The New York Times weighed in today on the popularity of the new Camaro, saying, “With GM shrinking, hot products like the Camaro become more critical to its survival.” In reality, while it’s great for the Detroit Three (really the Detroit Two, Rome One) to have halo products with waiting lists a few months long, the cars that will turn GM around are more, for lack of a better word, pedestrian.Take for example Chevy’s new midsize SUV, the Equinox. Completely redesigned for 2010, this SUV is as comfortable as a Toyota RAV4 or Honda CR-V, its interior quality is at least equal to those high-selling rivals, and it gets 32 mpg on the highway (with its four-cylinder engine), besting both. Granted, the four-cylinder Equinox won’t win any drag races, but neither will the RAV4 or CR-V. The compact crossover market is also booming, unlike the sports cars market. For another example, look at Chevy’s Malibu. Since it was redesigned a couple of years ago, it has been popular with consumers, garnering enough sales to propel it to No. 3 on our American-Made Index (although fleet sales are included in those numbers). It might not have as much interior room as the Accord, but its ride is more pleasant. It was one of the first examples of GM turning the corner in interior quality, as well. Oh, and it beats the Japanese rivals in gas mileage (as of the 2009 model year).Sure, the Camaro looks retro cool, but as our staff experts decided, it couldn’t beat the Ford Mustang or Dodge Challenger in a head-to-head-to-head matchup. There’s heavy demand for the Camaro now, but in time its shine will dull a little, just like the new Mustang’s. That shouldn’t worry GM, as long as it can continue to build more cars, trucks and SUVs like the Malibu and Equinox.Quality. Reliability. High mpg. That’s the recipe for the Detroit automakers to muscle aside foreign manufacturers to regain their market share, and that’s the way they’ll be able to fire us taxpayers as their employers and bring us on as customers.
A Muscle Car to the Rescue (New York Times)
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