Recently, we posted about great cars that no one was buying. At number four was the Chevy SS, with a 415hp LS3 V8, rear-wheel drive and mag-ride suspension; it is a modern day E39 M5. The reason for such lackluster sales isn't because people don't want them, it is because they can't have the one they want.
After the death of the Pontiac G8, we begged GM for another V8, rear-drive sports sedan. Then in 2013 Chevrolet announced that it was giving us the SS; we were all very excited, until we found out that a manual transmission was not available. I would like to mention that the Chevy SS was the subject of my first ever blog post on Oppositelock. In a rather stupid analogy (I've learned lot since then) I bemoaned the lack of a manual trans and dismissed the car.
Chevy finally wised up and gave us that third pedal option that we all begged for. But here is the catch, it is pretty much impossible to actually find a manual trans equipped SS. A nationwide search on Cars.com revealed zero manual SS cars.
So I thought I would try AutoTrader.
One... there is exactly one manual trans SS advertised on the two major third party listing sites. I'm sure there may be a few others sitting on dealer lots somewhere, but this lack of availability combined with a price of almost $50,000 isn't helping. Now I get it, all you Jalops are taking Tavarish's advice and holding out until the depreciation curve reaches about $20k, then you will snatch one up. There is one problem with that, if no one buys new ones there will be no used ones to depreciate.
I would also like to point out that there are less than 500 examples regardless of transmission currently for sale; due to the limited availability depreciation may take longer than expected. Remember the G8 GXP that everyone loved? There exactly eleven cars with manual transmissions up for sale on Autotrader, the cheapest of which is just under twenty grand and it has 96k miles. And the GXP's retail price was about eight grand less than a similarly equipped SS.
It's important to bear in mind why there are so few SS's around, regardless of transmission: it's only in the U.S. because GM has an agreement where a certain number of Australian Holdens have to be built for export, so really, we just get them because of that. Even GM's Mark Reuss admitted he didn't know how they'd sell it. They never meant for it to be a mass-market, volume kind of car.
Of course if you are determined to get yourself a 3-pedal SS, your local Chevy dealer can order one from the factory for you. And if you do get your hands on one, keep the miles low and stick in a climate controlled garage. You might make some serious cash at Barrett Jackson in a few years.
If you have a question, a tip, or something you would like to to share about car-buying, drop me a line at AutomatchConsulting@gmail.com and be sure to include your Kinja handle.