Camaro Muscles Into A New Role?
August 24, 2010, By Jason Avant 14 comments
I received a Chevy Camaro for test drive and review purposes; the car was provided to me by Chevrolet and the PR firm working for Chevrolet, Weber Shandwick. These opinions are mine.
The Camaro’s engine rumbled like a hungry tigress’ stomach. I gripped the wheel and cast a sideways glance at the car next to me: a 2010 Mustang. Perfect – I’d been looking for one all morning, prey for the Chevy’s big V8. My fingers were poised on the paddleshifters as I waited for the light to turn green. No cops in sight, no cars in front of us. The light went green, my right foot plunged the gas pedal to the floor. Then, a voice from the back seat: “Dad, I have to go potty.” “Hang on, kiddo. We’re almost at Trader Joe’s.”
I’d gotten the Camaro for a week, courtesy of the Chevy PR machine, who were interested in getting a dad’s perspective on the latest incarnation of their classic muscle car. I’ve gotten to test drive cars before, but they’ve typically been “family” vehicles – wagons and SUV’s, reminders that despite the spelling, there is very little “fun” in functionality. The family car is what it is – something to haul you, your family and your stuff from point A to point B. They can be nice, comfortable, roomy, and efficient. But fun?
We haven’t joined the ranks of the minivan owners – my wife drives an Audi sedan, and I drive a weathered old Xterra. So of course I jumped at the chance to cruise around in a muscle car. But my reasons were not entirely selfish. I had a goal in mind for my week with the Camaro – an experiment, if you will. Along with Mustang-hunting, I wanted to see if I could use it as my go-to family car.
And so I did. The Camaro (an eye-popping Inferno Orange SS package, sporting leather interior, OnStar, a Boston Acoustics-powered stereo, and oh yeah, that massive 6.2L V8) does, in fact, have a back seat, and the kids’ carseats fit in there quite nicely. But would the kids? And would I be able to use it to do the same family-oriented errands normally handled in the SUV? And, most important, would the extra weight of groceries and children slow me down in a high-speed chase?
We took the Camaro everywhere, and for the most part, it passed my Family Car requirements. To wit:
- Kid-hauling. The children (2 and 6, respectively) fit in the back seat quite nicely, with legroom to spare. Getting them in and out was relatively easy – the Camaro has a wide stance, and narrow parking spaces proved to be difficult when dealing with back seat passengers.
- Cargo. The truck’s pretty big, and I was able to fit my son’s karate gear, my daughter’s ballet bag, a Trader Joe’s haul, and an umbrella stroller.
- Fuel economy. Ok, it’s no Prius. But it got around 25 mpg all told; most of my driving was on city streets, with the occasional jaunt down the freeway.
- “Man Factor.” I’m not ashamed to admit it – I felt like I’d regained some of my dudeness driving around in the Camaro.
A deeply cynical part of me sneers at the notion that once we have kids, we need to drive stodgy, boring, “functional” cars. Minivans. Feh. Raise your hand if your parents drove you around in an AMC Pacer. The Minivan Industrial Complex has held sway over American fathers for years, convincing us that if we buy something that doesn’t have sliding doors and second-row Captain’ Chairs, we’ve failed as parents. And there’s more to being eco-friendly than gas mileage. One could argue that the more we try to turn our cars into cruise ships – DVD players, refrigerated beverage and snack coolers, fully reclining rear seats – the more time we’ll want to spend in them.
Now, I’d never replace the Xterra with the Camaro, and the four-door sedan is definitely a better choice if one needed to haul a couple of adult passengers on occasion. But as a second car, the Camaro fit the bill quite nicely. And as you might expect, it was definitely a blast to drive – and there’s a lot to be said for that.
Taking the kids to daycare and picking up the drycleaning is infinitely more enjoyable when done in a hot rod, and really, all of us spend way more time than we’d like to behind the wheel of a car. Might as well enjoy it! Yes, I know we should all be curbing our personal gasoline usage; the recent Gulf disaster is a sobering reminder of the true price we pay for our twisted co-dependant relationship with our autos, and we may be heading towards a future in which Rush’s “Red Barchetta” is REAL.
I’m just sayin’, driving a Camaro is fun. And while fun may not be important to everyone, it certainly was to that dad I pulled up next to – the one piloting his four-cylinder Honda Odyssey, gazing forlornly at my fiery orange low-slung Chevy highway star while a single tear rolled slowly down his cheek.
Jason Avant is the founder and managing editor of DadCentric.com. He is a frequent contributor to ManoftheHouse.com.
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