Very interesting discussion with a lot of good points made by each side. Awsure, I must say that GM's marketing is hardly something that should be used as an example of perfect marketing as they are still struggling to turn things around. The problem with what GM is doing is that it will excite people for sure and get people to the point where they want to buy the Camaro, the problem is that they might be doing this too early. The interest in the Camaro is very strong now especially after the Transformers movie, but the problem is the potential interest peak could have been triggered too soon. Just because people are interested in it now, does NOT guarantee that they will have the same interest later on down the road. Now GM will have to keep spending money on keeping people interested in the Camaro during the waiting peroid. Even after spending the money on that, people will get disgusted by the fact that it isn't out yet and will notice some other car that will be getting a lot of press.

It is true that they will need to start campaigning for this car to make sure the public is aware of its existence; however, it is anti-productive to do it way in advance since the people will become frustrated that it isn't out yet. It is true that not having it in the 08 line-up for Car and Driver looks very bad, but that could be the consequence of delaying production until the spring of 08 and calling it an 08. One thing I have noticed is it seems as though many of Chrysler's new products get ignored. You will hear tons of things about the new Accord, but you hear almost nothing about the Avenger (granted the Accord is more popular model but it isn't even out yet). It seems to me that the press likes to ignore Chrysler these days. When either MT or C&D did a comparison between the Mustang and the Concept Camaro about a year ago, they were making a comparison purely on speculation and how they would equip the Camaro against the Mustang, not on actual engine engine offerings, yet the Challenger was hardly mentioned. Some of the problem is in the automotive press.

Also remember that heavy marketing does not always make a model successful. Supposively, the new Avenger is selling mostly as fleet vehicles despite the fact that they advertise it more than most of their models. Also remember that the problem with the Merkur could have been more than just the marketing and the sales people at the dealerships not knowing how to sell it. The forumla was not a guaranteed success forumla even for that era.