Chevrolet announced its departure back in March, but now Camaro production has ended.
Back in 2009, GM resurrected and completely redesigned its iconic pony car and Ford Mustang rival. Not only did the Camaro return, but the automaker launched some seriously powerful models across the fifth and sixth generations, from the no-nonsense SS to the berserk, supercharged ZL1 as Chevy duked it out against Ford and Dodge, which revived the Challenger just a year earlier, in 2008. Now, it’s the end of an era as the Challenger and the Camaro roll off into the sunset, with the latter reaching the end of its production run on December 14, according to a company spokesperson.
In a statement to Road & Track, GM said the following: “Camaro is a passion product. It has developed a fan base across the world and has brought people into Chevrolet dealerships for generations. The sixth generation specifically represented athleticism and composure – exuding confidence on the road and dominance on the track.”
However, as R&T points out, the company has not put out an actual press release or any sort of public statement about the Camaro’s demise. Instead, we know GM’s muscle car is officially done by way of that email and the fact that the automaker plans lay off employees from its Lansing Grand River Assembly and Stamping plants between January 1 and March 25, 2024. It’s a move similar to the Bolt, which also just went out of production in its current iteration. While hourly employees have an opportunity to relocate to another plant, it’s not building either car anymore, so there’s no more work to be done, at least in the short-term. It’s worth noting, as well, that GM is not closing the Lansing plant altogether, as it does still build the Cadillac CT4 and CT5, and neither of those cars are going out of production.
Camaro could live on in racing circles, but no new cars are hitting the streets
This isn’t the first time Chevrolet has shelved the Camaro, as there was also a pause in production in 2002, after the last fourth-generation “F-Body” model was discontinued. Back then, like now, General Motors ultimately decided to drop the Camaro as it faced slowing sales. We’ve been wondering for the past several years whether the company would keep it going, as Chevrolet PR remained conspicuously quiet on any Camaro updates, even while it talks up the rest of its revamped lineup, from the Trax to the Traverse (and the Corvette, of course). Now, after a period of deafening silence and the original March announcement capping off the sixth-generation Camaro, there’s some closure.
At the moment, we have no details or even rumors about a direct replacement. Unlike Ford, which just launched the seventh-generation S650 Mustang, and Dodge, which is setting up to launch a muscle coupe successor to the outgoing Challenger (although it may wear the Charger nameplate instead), what Chevrolet has for our consideration is a nebulous declaration that “this is not the end of the Camaro’s story.”
For the sake of strong competition and honoring 50-plus years’ worth of heritage since the original 1967 Camaro launched, I hope that’s true.
