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You could have said the same thing about Camaro but they brought it back and it sold a ton, which means they were wrong in killing it in the first place. You're giving too much credit to corporate marketing departments.
Hindsight is always 20-20, but I don't think it was selling enough. And the Camaro was discontinued at a time when the sports Coupe market was shrinking.
And using the used car market as a barometer doesn't say much. I remember working at a Toyota dealer. A new Tacoma could sit on the lot for awhile. Used ones, despite selling for insanely close to new retail, never seemed to last. The same was true for the Matrix. They couldn't give the new ones away but a used one? Flew off the lot.
You could have said the same thing about Camaro but they brought it back and it sold a ton, which means they were wrong in killing it in the first place. You're giving too much credit to corporate marketing departments.
When the Camaro returned to market it had fewer competitors. It was also a different body style- couple vs hatchback.
The half SUV/half truck market had 5 vehicles in the 00s- Avalanche, Ridgeline, Subaru Baja, Explorer sport track and the Cadillac version of the Avalanche. Now only the Ridgeline remains. And while not a true truck the Ridgeline is more of a hybrid as opposed to a true unibody.
It will be interesting to see if Ford makes nicer trim lines available on the new Ranger since the big selling point for a Sprot trac vs Ranger was bells and whistles, styling and the availability of rear doors.
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Originally Posted by HappyRider
You could have said the same thing about Camaro but they brought it back and it sold a ton, which means they were wrong in killing it in the first place. You're giving too much credit to corporate marketing departments.
No - It made complete sense to kill it. 2 door cars were not selling. The existing Camaro was TERRIBLE and had a really unfortunate image in the market. Killing it for 10 years was the right thing to do. By the time they brought it back all was forgotten and the new car, while not great in it's first iteration, hit all the right nostalgic buttons with none of the negatives.
The Sport Trac failed mostly due to the lousy and anemic 4.0 V6 engine which only made 210HP/250lbs and that's when it was running right. Coupled to a 5 speed automatic that was troublesome for owners, it was not the picture of reliability. The towing capacity was disappointing as well. Then came along the 4.6 V8 as an option and everybody got lathered up over it. It fell on its face. Seems Ford decided that while the engine made 292HP, you couldn't have all of them until the engine hit 3700 rpms. Otherwise, the PCM cut the throttle body back considerably. You could have eliminated the problem with a custom chip but few took that route. They bought a full size for the same money and not all of the headaches. I doubt Ford actually had any intent on selling many. Too many failures, too little attention paid to owners, too little of everything. Afterall, it's nothing really but the Explorer of the day with an open air trunk.
So far none of the small trucks with really small beds have sold well. The Sport Trac, the Subaru Baja... turns out that people who buy a small truck still typically want a bed of substantial enough size to haul whatever it is they envision going back there. The token bed in the Sport Track was just too limiting for most people interested in a compact pickup.
You could have said the same thing about Camaro but they brought it back and it sold a ton, which means they were wrong in killing it in the first place. You're giving too much credit to corporate marketing departments.
Actually the Camaro was not selling well in the 00s model years. Sure they had a LS1 finally and were fast but they were still the same crappy F body chassi. I would buy a new body style Camaro over any of the past series.
GM stopping production was a good idea. Coupes weren5 selling as well and V8 rwd coupes were pretty much gone. Coming back with the retro style style n a Holden chassi was a good idea. The ZL1 is a great car.
I would like to see a Trans Am version.
Yeah I know. I would like to see a GM run of a special Pontiac Trans Am version on the current chassi. ZL1 but a WS6 version. Or do a Trans Am race series version.
I know there is a company taking Camaro and doing a Trans Am body kit.
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