Daily Auto News First Drives: 2010 Chevy Camaro
Daily Auto News
After years of spy shots and speculation, the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro is on its way to dealerships. The automotive press has finally tested the car, and the early reviews are generally positive, though some writers seem to feel that the car is missing something.
Cars.com reports, “The good news for long-suffering Camaro fans is that Chevy gets the job done, and then some. The Camaro isn’t perfect, but the V-6 moves with authority and refinement, and it returns decent gas mileage, too. Other aspects, from handling to ride quality, augment the car’s big-tent potential. A lot of people will not only want it, they’ll be able to make a legitimate case for buying it, even amid economic malaise.” The more powerful, V8-equipped Camaro SS, they report, “is stupid quick, but less impressive overall.”
Edmunds Inside Line agrees with most of that assessment. The SS model, they report, “Is good for drama-free 0-60-mph sprints of 5 seconds (or 4.7 seconds with a 1-foot rollout like on a drag strip).” However, in tight corners, they report, “The car feels dense and a little larger than it is.” The car isn’t as poor a handler as the classic muscle cars it emulates, Edmunds writes. “The Camaro SS can be made to flow smoothly from one corner to the next in the manner of a proper sports car. It takes some faith, though.” They suggest that the handling limitations of the car might actually be a minor interior design flaw. “The steering wheel, which is so overly styled as to be terribly uncomfortable, is a little bigger than we’d like,” Edmunds writes, “the steering, with a quick 16:1 ratio and 2.5 turns lock-to-lock, is a hell of a lot trustier than the big, dumb wheel would suggest.”
Car and Driver notes serious visibility concerns. “The very low roof, high waistline, and wall-like rear pillars make the car drive big (not good for twisty two-laners), although the Challenger drives bigger yet. Lane-changing is a point-and-squirt affair rather than anything involving an over-the-shoulder check. The exterior mirrors help, with the bonus that they give you a close-up view of the Camaro’s sexy hips. The interior mirror is utterly useless; all one sees when glancing rearward is an ocean of black roof and C-pillars the width of a Sequoia (the tree or the Toyota).”
C&D also had other interior concerns. “Disappointing are the hard plastics that we had hoped were banished from GM interiors, but they’ve clearly found their way inside the Camaro.”
Jalopnik agrees, writing, “That interior is also going to be a bugbear for the Camaro. While the overall shapes are appealing, the materials are mostly cheap plastic, even on the big knobs that you use to adjust the HVAC and stereo (Nav isn’t an option). A huge swath of that cheap plastic runs from the steering wheel all the way to the right door. The standard-on-SS auxiliary gauges, mounted down low in front of the gear lever, are largely worthless on the move due to their positioning.”
More critically, Jalopnik writes, the “sense of driver/machine integration…just isn’t born out in the driving experience.” They continue, “It’s exactly the car GM should be making, a car that will sell; it’s just not the unprecedented new experience that we were hoping for, it’s not a real driver’s car.”
The Camaro enters a competitive field, with a new 2010 Ford Mustang on the way, and the Dodge Challenger recently revived. Research the best muscle cars with U.S. News’ Rankings and Reviews.
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