Sixth-Gen Chevrolet Camaro Could Live On Until 2026
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The sixth-generation Chevrolet Camaro could live on until the 2026 model year, according to a recent report out of Australia.
The last we heard, General Motors was planning to pull the plug on the sixth-generation Chevy Camaro in 2023 following the end of production of the 2024 model year vehicle. However a new report from Whichcar.com.au indicates GM will extend the production end date to the 2026 model year.
While this is the first we’ve heard of a supposed production extension for the sixth-generation Chevy Camaro, it appears to make sense. GM has already committed to the Australian Supercars series’ new Gen3 ruleset and will race a sixth-generation Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in the championship from the 2022 season onward. It wouldn’t be very cost effective or practical to make a multi-year commitment to a racing series with a vehicle that will go out of production not even 24 months later, so there just may be some substance to these rumors.
Additionally, the Whichcar report indicates GM is looking at re-introducing the sixth-generation Chevrolet Camaro to the Australian market by as early as next year. Again, it wouldn’t make much sense for GM to go through the trouble of setting up a program to ship Camaros to Australia and convert them to right-hand-drive locally only to pull the plug less than two years later. If the Camaro is confirmed for the General Motors Special Vehicles lineup, it would certainly add some credence to the claims that it will live on past its current planned 2023 end date.
The sixth-gen Chevrolet Camaro was briefly offered in Australia via Holden Special Vehicles, which shipped both SS and ZL1 trim level models to Australia before converting them to RHD for local consumption. The more competitively priced Ford Mustang made the converted HSV Camaro a hard sell, however, and the company was forced to pull the plug on the program. GMSV will apparently get a better deal on the vehicles from GM in Detroit than HSV did, which may enable it to offer the Camaro for a lower price.
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Fortunately for owners (and unfortunate for buyers), the 2SS cars are holding their value. I was interested in a ’16 – ’18 2SS 6MT (with mag ride, dual mode exhaust and sunroof). But it seems all of them are in the low 30k range and sorry, but there other cars I would buy for that money (and did, modded C6Z).
Had it been in the mid 20’s I would own one right now.
Bring back the Nova. Basically a Camaro chassis with that grocery getter body look.
Who ever said that you shouldn’t beat a dead horse?
Or Drive a train right off the tracks?
Is GM/Chevy trying to irreparably ruin the legacy of the first gen Camaro?
GM Executive to a colleague: “Hey, let’s see if we can make every living human become disgusted with the ’69 Camaro?…” Response: “OK………”
I’m sure the car will look a lot better with a full 3” lower belt line, people will forget the “bad visibility” feeling and the likes of seating in a tank comments from Mustangnatics and first buyers impression. Don’t get me wrong, this is coming from a Camaro lover…
Nothing wrong with the current Camaro, its a great car. I know…my SS 6 speed has been my daily driver for over 3 year and 40k miles. What is very wrong is Chevy refuses to promote and advertise the car. They Stupid!
Well my bank account will be happy. I was going to load up a 2023 2SS with the 1LE and the computer since that MY was going to be the end of the ICE camaro. Sounds like I will have 3 yrs to save up. That might get me in the ZL1. BTW what will the NASCAR teams call their cars if the camaro is discontinued?
Current sales say it all. Camaro is a dead car walking. GM is not going to spend the $$$$ necessary to redo the Camaro. Then there is the problem of it being in last place in its segment, which is shrinking. Years of neglect by GM has killed Camaro. 2023 or 2026, the end is coming.
Hope production ramps back up in 2021, don’t see any on local dealer & closest other 2 dealers only seem to have a couple each occasionally.
Why would you invest in something that loses money. The smartest decision would be for GM to kill it immediately from a business POV but they decided to let it die naturally. This is a flawed design which has been a complete failure from the beginning. Bob Lutz knew that the Mustang was going to steamroll it from the start. This car has been a complete waste of corporate resources.
Why would you invest in something that loses money. The smartest decision would be for GM to kill it immediately from a business POV but they decided to let it die naturally. This is a flawed design which has been a complete failure from the beginning. Bob Lutz knew that the Mustang was going to steamroll it from the start. This car has been a complete waste of corporate resources.
To all of you who don’t like it then just don’t buy it. I have 2019 2ss and love it . Lots of fun. The only thing they should have done was put the 5.3 in the rs and drop the price just a little lower. Would has sold more. Also drop the stupid fuel management system. If you buy a muscle car you don’t care about fuel mileage.
Cost is not the issue, or at least it shouldn’t be unless you’re talking low-information buyers. Camaros value is as good or better than Challenger or Mustangs. What do I mean by this? I was at a Dodge dealership the other day and they had a Widebody Challenger Scat Pack on display for about $53K. I was at Carmax a few months back and there was a 19 widebody Challenger Scat Pack with over 25K miles being sold for $43K. WTF? You can get a 2SS 1LE for well under $53K. I bought my 19 1SS 1LE brand new for $39,736. A SS 1LE will slap 7 shades of sh*t out of a widebody Scat Pack at anything other than a straight line race which in that case it could go either way. (Generally the torquey 392 will pull into an early lead, then the broad/liner powerband of the LT1 will start to walk past it as the race progresses) Don’t believe me? C&D’s Lightning laps at VIR the SS 1LE was exactly 5 seconds faster than a widebody Challenger Hellcat. Even a V6 1LE lapped within .5 seconds of the Charger Hellcat they tested. Automotive Magazine ran in a 2SS 1LE at NCM 7 seconds faster than the did in a widebody Challenger Scat Pack, and 4 seconds faster than they did in a widebody Challenger Redeye. People claim, well Challengers Pirelli’s aren’t as good on a track as SS 1LE/ZL1 GY Supercar 3’s (even though the widebody cars run a square 305 setup where a SS 1LE/ZL1 run a 285/305 F/R setup) and they are correct. I don’t care if you put a square 305 setup using Sport Cup 2’s (which SC2’s drop noticeably times compared to the SC3’s on the SS 1LE/ZL1 as well) or Hoosier slicks on those cars it still would be enough. Maybe it would allow the Redeye to plant it’s power well enough to catch up, but that’s iffy, and we’re not even comparing it to a ZL1 which would lap a little quicker than the SS 1LE will. (Think of a SS 1LE kind of as a ZL1 with a SS engine/trans) If you say that not everyone is looking for a trackcar and the Challenger is more practical then I agree. It has a bigger trunk, a little more room, and as far as back seats it does have more room there as well but who cares as they still suck for adults of early teens even.?.? If given the option to ride in the rear of a Foxbody, SN95, GEN4 Fbody, or new Challenger, the Challenger would be my last pick as the back seats in every one of the “muscle/pony/whatever you wish to call them” cars that post-dates them (S197/S550 Mustangs, Zeta/Alpha Camaros, GEN3 Challenger) is less inviting than those cars, so the Challengers larger rear seat than S550 and GEN6 Camaro is irrelevant IMHO. If you can stomach a 90’s compact car without issue then the interior of a GEN6 Camaro feeling claustrophobic should be a non-issue. As far as ride quality the new Camaro (minus ZL1 1LE) rides very nice especially your MRC cars.
As far as Mustang it has a very good engine. It comes prebuild to be able to handle a big HP bump, and it’s a pretty easy and rewarding car to mod power out of. It’s biggest issue compared to Camaro is the same that it’s traditionally been and that being that it chassis/suspension setup is noticeably more budgeted and inferior to Camaros from a performance standpoint. Also Ford always seems to always use inferior manual transmissions. As much as things changes many things don’t. Mustang is still easier to live with as it’s easier to get in and out of, more practical trunk, better awareness as to what’s going on around you, etc. (I still own a Foxbody and an 03 Cobra and have owned GEN4 Fcars that I spent years DD’ing) The Camaro having less outer visibility, being harder to get in and out of, etc is nothing new and goes back at least 2-3 Generations. From a value standpoint Mustang is no better than Camaro. “But a Mustang GT starts at $3K less than a new SS.” A base 1SS also gives you a much better suspension, much larger and better wheels and tires, trans/rearend coolers, better brakes, a pretty good infotainment system (even if the non-BOSE sound system is lacking) a Tremec TR6060, torsion diff, etc. A 1SS competes with a non-premium GT PP1 while still having much better infotainment system that the little reverse camera screen a base Mustang has. A 2SS is competition for an optioned out GT PP1 car. Your low option GT’s competition is a LT1. Think of a LT1 like you would a Foxbody LX. You can get them stipped down or option them up. By that 3,700 lb S550 GT weight everyone pushes is for your no option, basic, small wheel/tire M6 cars, as your premium GT PP1 M6 cars are more in the 3,820+ lb range and your 18+ cars setup like that I’ve seen listed in the 3,860 lb range. For comparison a base LT1 M6 car is in the 3,580 lb range and a 2SS is in the 3,700 lb range. These are all coupe weights BTW, and your 1LE’s weigh an extra 40-50 lbs as they use much bigger wheels/tires, swaybars, ZL1 9.9″ rearend with eLSD, etc. Also the Camaros Recaros are heavy because they all come plumbed for heated and vented seats even though the Recaros in the 1SS don’t take advantage of those features that are built into them.
This isn’t to say that the Camaros competitors are poor values, or that people shouldn’t buy them, but most the what people claim are “the problem with this gen Camaro” are not justified, and are likely written by Camaro haters or Chevy fans who miss their IROC’s and hate the new cars looks or whatever. People who have big issues with the new Camaro are likely to have little to no experience with them, or they’re just wanting to find issue with them as they’re biast against them. For a “Sport car” (which a GEN6 is) there is no big problem with them. Yes like many sports cars its rear visibility is lacking, having a bunch of AFM hardware in the engine sucks, it’s trunk is only decent at best and not huge like on my wifes Taurus, the rear seats are not practical for someone that’s not had both legs amputated. These are compromises easily justified in cars with the performance that the GEN6 delivers. The car one the 2016 MT COTY award because for $37K you had a car that would match an M4 on a road course. For $45K MSRP (I paid less than $40 for mine brand new) you have a car that’s faster around most tracks than C6 Z06’s, non-NISMO GTR’s, base GT350’s, (Randy Pobst matched his GT350R time to the tenth around Willow Spring in a SS 1LE. A GT350R makes 71 more HP, less weight since it has a minimal interior and CF wheels, larger Sport Cup 2 tires, and like $25K extra MSRP) and it’s nipping on a C7 GS heels which also wear large SC2’s. Point I’m getting at is how is its value off? Is it expensive for a Camaro in the traditional sense if we don’t take inflation into account? Sure, but for Camaro to cost less it would have to be a less car, built on a lesser platform. It’s not underpowered. The GEN5 LT1 makes 455HP and 455 lb-ft in the Camaro. That’s 5 less HP and 35 more lb-ft than a GEN3 Coyote in a Mustang GT, with a curve that’s about as broad as the one found on a Terminator. BTW comparing competing models the Camaro weighs 120+ lbs less. It make 30 less HP than the 392 Hemi, and I think 20 lb-ft less, but were talking about a car that weighs 500+ lbs more. And for all the GEN5 Camaro guys who like to hate on the GEN6 cars you don’t want to start. There’s not much (including outward visibility) that a GEN5 has over a GEN6. Maybe some better ergonomics in the trunk or rear seat or something like that, but not much else unless you just like the looks of the GEN5 better.
There is no big issue with the GEN6 Camaro. You might dislike it’s styling, or be a fanboy of something, but the GEN6 is a great performer and a very composed platform. Alphas chassis design is based on the old E46 BMW platform that everyone raves about. All this negativity about “the problems with the GEN6 Camaro” is just haters talking out their butts. Sure they don’t sell the best, but the reality is they are the best overall performers in their class. If Chevy would of continued to develop their performance after 2017 and given SS a LT2 and ZL1 a LT5 to could Ford and Fiat counters Camaros powerplants then this wouldn’t even be a question right now. If you want to talk about a problem, that’s a problem. GM develops excellent products then allows them to remain stagnant for years while their rivals work to catch up and/or surpass their performance. It’s hard to compete for bragging rights when ZL1 is making about 110 and 150 less HP than its competitors. A ZL1 1LE with a LT5 would be insanely good. IMO the new Mach 1 is just Fords next attempt to better the SS 1LE. The GT PP2 couldn’t better it, but Ford can’t build a better car for the same price so they dress it up a little bit and call it Mach 1 to justify the price it commands.
Epistles don’t sell sports cars. Contemporary styling, exterior and interior, performance, quality, value, marketing, all mesh in successful vehicles. These owners tend to be loyal, so when a company let’s a brand go stale, like GM has with Camaro, it is very difficult to reclaim market share. The death spiral for Camaro has begun.
Love my 6th gen. Wish I lived in a warmer climate so I can drive it more.would like to see the alpha in more cars
I AGREE 100% WITH JROC
You sound like a Camaro hater looking to troll on a GM based site. GM hasn’t announced that they are discontinuing Camaro. If anything extending the production to 2026 is extremely promising for the model. GEN6 Camaro can easily do that while remaining relevant seeing as it’s built on one of the best unibody structures that any car is built on. I mean your Challenger platform gets it roots from a clusterF of early 90’s S-Class and E-Class chassis/suspension piece, and even back when those cars were introduced in the 90’s they weren’t considered to be some great or class leading platforms. S550 rides on a revamped DEW98. Cars that road on that platform were your Lincoln LS, early 2,000 Thunderbird, a model or two from Jaguar. From my understanding the nect Mustang (S650 I think it’s being called) is to share it platform with some crossovers being developed by the FoMoCo. That sounds like a great idea, kind of like using the old Foxbody/SN95’s 4link with the offset uppers sounded like a great idea back when it was being developed in the 70’s to help budget the platform by not having to use a PHB.
I will say that if GM plans to extend the GEN6 to 2026 then they need to upgrade their powerplants to keep up with the competition. The SS needs a LT2 by 2022 or 2023 at the latest.
As is if they do discontinue the camaro then that sucks, but okay. I’ve got mine, and if something better comes along that I feel like spending on to upgrade then I will. I’m a Camaro fan, but I’m not a slave to them. I own (currently) 4 Fords including an 88 GT, 03 Cobra, and an 03 Lightning so I buy other brands and models as well. If I feel that Ford step their game up on the S650 Mustangs then I might be trading a Camaro in on one.
The fact still remains that a GEN6 Camaro is an excellent car for what it is. That being a everyday, working-class persons performance car above anything else. Again the Alpha platform is well ahead of S550 or the Challengers (I believe they call it the LA platform) platforms from a performance cars structural standpoint. There is no really big issues woth the GEN6 Camaro, it’s just the poorest selling car in a segment of poor selling cars.
I think this is Aussie news, more pertaining to the gm holden. Not the Camaro.
Camaro is cheaper in USA. Perhaps not in Australia.