Chevrolet Camaro Deliveries Begin In United Kingdom In September, All 15 Of Them

Timothy Cain
by Timothy Cain

Anticipating virtually nonexistent demand, General Motors will ship 15 copies of the 2016 Chevrolet Camaro coupe to the United Kingdom for deliveries in September. Another three Camaro convertibles are expected to find homes one month later.

Chevrolet, which concluded a decade-long full-line foray into Europe last year, will sell the Camaro through only one UK dealer, Ian Allan Motors in Virginia Water, Surrey. You may recall hearing that Virginia Water was the first UK locale outside London in which the average price of a new home crested £1,000,000.

British buyers heading to Virginia Water in search of a new Camaro will certainly need to have access to more funds than buyers who are keen on a new Ford Mustang. Given the blame we cast for poor U.S. Camaro sales on a pricing scheme that presents the Camaro as a premium pony car, it’s not surprising to see that Camaro pricing in the UK would be similarly lofty.

But there’s one key difference.

Pricing for the Camaro with the 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder — the V6 is unavailable — begins at £31,755, £760 higher than for the Mustang EcoBoost. A jump to the far more desirable V8-engined Camaro, however, requires a big leap to £37,020, a £2,025 increase compared with the Ford Mustang GT. £2,025 equals roughly $2,600 USD.

The U.S. price spread between the pair is actually greater, but money isn’t the only factor: Ford decided to make the sixth-generation Mustang a global force, catering to the right-hand-drive needs of a few right-hand-drive nations. As a result of a global effort, Ford claims that the Mustang is the planet’s top-selling sports car, with help from more than 3,500 sales in the UK in 2015.

General Motors, on the other hand, didn’t make the same commitment. Chevrolet UK is attempting to sell left-hand-drive Camaros at a price premium.

Pay more, the company seems to be saying, to drive a car out of which you can’t see, and on the wrong side of the road to boot.

[Images: Chevrolet UK & Ford]

Timothy Cain
Timothy Cain

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  • Jagboi Jagboi on Aug 17, 2016

    15 sounds like about the right number that will sell. It will only sell to those who want to be different, no matter what the item is. They will also have another RHD car for the daily drive. I've driven quite a bit in the UK, and I sure wouldn't want a Camaro, it's too wide and visibility too poor. Going through roundabouts would be real challenge in this, and overtaking on a single carriageway (2 lane road) impossible. In the rear world, it's inherent limitations would make it a slow car to drive. I could drive a diesel Range Rover much faster.

  • Big Al from Oz Big Al from Oz on Aug 17, 2016

    The reality is the Comaro is not a replacement for the current HSV Sedans sold by Vauxhall. I wonder how well Comaros will sell in the UK, unless they are really cheap. I don't know if Holden would sell Comaros here. The Mustang is a much better vehicle to look at. I'm seeing a few around.

  • Lou_BC Hard pass
  • TheEndlessEnigma These cars were bought and hooned. This is a bomb waiting to go off in an owner's driveway.
  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X Thankfully I don't have to deal with GDI issues in my Frontier. These cleaners should do well for me if I win.
  • Theflyersfan Serious answer time...Honda used to stand for excellence in auto engineering. Their first main claim to fame was the CVCC (we don't need a catalytic converter!) engine and it sent from there. Their suspensions, their VTEC engines, slick manual transmissions, even a stowing minivan seat, all theirs. But I think they've been coasting a bit lately. Yes, the Civic Type-R has a powerful small engine, but the Honda of old would have found a way to get more revs out of it and make it feel like an i-VTEC engine of old instead of any old turbo engine that can be found in a multitude of performance small cars. Their 1.5L turbo-4...well...have they ever figured out the oil dilution problems? Very un-Honda-like. Paint issues that still linger. Cheaper feeling interior trim. All things that fly in the face of what Honda once was. The only thing that they seem to have kept have been the sales staff that treat you with utter contempt for daring to walk into their inner sanctum and wanting a deal on something that isn't a bare-bones CR-V. So Honda, beat the rest of your Japanese and Korean rivals, and plug-in hybridize everything. If you want a relatively (in an engineering way) easy way to get ahead of the curve, raise the CAFE score, and have a major point to advertise, and be able to sell to those who can't plug in easily, sell them on something that will get, for example, 35% better mileage, plug in when you get a chance, and drives like a Honda. Bring back some of the engineering skills that Honda once stood for. And then start introducing a portfolio of EVs once people are more comfortable with the idea of plugging in. People seeing that they can easily use an EV for their daily errands with the gas engine never starting will eventually sell them on a future EV because that range anxiety will be lessened. The all EV leap is still a bridge too far, especially as recent sales numbers have shown. Baby steps. That's how you win people over.
  • Theflyersfan If this saves (or delays) an expensive carbon brushing off of the valves down the road, I'll take a case. I understand that can be a very expensive bit of scheduled maintenance.
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