Camaro Cravings: New sixth generation of popular muscle car proves tempting

When the new 2016 Camaro arrived at the Cable-Dahmer Chevrolet dealership at 1834 S. Noland Road in Independence two weeks ago, sales consultant Brennan Olinger went into want-one mode.

“You see something that comes in that stands out, and they are awesome,” Olinger said. “The progression the Camaro has gone through is amazing.”

The anticipation for the sixth-generation Camaro has been building through the summer and into the fall.

Edmonds.com wrote in a review last summer: “The dynamic difference between the 2015 and 2016 Camaros will be evident the first time you throw the new car into a corner.”

Motor Trend made the new Camaro its 2016 Car of the Year. In its gushing review of the car, Motor Trend concluded, “absolutely world-class sports car performance and dynamics from an American icon. The new Camaro is one of the finest driver’s cars in the world. And that’s before you even talk about the price.”

The price tag for the muscle car starts at about $27,000 and goes up to about $37,000 for the higher-end models.

“It is affordable for a sports car,” Olinger said.

The first two 2016 Camaros that arrived at Cable-Dahmer sold immediately. Olinger figures the one that was in the showroom late last week would be gone before the week ended.

The excitement in Olinger’s voice was evident when he started talking about some of the features in the 2016 Camaro.

Features like being able to select the color of interior lighting that graces the dash, door panels and center console. By going to a touch screen, the car owner has 24 colors to select from.

And that color spectrum reacts to changes in drive modes, gives off an ambient nighttime glow, and selecting “show mode” triggers a pulsing, full-color light show.

“They completely changed the doors, completely changed the dash and inside seat interior,” Olinger said.

“You can do everything on a touch screen in front of you. You have a performance menu, an infotainment menu, Bluetooth.”

As nice as the touch-screen technology is in the new Camaro, the main reason people buy sports cars such as this one is for the power.

“It is fantastic,” Olinger said. “It has a whole new engine in it this year. It actually has the LT1, 6.2 liter engine, which is the same engine in the Stingray Corvette.

“With that, you are picking up an extra 25 horsepower compared to last year’s model. Now you are getting 450 horsepower instead of 425 last year. You can get an eight-speed automatic or the six-speed manual.”

Another feature that Olinger thinks is great about the new Camaro is the drive-mode selector on the center of the console.

“When you go into weather mode, it actually it changes your torque so you don’t spin out if it is wet or slick,” Olinger said. “When you change the drive mode from touring to sport, it will open up the valves in the outer exhaust pipes so it will change to a deeper sounding exhaust, with a flip of a button. You can have it real quiet or you can open it up and make it loud on the switch.”

An interesting safety feature is the blind zone alert on the driver-side rearview mirror.

“They have a little star on the rearview mirror,” Olinger said. “If you are going down the highway and someone is coming up quick behind you, it lets you know not to get over. It is unfortunate, but cars like these, people will try to race you.

“There are a bunch of small safety things that are really cool about the car.”

Olinger expects the 2016 Camaro to be very popular in the coming year.

“We are putting in orders for ones we don’t have on the ground yet,” Olinger said. They (customers) can come in and get exactly what they want, and we can get them in six to eight weeks. You can get them customized the way that you want them.”

Another car that is just arriving at Cable-Dahmer Chevrolet and other Chevy dealerships is the 2016 Malibu.

“I’m excited,” Olinger said. “We are about to have a whole fresh new look on the lot. I think people are going to love it.”

This story was originally published December 18, 2015 at 6:01 PM with the headline "Camaro Cravings: New sixth generation of popular muscle car proves tempting."