I Just Figured Out Why I'm Not Crazy About the Last Two Camaro Generations

Sixth-generation Camaro. Photo: GM media website.

Don't get me wrong. The current generation Chevrolet Camaro is a nice car. It's a fast car and more than meets all of the requirements to carry the mantle of the grand tradition of pony cars that it comes from.

First-generation Camaro: Photo: GM media website.

If someone offered me a new Camaro for free, I would gleefully accept it. And I would keep it and drive it for many happy miles and years, rather than sell it.

 And yet, since the fifth-generation Camaro first came out for the 2010 model year, and continuing into the the current generation that launched in 2016, something has always just bothered me. And now, after taking a really good look at a fifth-generation Camaro yesterday, I think I more clearly understand why.

To frame up my explanation, allow me to indulge in a cliche and quote "Webster's," because there are two terms that explain my impression of the last two Camaro generations. Both of those terms have definitions in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary that vividly illustrate what I am talking about:

• Caricature—"exaggeration by means of often ludicrous distortion of parts or characteristics" [emphasis mine]
• Postmodern—"of, relating to, or being any of various movements in reaction to modernism that are typically characterized by... ironic self-reference and absurdity..." [emphasis mine]

Yes, as you might have guessed, my take is that the fifth and sixth-generation are postmodern caricatures of the classic first-generation that launched in 1967.

Today’s Automotive Design Aesthetics: All-Time High, or All-Time Low?

Left: 1954 Chrysler Ghia Thomas Special. Photo by "Mr. Choppers"
(posted to Wikipedia).  Right: 2018 Ford Fusion (Photo: Ford media website).

Are you excited by the car designs you’re seeing today?

Or are the lineups, by and large, getting tiresome—because everything seems more and more alike?

The sad truth is that, today, with some notable exceptions, many models within a given category—sedans, crossovers, SUVs, even sports coupes—are tending to look dishearteningly similar.

To those of us who appreciate the breathtaking looks from the heyday of car design (which, for us, was roughly from the 1950s through perhaps the mid-1970s), the current generation of look-alike fastback sedans, for example, is sad to behold.