These are “Production Intent” Camaros as in the design of what you see is what the production car will be but these are not final production cars. Non-saleable but final production cars will be at most autoshows by late Jan or early Feb.

Or you can just wait until the begining of March and see/touch and actual saleable production Camaro.

Bridge2far: “Ridiculous nitpicking. Was every other vehicle at the SEMA show scrutinized like the Camaro? I doubt it.”

RTFF. This was specifically addressed by the author about 26 comments prior.

I recall a visit to the Audi plant In Ingolstadt in the late 70’s. Not a tourist visit, this one was for real. This was in preparation of the upcoming Audi Quattro. After carelessly opening the door of a prototype and ripping the trim strip off while doing it, nobody less than Herr Treser himself ripped me a new orifice. Anyway, down in the factory, I noticed odd rings, and odd metal discs maybe 4 inches below the rings, both welded solid to equipment next to every worker’s station on the line. I inquired, and was told: “That’s for beer bottles.” “Beer on the job?” “This is Bavaria,” I was told, “things are different here, as you should well know.” Being Bavarian, I nodded assent.

Now, no more booze on the job. But I could lead you to a certain Gasthaus or two, barely outside any German plant, that has rows and rows of freshly “gezapftes” Pils (or make that lager down in Bavaria) awaiting a thirsty clientele storming the establishment at lunch break. Have a few, back to work.

The “Freitag-Feiertag” car is known as “Montags-Auto” in Germany: Made with a huge hangover.

Is this a factory presented car direct from GM or one of their “dollar cars” they gave to an aftermarket show car builder to do an interpretation on?

Whle I agree with most of the comments re. pre-prod units, for a major show they usually try and get the cars “right”.

But – on the other hand – if this was a dollar car the builder proabably thrashed on it till the last minute (the joke is the paint is still wet on these cars as they roll them off the haulers) and the factory folks wouldn’t have seen the finished product until it loaded in at Vegas at which point their options are somewhat limited.

And why no descriptions on the pictures? Some are obvious, others not so much. What’s wrong with the side marker? Maybe my screen is not big enough, or maybe it’s the pre-production photography…

You misconstrued my statement entirely.

Pre-production cars that are not perfectly finished shouldn’t be near the public eye.

Showing off a concept is like going on a date. You can’t show up with a ratty t-shirt and halitosis.

And to say SEMA is about panel gaps and weather stripping = FAILURE….um, maybe I’m the only one, but something tells me SEMA lovers don’t give two craps about panel gaps. When you’ve got 24″ wheels, ridiculously stupid paint jobs, blue lights on everything, 800 LCD TVs inside, flames everywhere, fake fender vents, chrome everywhere, etc, I seriously doubt these people would ever care about a panel gap or a piece of rubber. Do you see SEMA vendors selling their pimp-ass weather stripping or their panel-gap fillers? Its all about flash (not the plastic kind) and looks. So why the hate for GM putting what is overall an excellently styled car in pre-production form at the show??

If you had built something, and said it is a prototype, how would you react when everyone bagged your creation because it looked like scheisse? These are minor little things on non-saleable, pre-production, still in development-phase cars. Its the way it works in the auto industry (and nearly everywhere else too). To those who say pre-production cars should be nowhere near the public’s eye, what do you have to say about all the latest concept cars, or new models displayed at auto shows? Should new vehicles not be shown to anyone until they suddenly show up on a car-carrier at the dealership? Totally absurd.

Any failure will rest squarely in the hands of GM management, who have made the position of the company so tenuous that buyers have lost faith in the GM brand itself, and even good efforts will be passed over in favor of “safer” choices.

I had a 318i that had terrible electrical issues; my father-in-law suggested that it was a “Freitag-feiertag Auto,” essentially meaning it was built under the influence of pils (company cantinas used to serve beer during lunch as late as the mid-90’s). Alas, I found it easier (& far cheaper) just to carry an assortment of fuses w/me at all times, rather than take it to the local BMW Autohaus (which, I’m sure, also enjoyed lunchtime brews).

That said, if the world’s best automobiles were being built w/a BOC of .08 or so, imagine what could have been done under complete sobriety. Dare to dream…

I wonder do the pros ever throw out thier draft copys.It would be awfull if someone picked em them out of the trash and they made it on the net.

Now for those here that do actually know something about car building,I will point a couple of things out.

Not One as in none zero nada of any Camaro produced will ever see a buyer.We have the best team of the best that GMs got on this project.
Every detail of every aspect of build quality is being scrutinized.As someone that has been involved in many vehicle launches I’m shocked at the high quality of vehicles being scrapped.

My good buddy is the best, bar none, metal finisher in the plant.The Camaro team sent his work back the other day.Body side for a car destined to be scrapped wasn’t good enough!

I’m gonna retire at xmas and with regrets that I won’t see the first saleable car.I can however drool over them at the dealers.Part of my retirement package includes a car voucher hmmmmm?

Something else needs to be said.
Who ever shot those photos would be subject to instant dismissal.Course it would be even better if we could get our hands on him.He could be the first human to perform his own Colonoscpy with a cell phone camera.

Ingvar: “And they don’t give a shit…”

Which pretty much sums up GM’s attitude (and reason for their current situation) all along.

Even lurching from crisis to crisis over the years hasn’t been enough to get them to change the same, ingrained corporate culture they’ve had for decades. A sloppily assembled, pre-production new model just reinforces this sentiment.

Like I said, the “eh, we’ll fix it on the production version” just doesn’t cut it anymore when you don’t see the same level of gaffes on competitors’ publicly displayed pre-production models.