Five Things We Like About The 2014 Chevrolet SS Performance Sedan
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The 2014 Chevrolet SS performance sedan is inbound this fall, and there are plenty of reasons to be excited. If you’re one of the lucky few in the market for this limited-run, high-end Chevy, the following five reasons are likely all the motivation you’ll need to invest in one:
The Drivetrain
There’s no nonsense here. A V8 engine sending a stout 415 horsepower to the rear wheels and only the rear wheels with a near-perfect 50/50 weight distribution. It’s foolish to think it will handle poorly, or even just moderately. From Australia, with love.
The Interior Design
The cabin of the Chevrolet SS is nothing short of cool, and directly reflects the vehicle’s sporty nature. Equipped with an all-new center console shared with the Holden VF Commodore, all-new seats, and even a flat-bottom steering wheel, it makes its platform mate, the Camaro, look like an old Aveo in many respects.
The Sleeper Looks
Unlike the Dodge Charger, which can come across as loud and brash, the Chevrolet SS is able to subtly sneak up on an opponent, and knock them out without foreshadowing it. Not unlike a cage fighter walking the streets in a business-casual outfit and not one of those tasteless Tapout shirts (only wannabes and posers wear Tapout, unless of course they sponsor you). We dig the subtlety.
The Fact It Even Exists
No matter how close the Chevrolet SS has been to being unveiled, a successor to the Pontiac G8 always seemed like a hollow pipe dream, something that would be constantly talked about but never followed through. Even without a manual transmission, we’re grateful that GM found a way to bring the coveted Holden Commodore back to the United States as a Chevrolet. Let’s hope the vehicle catches on, because it increases the chances of it actually seeing life beyond the death of the Zeta platform, and onto the global Alpha platform.
The Heads Up Display
A HUD should be found in just about any car. It allows the driver to monitor their speed, while keeping the eyes fixated on the road. And in a 415 horsepower RWD sport sedan, that’s crucial.
What do you love about the Chevy SS? Talk to us in the comments.
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Now only if they would make it a 2door…
That, along with a shooting brake (SS Nomad) and a coupe utility (SS El Camino).
See: Chevrolet Camaro SS.
a two door Chevy SS should happen! Return of the Holden legend, the Monaro!
@Holden4Life for all intents and purposes, the Camaro is a two-door Chevy SS.
Maybe not a coupe here, as you and others have stated, the Camaro is a 2 dr Chevy SS. But a coupe down under would be more legendary, considering the pedigree that the Monaro has in Australia. I mean a Holden Camaro would be epic, but a return of the Monaro would be better. I personally wouldn’t mind both, but to each is own.
I think there would be enough difference between an SS coupe and a Camaro to sell both of ‘em, especially if the SS is a limited production car. They need only to slot it above or somewhere below the Camaro and only sell it for a year or two. Sure it’ll still eat at Camaro sales, but only briefly. If GM loses money because of this, they can easily make it back in Australia where it will always sell more units.
Forgotten the Camaro already?
Is active park assist available on the SS? I know it is on the Holden.
Yes, along with collision detection, blind spot/lane deviation, rear backup camera, etc. All VFs will get it…
Manoli, just no. The Camaro SS is not an affordable 2 door, not even the LS is.
Chevy needs a 2door sports car, preferably RWD in the 17thousand dollar price range that for young people. I’m stuck in a four door sonic because Chevy is dropping the ball in the small car market.
You mean something like the Chevy R130 concept? That would be a cool car to hit the dealers. It looks like a really fun little car to drive.
You’re talking about the Code 130R, and no, I’m talking about the TRU140S, although the concept is FWD.
The 130R is the love child of a camaro and a beemer and is ugly.
The 140S is sleeker, with better lines.
I think the R130 is better because the 140S is shaped like like a giant horse pill on wheels. Plus, rear-wheel-drive is better anyway. The 130R would compete very well against Subaru BRZ, Scion FR-S, and the Toyota GT86 in Europe (a rebadged Scion FR-S) because it’s a budget rear-wheel-drive sport coupe. It looks like the Chevy 130R would be lighter as well, so I’m quite sure that it would sell better than the Subaru BRZ and it’s siblings. In the 130R a biturbo I4 would be the top engine choice, or atleast one turbo anyway.
You never said anything about affordabilty in your first post.
The SS and Camaro are high hp sportscars, not toys for teenagers to wrap around a tree. Younger drivers don’t have loads of money anyway, and if the gas bill doesn’t put some rationality in their heads, the insurance will.
If you’re expecting something like the 130code, don’t expect it to ever be offered at $17K with anything more than a 4 pot.
“I’m stuck in a four door sonic because Chevy is dropping the ball in the small car market.”
Huh? The Sonic is an ideal car for the sub compact segment. You’re driving a car GM build to market to first time buyers who wanted affordable transportation, not sports cars.
Perhaps you shouldn’t have bought a Sonic and hunted down a 4th gen Camaro….or any RWD compact.
Both the 130R and the 140S would be 2.0T.
And yea, the Sonic is a good subcompact, for people who like 4doors.
Chevy doesn’t make an affordable 2 door car right now.
“You’re driving a car GM build to market to first time buyers who wanted affordable transportation, not sports cars.”
You’re right, but only because Chevy doesn’t offer a sports car applicable to first time buyers like myself.
Who says a car can’t be affordable and sporty? Like a Fiero, or Cobalt…
good article and comments there will be more affordable cool cars soon they are in clinics right now and doing well you will see soon. think sonic on steroids with just a little more room but lots more power and fuel economy. think Onix direction of design.
Yea JD, but will these cars be offered in the U.S. where they could hurt Sonic/Cruze sales? Has to be in the back of Reuss’s mind, if not a firm plan.
GM used U.S. taxpayers to survive and then limits the sale of its portfolio within the U.S., even of cars made available to other North American countries. That is what infuriates me.
“GM used U.S. taxpayers to survive and then limits the sale of its portfolio within the U.S., even of cars made available to other North American countries.”
So?
Different cars for different people in different countries. Not everything GM produces needs to be available in the US or in NA….especally if they estimations can’t rationalize the sale of a car becasue the predicted sales would be too low to be profitable.
Like the Ute for instace.
Grawdaddy, maybe you are on to something. GM can’t produce certain types of cars with sufficient efficiency to be profitable, so they don’t offer them in the U.S.. If they were efficient and had the products, they would sell them here. Other auto makers have been doing it, and at manufacturing sites that are often not even in the U.S..
@VeranoHatch much of this isn’t due to GM’s inability to offer cars in certain segments profitably, but rather due to the fact that vehicles weren’t planned to have those variants (in those markets) when the tooling was offered at the plants at which they are made.
If the Cruze, for instance, were to have had a hatch variant from the get-go, the plant at Lordstown would have incorporated the necessary changes to produce it before tooling was engineered and implemented, and the costs would have been folded into the initial expense structure. Since that didn’t happen, the result is two-fold:
1. It’s a lot more expensive to make changes to an existing line, especially when production is ongoing. And,
2. The expenses need to “pay for themselves” in the short timeframe that the current Cruze has on the market, which isn’t really feasible. Hence, no Cruze hatch, for instance. The same goes for the Verano Hatch… although its more premium nature might change the economics.
Ultimately, what matters is long-term planning for the existence of model variants, and GM is doing just that for the next generation of many of its models.
Alex, how then do you explain GM’s position on the Chevy Trax, which has nothing to do with re-tooling a plant? … Imported from Asia to Canada and Mexico but not the U.S. (because Americans have more money and can afford a Buick)??? Now personally I would have opted for the Encore if they had given it a power-train and armrest befitting a Buick, but my guess is most other buyers are more on a budget.
I would have the same questions regarding the Cruze Wagon — a beautiful vehicle in my estimation. Why not import it and then source replacement parts (which should be in common with the sedan) in the U.S.? That’s the car I’d like to have to replace our Saturn wagon in a few years, but it seems that in Reuss’s mind the only people that would be interested are those that want a gas-guzzling engine (sport-wagon types). If GM came out with an efficient power-train for such cars (that could bust the 40 MPG barrier), maybe a hybrid like the Ford C-Max, then people in SUVs might begin to see what they are losing to have that extra height/weight.
JD, what about the Granite? When I was still at the dealership, my gm was at a conference and was told that it was production ready, then it was scrapped. That’s something that GM and GMC need. It would have been a great street/urban vehicle, it wouldn’t have competed with the trax or encore. It was a scion XB fighter. Will this ever come back?
In my opinion a Holden Monaro (Vauxhall Monaro in UK) & Chevrolet Camaro could share unseen parts & be different enough to be individual & could both sell and turn a profit. Yes one may take a few sales off the other but they are both still GM cars so its not a rivals ‘sale’. I also realise Coupes are fashion led & tend not to make much in the way of a profit, but again the bread & butter models will see to that & coupes such as Calibra & Monaro shouldn’t be underrated as models in their own right & increasing interest in the brand.
I would hold no complaints if the Holden Coupe 60 Concept came to life.
I think the Coupe 60′s time has sadly passed. Having said that, I think “large 4-passenger coupe” is a small niche that GM could serve if they wanted. The Camaro is effectively a 2-seater (no sane adult would want to be trapped back there). That was the beauty of the old Monaro/GTO – ingress/egress was difficult, but the amount of room in the back seat was amazing.
I just see GM focusing on getting the bread-and-butter vehicles right (need a mulligan on the new Malibu). Once they do, and are both class and sales leading, then you’ll start to see more and more niche vehicles/segments addressed…
With the SS and the new Commodore, I think the window for the Coupe 60 has reopened. I agree with everything else you said though.
this is a question for americans, how are they finding our habit of identifing a body style (model) by an alpha code (ie VF) instead of a year code, to us in aus a VF is a body style regardless of year produced, when we buy parts we always refer to the alpha code not the year code, most models run three years on average with a platform change every 9/10 years.
When will gm bring back the h-3 hummer with a v8 ?