2011 in Review: The worst car I drove for >$40k
By John LeBlanc
Let me be clear: I’ve never understood the romantic fascination with late 1960s American muscle cars. They were poorly made. Space inefficient. Handled like a bag of squirrels. And consumed fossil fuels like a starving man at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Yet here we are, four decades later, and the U.S. brands still offer these dinosaurs, selling to the same audience that thought these cars were cool in the summer of ’69.
Well, I for one am not buying this shtick. The “new” 2011 Chevrolet Camaro SS Convertible was arguably the worst car I drove this year. With a beltline around my ears, I could barely see out of the big two-door. A half-as-expensive Chevy Cruse has a nicer interior. The Camaro convertible’s roof nuts and bolts reduce the already small hardtop’s trunk space from 320 litres to just 289. Drop the cloth top, and that space shrinks further. Putting up the roof is a hassle too. You have to get out of the car, remove the tonneau, place it in the trunk, power up the top, latch it to the header, and—finally!—power up the windows. Needless-to-say, unlike a Mazda MX-5, you won’t have time to raise the roof at a traffic light. And if you’re buying the convertible Camaro to better enjoy the aural delights of the engine bay, take note: surprisingly, the 312 hp V6’s exhaust note sounds far sportier than the 400 hp V8, especially when the bigger motor is combined with the slow-to-react automatic.
Let me be clear: I’ve never understood the romantic fascination with late-1960s American muscle cars. They were poorly made. They were space inefficient. They handled like a bag of squirrels. And they consumed fossil fuels like a starving man at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Yet here we are, four decades later, and the U.S. brands still offer these dinosaurs, selling to the same audience who thought these cars were cool in the summer of ’69. Well, I for one am not buying this shtick. The “new” 2011 Chevrolet Camaro SS Convertible, which starts at $44,005, was arguably the worst car I drove this year.
With a beltline around my ears, I could barely see out of the big two-door when its cloth top was erect. A half-as-expensive Chevy Cruze has a nicer interior. When up, the Camaro convertible’s roof nuts and bolts reduce the already small hardtop’s trunk space from 320 litres to just 289. Drop the cloth top, and that space shrinks further.
Putting up the roof is a hassle too. You have to get out of the car, remove the tonneau, place it in the trunk, power up the top, latch it to the header, and—finally!—power up the windows.
Needless-to-say, unlike a Mazda MX-5, you won’t have time to raise the roof at a traffic light. And if you’re buying the ragtop Camaro to better enjoy the aural delights of the engine bay, take note: surprisingly, the 312 hp V6’s exhaust note sounds far sportier than the 400 hp V8, especially when the bigger motor is combined with the slow-to-react automatic.