Our good friend John Paul (aka the Car Doctor), who hosts his weekly radio show on WROL, 910am Boston, had a chance to talk to John Fitzpatrick, Marketing Manager of the Chevrolet Camaro this past weekend. John and John discussed a recent 5th gen Camaro meet-up in Georgia, the new Camaro Synergy edition, and how great of a deal the V6 Camaro is.

The entire show is an hour long but the interview with John Fitzpatrick is up first and lasts 16 minutes.  The rest of the show is just as good, so don’t stop listening after the interview. Check out the full show replay after the break.

Check out The Car Doctor’s Radio show homepage and John’s column on Boston.com

Awards handed out in the automotive industry are as easy to come by as penny on the sidewalk.   Some, such as Car and Driver’s “10-Best” and Motor Trends “Car and Truck of the Year” are merely automaker sponsored advertising packages passed off as reputable achievements.   That’s why when an actual honest award comes around, we think you should know about it.

We gave you the heads up on the “Internet Car and Truck of the Year” awards a few months back. It’s a combination of reputable online automotive journalist’s opinions and votes from the online public consumer. Now we have the results.  The Mazda 3 and Chevrolet Equinox got the nod from the “pros” with the Camaro and Equinox getting the public “joe” seal of approval. We’ve driven all three and couldn’t agree more (I never thought I’d say that about an automotive award- gasp!).

For more information please head on over to www.internetcarandtruckoftheyear.com

AND THE WINNERS ARE…

INTERNET PROS AND AVERAGE JOES

PICK THEIR FAVORITE NEW CARS AND TRUCKS

The Internet Car and Truck of the Year website, an online venue not dependent on OEM advertising, held its inaugural Internet Pros and Average Joes vote for their favorite new cars.

The Internet Pros are comprised of a select team of 12 online writers from some of the leading automotive Internet sites, while the Average Joes consisted of more than 50,000 votes from the motoring public.

The winners, announced from the Chicago Auto Show today, are:

Internet Pros:

Car of the Year: 2010 Mazda3

Truck of the Year: 2010 Chevrolet Equinox

Average Joes:

Car of the Year: 2010 Chevrolet Camaro

Truck of the Year: 2010 Chevrolet Equinox

Automotive Analyst Lauren Fix, one of the 12-member jury for the Internet Pros, had this to say about the Mazda3: “It’s just the right size and has great performance. It comes standard with all the available bells and whistles and it’s really edgy looking. I just wanted to take it to the track because it handled tightly, has great throttle response, and it’s a blast to drive.”

Another juror, Dan Roth from Autoblog.com, said he voted for the Chevrolet Equinox because “”…it’s a clear signal of General Motors newfound realization that it not only needs great products, it needs the *right* great products. Cars like the Camaro, Cadillac CTS-V, and of course the Corvette – we all expect those to be great, and they are. Greatness in a niche is fine, but what’s really going to breathe new life into the stumbling behemoth are the bread-and-butter cars.”

So while the Internet Pros and Average Joes agree on the Truck of the Year they have very differing opinions when it comes to their favorite car. The Pros opted for practicality while the Joes chose power. However, both demonstrated their respect for American Sheet metal with the Equinox.

Between the semi-finals and finals rounds, more than 50,000 votes were cast for the Consumer Internet Car and Truck of the Year. Percent of males vs. females was 79 to 21 percent. Forty-seven percent of the voters were between the ages of 40-55.

College graduates made up 39 percent of the voters, with 30 percent having a graduate degree. Thirty percent of voters reported household income between $100-$149,000. The next largest group at 20 percent was $80,000 to $99,999.

Also announced was the selection of John Neff as Internet Automotive Journalist of the Year. Neff, editor-in-chief of Autoblog.com, was selected for his talented stewardship of the Internet’s largest automotive news site and his advocacy for Internet automotive journalists.

The Internet Car and Truck of the Year awards were created by Keith Griffin, the Guide to Used Cars for About.com, and the Hartford (CT) Auto Examiner for Examiner.com, as well as a print automotive journalist and vice president of the New England Motor Press Association.

Chevy is on a roll with the Camaro and  it’s currently outselling Ford Mustang and Dodge Challenger. That makes it just about the right time to introduce a limited edition run, wouldn’t you think?  So, starting in February and ending in May, Chevy will allow customers to order the lime green “Synergy Special Edition” Package in limited quantities.

The Synergy Edition Camaro will run based on the 1LT package, featuring the 304-horsepower V-6 engine.  Buyers can choose between a manual or automatic and the car also features a standard rear spoiler, Cyber Grey rally stripes, and 19-inch sterling silver painted wheels.  The interior hue is also updated with Synergy Green trim.

“Synergy Green continues a long tradition of dramatic Camaro colors,” says Camaro historian Scott Settlemire. “Some of the most sought-after Camaros are first generation cars – those from 1967 to 1969 – in Hugger Orange, Daytona Yellow, and Rallye Green. Just as those colors helped make the first generation Camaro an icon, modern colors like Inferno Orange, Rallye Yellow Transformers Edition and Synergy Green will define the 2010 Camaro.”

Here’s the full press release that will run tomorrow:

DETROIT, Jan 14 – Today, Chevrolet debuted the 2010 Camaro Synergy Special Edition. The special edition will be produced in limited quantities from February to May, with pricing starting at $26,790.

“The Synergy Special Edition package is designed for customers who want a unique performance car at an attainable price,” says Camaro marketing manager, John Fitzpatrick. “For under $27,000, Camaro Synergy Special Edition offers standout styling, modern technologies like Bluetooth, and 304 horsepower under the hood.”

The 2010 Camaro Synergy Special Edition is based on a Camaro 1LT, with a 3.6L direct injection V-6, paired with either a six-speed manual or automatic transmission. The powertrain has become a benchmark for the segment by offering a combination of performance and efficiency: The V-6 delivers 304 horsepower and 273 lb.-ft. of torque, and returns up to 29 mpg on the highway.

The Synergy Green exterior color was first previewed at the 2009 SEMA show. In production form, the Synergy Green is accented by Cyber Grey Rally Stripes running the length of the Camaro hood and rear deck. Other exterior features include a standard rear spoiler, and standard 19 inch, Sterling Silver painted wheels wrapped with P245/50R19 tires.

The color scheme is mirrored on the interior, with Synergy Green instrument panel and door inserts. Synergy Green stitching also accents the Jet Black cloth seats, steering wheel, shift knob and center console. The Special Edition also includes the Camaro Convenience and Connectivity Package, with Bluetooth phone connectivity, USB port for MP3 players, and remote vehicle start for models equipped with an automatic transmission.

“Synergy Green continues a long tradition of dramatic Camaro colors,” says Camaro historian Scott Settlemire. “Some of the most sought-after Camaros are first generation cars – those from 1967 to 1969 – in Hugger Orange, Daytona Yellow, and Rallye Green. Just as those colors helped make the first generation Camaro an icon, modern colors like Inferno Orange, Rallye Yellow Transformers Edition and Synergy Green will define the 2010 Camaro.”

While our Executive Editor, Zane Merva, has been out gallivanting around (read, trying to gain traction in New England’s Snow) in a certain limited edition Camaro, Popular Mechanics saw fit to award GM’s latest muscle car with an Automotive Excellence award.

Popular Mechanics evaluated a more than 100 new cars and trucks, and after numerous tests and evaluations, Chevy’s 426 HP bruiser took top honors. Fittingly, the new Camaro takes the prize from the Corvette ZR1 which won last year. GM’s performance division seems to be on a roll.

Detroit — Tom Peters, executive director, GM performance cars and full-size trucks, today accepted a Popular Mechanics Automotive Excellence Award for the design of the all-new Camaro.

“It’s truly an honor to receive an Automotive Excellence Award from such a trusted and well-known publication like Popular Mechanics,” Peters said. “This award is a tribute to the passion of many individuals who worked so hard to make the dream of the new Camaro come to life.”

The Automotive Excellence Awards are based on evaluations of more than 100 new cars and trucks that the editors from Popular Mechanics subject to a strenuous battery of tests. The team of editors then nominates a number of the vehicles for selected categories, with the top-vote getters in each receiving an Automotive Excellence Award.

“The new Chevrolet Camaro is a fresh, thoroughly modern take on the 1967 original,” says Ben Stewart, Automotive Editor, Popular Mechanics. “While the design pays homage to the past, its big tires and taut proportions perfectly convey 21st –century muscle, and there’s some serious firepower under the hood to back that up.”

This is not the first Automotive Excellence Award for Chevrolet. Last year the Corvette ZR1 received an award in the Performance category.

It was hard to miss that this year’s SEMA show was heavily sponsored by Ford Motor Company. “Powered by Ford” was on almost every promo banner in sight. However, you’d spent too much time in the Ford booth if you didn’t come away with the impression that the real crowd favorite this year, the true power behind this year’s show,  was the Chevrolet Camaro.

Sorry Ford, you can’t buy enthusiasm

It was impossible not to notice.  It seemed that everywhere you looked someone had a Camaro in their booth. If they didn’t, the booth across from them did.  It might be natural to assume General Motors shelled out big bucks for all the product placement but surprisingly they didn’t.

The automaker only had a hand in ten of the Camaros on the show floor, all of them located inside the GM booth. Four of those were built in house with five others being given to outside shops for modification.  In short, any Camaro seen outside GM’s product display was bought, paid for, and modified without any assistance from the automaker.  That’s quite a feat considering that every single Suzuki Kizashi (all four of them) were bought and paid for by Suzuki and the numbers of previous generation Mustangs out numbered the 2010 model by 3-to-1 easily.

Of the cars GM built, some were hints at future production options and colors (for example the green Synergy Concept), one was built for Jay Leno (an amazing twin-turbo V6, seen below), and a small handful sported graphics packages that Facebook fans voted on a few weeks ago.

Of the cars General Motors and Chevrolet didn’t help get to the show, the modifications varied from mild to wild. Some sported simple wheel and ground-effect kits while a small handful had gotten an amazing supercharged LS9 Corvette engine transplant.  Many of the show Camaros left us drooling and some left us scratching our heads, like this “Hot Wheels” inspired car we found outside.

The Camaro pace car (seen in this articles introductory image and below) had to be one of the classiest cars at the show.

We spent nearly the entire week at SEMA walking around taking photos of all the various Camaro show cars and still couldn’t capture them all. How many were there? We just don’t know for sure, but easily could guess 100+.  Out of those, we caught about 60 before wearing our shoes out.

Check out our full 2009 SEMA Camaro show car gallery… Leave a comment and let us know your own choice for best and worst.

 

]]> http://www.autoinsane.com/2009/11/10/news/autoshows/sema-2009-powered-by-ford-dominated-by-chevy-camaro/feed/ 1 http://www.autoinsane.com/2009/09/22/news/newmodels/hey-internet-dont-forget-to-vote-for-your-favorite-car-and-truck-of-the-year/ http://www.autoinsane.com/2009/09/22/news/newmodels/hey-internet-dont-forget-to-vote-for-your-favorite-car-and-truck-of-the-year/#comments Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:01:07 +0000 Zane Merva http://www.autoinsane.com/?p=4146

There’s a lot of fancy awards going on around the automotive industry.  Car and Driver have the 10 Best, Motor Trend has their own car and truck of the year, and there’s even the North American Car and Truck of the year, just to name a few.  Unfortunately all of these award are voted on by editors and writers, not by you. Now a new award is set to change all that.

Enter the  Internet Car and Truck of the Year Awards [internetcarandtruckoftheyear.com]

The award is comprised of a professional 12-member jury to whittle down the semi-finalists with the final say going to you the consumer via online voting.

The semi-final contenders for Internet Car of the Year are:

• Chevrolet Camaro SS
• Ford Fusion Hybrid
• Ford Taurus SHO
• Kia Forte Sedan
• Mazda3
• Nissan Cube
• Ford Mustang Shelby GT-500

The truck semi-finalists are:

• Audi Q5
• Audi Q7 TDI
• Chevrolet Equinox
• Ford Raptor
• Ford Transit Connect
• Mercedes GLK 350
• Volvo XC60

Voting is open until October 16th a noon. The three finalists for each the car and truck side of things will then be put back up for another vote starting October 19th.

So- got your favorite? Ready to vote? Click here!

And to find out more information, as well as all the rules behind Internet Car and Truck of the Year… check out the official website.

Currently undergoing their own transformation, General Motors took the lid off its contributions to the cast of the upcoming movie Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen at the Chicago Auto Show.  Among the stars unveiled, a wicked cool Corvette concept, and autobots based on the Chevy Volt and Beat.

A total of five Chevrolet vehicles will star as AUTOBOTS in the upcoming movie, including Bumblebee (Camaro), Sideswipe (Corvette Concept), SKIDS/MUDFLAP (twins based on the Beat and Trax concepts), and JOLT (Volt).

Visitors to the show will also get to see a full-sized Bumblebee replica, standing nearly 17-feet tall and 13-feet wide.

Sideswipe, the Corvette concept based AUTOBOT has been eagerly anticipated ever since photos of the car leaked out last fall.

Photos: Chevy vehicles from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

 

The official press release

CHICAGO – Visitors to the Chevrolet display at this year’s Chicago Auto Show (Friday through Feb. 22) will be treated to an out-of-this-world vehicle display – the automotive stars from the upcoming DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures release, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”

Five Chevrolet-based characters – including four all-new characters – are featured in the new film set to open in the United States on June 26. All of them are at the Chevrolet display. The four new movie characters include:

* SIDESWIPE – a stylized Corvette vision concept vehicle
* SKIDS and MUDFLAP – twin AUTOBOTS® based on Chevy’s Beat (a concept that will go into production as the Chevy Spark in 2011) and Trax concepts
* JOLT – an AUTOBOT-based on Chevy’s upcoming Volt extended-range electric vehicle

BUMBLEBEE^TM, the heroic AUTOBOT based on Chevrolet’s Camaro concept from the first “Transformers” movie, returns with a high-performance attitude. Joining the vehicles on stage will be BUMBLEBEE in his AUTOBOT form, standing almost 17 feet (5.2 meters) tall and 13 feet (4 meters) wide.
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“Chevrolet is thrilled to again be part of one of the most anticipated movies in years,” said Ed Peper, GM North America vice president, Chevrolet. “‘Transformers’ gives us a great opportunity to connect with young people on their terms, with a dynamic, environmentally friendly image. The new characters represent the change going on in Chevy showrooms. From the exciting Camaro, the 21st century sports car, to the game-changing Volt, there’s more than meets the eye at Chevrolet today.”

Directed by Michael Bay, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” sees the AUTOBOTS confront a new threat from DECEPTICONS® bent on avenging their earlier defeat on Earth. The new AUTOBOT characters in their current Chevy-based form square off against new, tougher foes determined to rule the universe.

“‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’ goes way beyond the first film in terms of robot action and excitement,” said LeeAnne Stables, executive vice president of worldwide marketing partnerships at Paramount Pictures, the distributor of the film. “The new AUTOBOTS add to the storytelling, and these Chevy vehicles went with our filmmakers to locations all around the world. GM has again provided incredible support to the production team working on the movie.”

Along with the Camaro that’s reprising its role in the new film, the other Chevy models to be seen on the big screen are new to movie-goers.

SIDESWIPE takes the form of a sleek, vision concept dreamed up by the Corvette designers at GM. The design is influenced by the original Stingray race car, introduced in 1959, but also draws on Corvette heritage cues from other generations. It brings them together in a futuristic shape that seems to be equal parts racecar and space ship.

“SIDESWIPE represents an exercise in exploration for the Corvette,” said Ed Welburn, vice president of GM Global Design. “By giving my creative team the freedom to design no-holds-barred vision concepts, it helps them push boundaries and look at projects from different perspectives.”

The Beat and Trax-based characters, SKIDS and MUDFLAP, remain faithful to their concept designs introduced at the 2007 New York Auto Show – although each wears new paint and other exterior accessories. And while they may be small cars, when they turn into fighting AUTOBOTS®, they pack a big punch.

The other new AUTOBOT, JOLT, appears in the production form of Chevy’s 2011 Volt extended-range electric vehicle. With the capability of up to 40 miles (64 km) of pure electric propulsion, plus hundreds of more miles with the assistance from its Voltec powertrain system, the real-life Volt will change driving in America.

Of course, the AUTOBOT team isn’t complete without BUMBLEBEE, the yellow Camaro based on the new, 2010 production model. Sporting new wheels and SS-model performance cues, BUMBLEBEE is more stylish and powerful than ever – and enthusiasts will be able to drive their own new Camaro when it goes on sale this spring. For more exclusive AUTOBOT movie information relating to Chevrolet, please visit www.autobotsrollout.com.

Photos of the very first pre-production 2010 Chevy Camaros rolling off the production line in Oshawa have surfaced!

The photos were posted this afternoon on Camaro5.com

Salable production of the Camaro was recently moved from late February into early March.  The base V6 was also recently certified to produce over 300-horsepower.

 

Today’s featured photo comes from Vern Norrgard
Check out more Insane Automotive Photography group on Flickr
Submit your photo to the group for a chance to get featured here

Need a unique gift for your automotive guru this season?  We’ve found an interesting solution. Roadmice.

It’s essentially a mouse styled to look like a car.  It does all the normal things you’d expect out of your computer mouse and even includes a scroll wheel, but looks waaayyy cooler.

We’re not sure how ergonomically correct or comfortable they are, but you can’t deny the coolness of surfing the web using a 2010 Camaro Police Cruiser.

Roadmice cost $44.95 and can be ordered at RoadMice.com.  Right now you can get a Dodge Charger, Chevy Camaro, or Ford Mustang.

Link: RoadMice.com

Gallery

 

We covered the extremely hot Camaro RS that was on display during the 2008 Woodward Dream Cruise just last week and this morning we got a nice surprise in our in-box. The first un-official photos of a production SS Camaro.
These photos come from and were taken by Kevin Kolvenback of Hudon Calley, New York. Some of you may know him online as RagSS. He snapped these photos out at Spring Mountain Motorsports in Pahrump, Nevada

Enjoy this first look and thanks Kevin!
Camaro enthuSSiasts- we want to know what you think about the new Camaro! Drop us a comment below.

 

We’ve been hearing about the new Camaro for years but was our first chance to sit in a production spec model. On display at General Motor’s Athens Coney Island tent, the Camaro drew a consistant and decent crowd. At first glance, we’re really impressed. Take a look at the photos and tell us what you think.