2015 Camaro RS Convertible Rental Review - California Rental Barge

Jack Baruth
by Jack Baruth

I come to bury the old Camaro, not to praise it.

In the past few years, I’ve had a chance to drive a variety of the more powerful and competent fifth-gens on and off track, including the mighty Z/28. None of them ever struck me as being more interesting or enjoyable than their Mustang or even Challenger equivalents. At best, the old Camaro was a lousy car that could really do the business on a racetrack. At worst… well, it’s what you see here.

I needed to take a quick weekday trip to California recently and Hertz happened to be offering a “Chrysler 200 Convertible or similar” for the same price as an Impala. This seemed like a no-brainer — after all, the first thing Ohio hicks like myself want to do when we get to the best coast is to drop the top. Real California natives only use their convertible tops at night and in the rarest of circumstances. It’s the tourists that find the sight of an unclouded sun in November to be sooooo fascinating.

When I got to the airport, I saw that I’d been “upgraded” to a Camaro. This presented a few problems. The trunk in the Camaro convertible is absolutely miniscule, even with the top up. My single Samsonite suitcase was a tight fit and intruded well into the space that would be required should I want the full open-air experience. I also had difficulty getting my crutches into the backseat.

Oh well. At least I’d have the mighty GM V-6 shoving me along. Well, coupled to the automatic fitted to this rental car, the V-6 that is such a delight in the old FWD Impala feels wheezy and overburdened. True, if you shove the pedal to the kickdown it will take a breath, audibly wake up, and groan to the redline at a pace somewhere between “I-4 Camry” and “V-6 Camry”. There’s nothing sporty-feeling about the way the six goes about its business, however. And the self-reported 20.1 mpg on a 420-mile freeway haul wasn’t exactly outstanding, either. You can get that kind of freeway mileage from a Coyote-powered Mustang.

It’s possible to select the gear of your choice, of course, either by squeezing one of the wheel-mounted paddles or by shoving the shifter past “D” into “M”. (You’ll do that accidentally about half of the time, by the way, until you become completely used to the shifter’s idiosyncrasies.) The problem is the process feels more advisory than commanding; it’s not uncommon for the car to wait nearly a full second before agreeing to shift in your preferred direction. The shifts, when they do arrive, are long and languorous. This is not a Porsche PDK or even an old Tiptronic.

I’ve been told by people who should know that the stick-shift V-6 Camaro coupe is actually a pretty decent way to get around. Some of that has to be due to the absence of the lousy automatic transmission, but the incompetence of the Camaro platform as a convertible has to be the primary factor. My rental had just 11,000 California miles on it but it would shake the wheel in my hands on every major bump. On pavement whoops it wasn’t uncommon for the shock absorber at one of the four corners to simply bottom out, sending another nasty shudder through the entire frame of the car. This is all with the top up, mind you. The level of cowl shake in this particular example of the modern Camaro convertible wouldn’t be out of character for an old Fox Mustang droptop.

A quick run down a twisty two lane close to San Luis Obispo showed at least the brakes were up to the task of repeated hard slowdowns. The grip, too, was remarkable and progressive, as long as you weren’t working the suspension too hard. In that respect, this Camaro was like an old Grand Am GT: holds onto the road like hell until there’s a ripple in the pavement. Credit the ridiculous twenty-inch wheels for both of those qualities. Visually, they’re a great fit for the creased-and-folded full-size aesthetic that survived nearly untouched from the original show car. Dynamically, they’re a mess. Think of running an obstacle course while wearing ankle weights and you’ll get the idea.

The interior, often criticized as the weakest part of the fifth-generation car, is not helped much by some contrast-color leatherette on the dashboard and seats. There are four gauges on the center console that are nearly invisible in most conditions and so far out of the driver’s line of vision that reading them will probably trigger a warning in the Mercedes-Benz “you’re falling asleep” monitor, were such a device to be fitted to a Camaro, which it will not be until the Federal Government makes it so. Not to worry; you can configure the center LCD in the dashboard to show you oil pressure or temperature, if you’re worried.

There’s also a lap-timer feature, which seems like a bit of cruelty in this rather inept, indifferently powered, cowl-shaking convertible. I didn’t use it. I did use the stereo, which is labeled “Boston” in the old font that should please vintage car-stereo enthusiasts but which sounded both muffled and distant regardless of source. On the positive side, the iPhone integration is outstanding, for you ladies who use an Apple phone — but no amount of fussing with the EQ could produce reasonable sound quality. It was slightly better when listening to FM radio, but how often are you doing that in 2015?

After a few days with this now-obsolete Camaro, I came to understand that its truest calling was, in fact, as a rental convertible. Chopping the top off this platform robs it of the dynamic merits that are really its only advantages over the Mustang and Challenger. It’s a neutering of sorts, to take the vicious Z/28 and cut it down to this lethargic barge. But as a way for two couples to tour California with the top down, it’s adequate. Just like a Chrysler 200 would have been.

There was just one little problem: the top wouldn’t go down. It reported a variety of issues, most of which seemed to be related to the fact that the astoundingly flimsy cargo cover in the trunk wasn’t properly attached. After twenty minutes of poking and fussing, I just let it go and decided to use it as a coupe. Which meant that I would have been better off with an Impala after all.

The new Camaro is already out in public. If you order a Camaro at your local dealer today, you’ll get the new model, not this lash-up. I haven’t driven that new Camaro yet, but I’m told it’s much, much better, particularly in the V-6 and convertible-top variants people actually buy. That’s a good thing, if the new Camaro is much better than this one. It needs to be.

Jack Baruth
Jack Baruth

More by Jack Baruth

Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 63 comments
  • Dwford Dwford on Nov 22, 2015

    I don't hold out too much hope for the new Camaro, after sitting in one yesterday at the local autoshow. For some reason Chevy was only able to bring one extremely base gray on gray V6 Camaro, and it did not look like any improvement at all over the old one. Meanwhile, The Ford display had the Fiesta ST, Focus ST and RS, a Mustang GT and a GT350.

  • Jthorner Jthorner on Nov 30, 2015

    These retro muscle cars of today are not much better than the crappy cars they are imitating. People buy them because they want to feel like hormone soaked teenagers again. The original muscle cars didn't turn or stop worn a damn. Ride around in a vintage 1965 Mustang again and be honest, it is not much of a car. Better by far than a 1965 VW, but still not much of a car. Then drive a properly tuned 1965 Jaguar and feel the difference. Too bad the Jag was not very reliable.

  • ToolGuy North America is already the greatest country on the planet, and I have learned to be careful about what I wish for in terms of making changes. I mean, if Greenland wants to buy JDM vehicles, isn't that for the Danes to decide?
  • ToolGuy Once again my home did not catch on fire and my fire extinguisher(s) stayed in the closet, unused. I guess I threw my money away on fire extinguishers.(And by fire extinguishers I mean nuclear missiles.)
  • Carson D The UAW has succeeded in organizing a US VW plant before. There's a reason they don't teach history in the schools any longer. People wouldn't make the same mistakes.
  • B-BodyBuick84 Mitsubishi Pajero Sport of course, a 7 seater, 2.4 turbo-diesel I4 BOF SUV with Super-Select 4WD, centre and rear locking diffs standard of course.
  • Corey Lewis Think how dated this 80s design was by 1995!
Next