Alaman Left: The Camaro Comes To The UK.
Auto Express reports that GM is going to sell the Chevy Chevrolet Camaro in the United Kingdom by May 2011, with a convertible version later that year. It will only be available in the top level Gestapo SS trim, and will have the 6.2 litre, 426bhp V8 engine. Unfortunately, GM couldn’t be bothered to respect local driving customs and will sell the car in left-hand drive only. That’s right. Pricing is yet to be confirmed as exchange rates are sensitive at the moment, but GM is aiming to keep the pricing in line (I thought it was a V8?) with the Nissan 370Z, which starts at £28,345. Now while there are many American-philes (probably located in the North of England) who are doing a “dosey-doe” around their living rooms at this news, there are a few of problems (and here comes the pessimistic part).
Problem number 1: The UK is under pressure to meet Kyoto protocols and environment standards, which means higher taxes on more polluting cars will be brought in. Hence, the rationale behind the £5K subsidy for electric cars. A car which is 6.2 litres and enough power to fell a bull elephant, will probably fall afoul of these taxes.
Problem number 2: As I mentioned before, the UK, over the next 5 years is going to experience a severe economic storm, possibly culminating in 600,000 jobs being lost. Which means a lot of belt-tightening. Justifying purchasing a car like this will be that much trickier. Though to GM’s credit, they are only planning to sell 100 car per year as a “test the water” venture.
Problem 3: This is the biggest problem in my eyes. Whilst in the United States you get cars like the Chevrolet Malibu, Equinox and Impala, in the UK, Chevrolet’s line up is nothing more than a bunch of re-badged Daewoos and other Korean engineered econo-boxes. The Spark, the Matiz, the Aveo, the Lacetti, etc. Now Chevrolet wants to stick the Camaro into a line which hosts these paragons of mediocrity?
Yee-ha(!)
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Geeber's post is nearly perfect, and I would only add that the proper response to advocates of the Kyoto Treaty and CO2 taxes is a bucket of tar and a bushel of feathers. Jeez, after all the revelations of the fraud at the core of the IPCC, the UK's political class is still selling economic hair shirts? Talk about job losses! And those would be in the productive (i.e., wealth-generating) sector!
For everyone wondering about the Camaro being parked next to rebadged Dawoos, if memory serves, the Corvette is sold in Cadillac dealerships in the old country, with no mention of "Chevrolet" or the bowtie anywhere on the car except for the crossed flags insignia. Perhaps this is how they would do the Camaro, too?