version of the Camaro, using the 2.0L direct-injected and turbocharged 4-cylinder Ecotec but scrapped those plans when the 3.6L V6-equipped Camaro came back with a 29 mpg EPA rating on the highway.  For the full story, head on over to InsideLine.

(Image source: GM)