With new Camaros finally starting to trickle out to dealerships across the country, GM set May 6th as the official public debut for the new fifth generation Camaro. Amid much fanfare at dealers all over America, the general public got a chance to see the new Camaro up close, take home sales brochures, and hopefully place orders.
Down the street from the Super Chevy Tampa office is Furman Chevrolet, and their specimen was a bright red V-6 RS car with an automatic. The new design seems to be very color sensitive, with some colors look fair while others look great. In red the car looks great, but I would've like to seen some stripes to break up the body lines a little. Out back, the trunk is spacious, but the opening is "unique" and will make loading things interesting. The deck lid itself is very nice, with hydraulic struts to keep the trunk open while you're loading.
Inside, the interior is much improved over the fourth and third generation Camaros. For starters, if you're over 5'10" tall, you can get into and out of the new car easily without having to contort your body like a gymnast. The seats are very comfortable, with full power adjustment and great lumbar support. The radio/climate control bezel is one of my favorite features of the new car. In contrast to that is the steering wheel. Not sure what GM was thinking on this one, but the natural hand holds for the wheel make using the push-button shifting for the automatic almost impossible in any serious driving conditions, along with the spokes being just a bit too big.
The arm rest/center console is nice, with a soft covering that won't grind away at your elbows while driving, and offers good storage space along with the cavernous glove compartment.
Hopefully soon we'll have a 2010 to do some hard core Super Chevy testing on, and when we do you'll see daily posts on the website about what we think and how the car holds up. Stay tuned for more!