The seller of today’s Nice Price or No Dice Camaro includes the original Monroney sticker in its ad, but cleverly blacks out the factory MSRP. That’s okay, we’re more interested in what’s being asked for it in the present.
Let’s talk a moment about the “People’s Car.” Yes, that’s literally what the name Volkswagen means. Of course, the original people the company’s cars were intended for were nazis so the association isn’t quite as sunnily egalitarian as it implies.
Thankfully, that’s an association that’s long in the past, and there’s no reason to have condemned yesterday’s 2000 Volkswagen GTI VR6 for its ancestral anathemas. There were enough issues with the car and the model’s reputation to take up our consideration anyway. And, at a $2,900 asking, those were a deciding factor. In the end, that people’s car got a people’s abnegation in the form of a 58% No Dice loss.
If you will recall, last Friday we looked at a 1966 Ford Mustang. That was the first generation of the prototypical pony car, and late ‘66 would see the arrival of the Mustang’s most ardent competitor, the Chevy Camaro.
While the Ford has been evergreen straight through since its introduction, Camaro production went dark for nearly a decade a while back. That breather allowed Chevy to figure out how to make money off of the model in our crossover-crazed market. Their brainstorm was to go back to the drawing board and introduce a retro-style coupé that could go engine block to engine block with the ‘Stang.
Oddly enough, this uniquely American machine would actually have much of its platform designed in Australia by GM subsidiary, Holden, while production would be handled by the company’s Oshawa assembly plant in Ontario, Canada. U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S… Hey!
This 2011 Chevy Camaro RS is an example of that international collaboration’s end result. And, like Camaros of yore, it shows a nice mix of motor, gearbox, and kit. That demonstrates that the model can fit many different molds, as long as they all sort of look like the narrow roofed two-door pony car.
Power here comes from a 3.6-litre V6, and before you all pointy-up your pitchforks and waste your breakfast scotch soaking torches in the complaint that REAL Camaros are V8s, consider that this six pumps out a substantial 312 horsepower and 278 lb-ft of torque. Yep, those are fighting numbers. To make the most of them, the car is equipped with a Tremec TR-6060 six-speed stick, so put up your dukes.
Those have powered the black on black RS through 139,000 miles which, the seller claims, were light-duty highway miles most of the way. The bodywork, paint, and handsome 20-inch five-spoke alloy wheels show little evidence of those highway antics. There’s no evidence of peppering on the angry nose, nor even any door dings from parking lot stops along the way.
The interior presents in a similar fashion. The cloth upholstered seats look grippy enough and are paired with leather wrapping on the three-spoke wheel and shift knob. Everything else in here is hard, kind of cheap-looking plastic, which is one area in which the fifth-generation Camaro lets down.
Another is in the aggressively low roofline which affords a gun-slit-like windscreen and cosseting greenhouse the rest of the way around. It looks well proportioned from the outside but makes you want to hunch your shoulders the first few times you climb inside.
The title is clean and the ad notes regular oil changes with the fancy synthetic stuff. The seller complains that they do not wish to sell the car but having two rug rats makes it a less than optimal mode of transportation. Apparently you can’t just leave kids at home to fend for themselves anymore.
That population explosion may not be an issue you need to overcome, but the car’s $9,500 asking price might just be. The ad includes a picture of the original window sticker so you can see the options it carries, as well as that it does a fairly respectable 28 mpg on the highway.
What’s your take on this RS and that $9,500 asking? Does that feel like a fairly good deal? Or, for that price are you just going to have to mullet over?
You decide!
Fredericksburg, VA Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to FauxShizzle for the hookup!
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