I have extremely mixed feelings about the Camaro. On one hand, I absolutely love the exterior, even in this trite red paint. The interior, however, is ho-hum in places (e.g., the huge expanse of black plastic in front of the passenger), overdone in other spots (the strange-looking instrument panel), and tacky in others (the huge swath of gray plastic on the inner door panel).
As far as usability goes, the back seats are very tight, almost as bad as the ones in the Nissan GT-R. Also, as others have mentioned, the trunk lid is strangely shaped and the trunk itself is quite shallow. I still think it's livable, but owners might want to acquire some new luggage to fit in that space. The gauges on the center console are pretty much useless, too, as tech editor Don Sherman noted in his first drive story.
This is the first Camaro that I've driven - ever - so I'm a bit disappointed that it doesn't have more of a nimble feeling to help negotiate its 426-hp small-block mountain. Instead, the driving experience is very burly, with a deliberate clutch and a beefy yet precise shifter. The engine sounds great when it revs, but it's too quiet for my liking at idle and off-idle. Overall, the Camaro doesn't appeal to me as much as I'd hoped it would. However, I took it to Milan Dragway the other day, and it was a big hit there. Perhaps I'm just in the wrong age group (twenty-something) to fully appreciate this car.
Rusty Blackwell, Copy Editor ...next page >>