The first generation of the Camaro versus the sixth (photo: manufacturer's website)
While Ford moves forward with the introduction of another generation of the Mustang, Chevrolet announces that 2024 will be the last for the Camaro as we know it.
Apparently, in a world where electric cars like Tesla drop from 6 seconds in a jump to 100 already in the base version, cars like Camaro, which don't get a particularly fair image anyway, have a problem.
In the second half of the 1960s, two years after the Ford Mustang shook the United States and became a huge success overnight, which swept the continent with the galloping horse craze and gave birth to the pony cars, Chevrolet released its answer - it was called the Camaro and at the time, this name had no meaning , when asked "What is a Camaro?"
They replied in Chevy, "It's an evil animal that eats Mustangs."
But since then this name has taken on meaning, and a lot of it when it became an iron sheep property in motoring culture.
The first generation, Chevrolet's response to the dizzying success of the Mustang (photo: manufacturer's website)
A lot of gasoline has flowed since then in the 4, 6 and 8 cylinder engines of the Camaro and the current generation, the sixth in the line will therefore be the last to carry this name, or at least carry it next to the car as we know it today when it goes out of production in January 2024. This is one of the most successful generations of the Camaro, with its peak being the hair-raising and crazy ZL1 version, which left us in awe of driving it.
It retires after 9 years of production, is considered successful at its level, but as far as sales are concerned, it is not considered a great success, at least not as much as the generation that preceded it.
Part of this is due to the decrease in demand for cars of its type.
If in 2015 (a year before the introduction of this generation) the sales of pony cars and muscle cars reached 400 thousand units, in 2022 they ended with about 150 thousand.
In the specific case of the Camaro - the numbers dropped from 77,500 units in 2015 to 13,800 units in 2022.
In fact, her departure, along with the cessation of production of the Dodge Challenger during the year announced by Stellentis.
Leaving the Mustang alone again in the pony car arena.
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Camaro ZL1 is not only the best Camaro, but a wonderful sports car (Photo: Kenan Cohen)
Although there is currently no definite successor to the Camaro, Chevrolet wrote in its retirement announcement that "although we are not announcing the successor today, rest assured, this is not the end of the Camaro story" hinting at the intention to provide a successor to the mythological name.
The obvious bet is that it will go the way Dodge intends to go - full or partial electric.
Until that successor arrives, the company says that towards the end of production it will introduce a collector's edition to the Camaro, without detailing what will be in it, but the assumption is that it will be a tribute version to the first generation and will be offered in the simple RS versions, the muscular SS and the fearsome ZL1 in a very limited quantity.
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