YouTube Here's why the Chevy SS was a total failure

[Kensington]

Certified Pre Owned isn't new. Yeah it only has 1300 miles, but for all intents and purposes you are paying new car pricing for a warranty that's already started and you'll have used car financing.

 

[RICH17]

For a car that has a decent following and the last year and rare white and RARE manual trans.

 

[Kensington]

Go for it then.

 

[RICH17]

Would if I could but I cant so I wont.

 

[ragingclue]

I mean, 3 months out of ~50 months of possible sale they were on discount.

And the fact that they had to do those deals, and people were waiting a full model year behind to get to a price that seemed more in line with what the car seemed to be worth tells you a lot. It was just too expensive as priced, and even with the discounts, didn't sell really well.

My buddy bought his '17 SS literally days before they went "on sale" that last time. His was a "base", but the only options were an auto or sunroof from what I understand. He bought his in the mid/low $40's, which is where I just kind of imagined most people and most dealers were pricing them.

There wasn't any advertising so it's hard to gauge how good of a seller this car is. When the discount events hit, these things FLEW off lots, maybe because it was "too much" before, maybe more so because that was a freaking steal to anybody who knew what they were looking at. The online inventory tool became completely useless during those times. At MSRP, it is priced similarly to comparably-equipped Mopars that people weren't saying were "too much", so that's why I'm curious as to why the SS is too much if the Mopars aren't. It's got to come down to more than just the Mopars aren't fugly, right? They also had discount events on the Scats, does that mean those were failures too? I'd consider those things a success for sure.

Free option was transmission choice (although the manual was cheaper due to GGT). The only paid options were sunroof and/or full size spare.

It's a really odd case. Your buddy should be happy even at mid-40s, the car will retain its value well and is a ton of fun. SSForums has been full of people all pissed off they paid at/near MSRP and then the deal dropped. Some dealers actually [apparently] retroactively applied that price to some people in that situation and they ended up getting the/a discount applied, did he try that?

 

[Kensington]

I had the means about a year ago, when they went on their 20% off sale. But there was a reason they had to run those sales. Honestly, the car is an absolute blast and is damn near everything I'd want in a car, but to me, even at their "discount" prices, they were still way more expensive than I thought they were worth.

Honestly, for mid-$40's realistic pricing for new or CPO, I'd be in something like a new BMW 340i or CPO 540i or even a MUCH faster new Camaro SS.

 

[Kensington]

Double post

 

[RICH17]

I had the means about a year ago, when they went on their 20% off sale. But there was a reason they had to run those sales. Honestly, the car is an absolute blast and is damn near everything I'd want in a car, but to me, even at their "discount" prices, they were still way more expensive than I thought they were worth.

Honestly, for mid-$40's realistic pricing for new or CPO, I'd be in something like a new BMW 340i or CPO 540i or even a MUCH faster new Camaro SS.

Just as a reminder. ALL Chevy's were discounted. Not just the SS'

 

[Kensington]

There wasn't any advertising so it's hard to gauge how good of a seller this car is. When the discount events hit, these things FLEW off lots, maybe because it was "too much" before, maybe more so because that was a freaking steal to anybody who knew what they were looking at. The online inventory tool became completely useless during those times. At MSRP, it is priced similarly to comparably-equipped Mopars that people weren't saying were "too much", so that's why I'm curious as to why the SS is too much if the Mopars aren't. It's got to come down to more than just the Mopars aren't fugly, right? They also had discount events on the Scats, does that mean those were failures too? I'd consider those things a success for sure.

Free option was transmission choice (although the manual was cheaper due to GGT). The only paid options were sunroof and/or full size spare.

It's a really odd case. Your buddy should be happy even at mid-40s, the car will retain its value well and is a ton of fun. SSForums has been full of people all pissed off they paid at/near MSRP and then the deal dropped. Some dealers actually [apparently] retroactively applied that price to some people in that situation and they ended up getting the/a discount applied, did he try that?

Having spent time in and driving my buddy's '17 really is what convinced me not to pull the trigger on one. They were theoretically great, I just couldn't justify the price, and as stated on my post above, there are other cars I'd rather be in, for that price range. The Mopars not being one of them for a number of reasons, of which pricing is up there. I know there were quite a few people on this board that pulled the trigger on Scat Packs when the dealers were running crazy deals on them. Even then, for me, I was never a huge fan of the LX platform cars or Chrysler build quality.

I REALLY tried to get my buddy to go after the dealer to retroactively price his car...I was even going to have my GF draft a demand letter (she's an attorney) to the dealership, but he didn't want to do it, for whatever reason.

 

[ragingclue]

You can get a new 340i for mid-40s??? My 335 was almost 50 ten years ago and they've driven the prices up a good amount since then, so what does mid-40s get you? Not being an ass or contradictory just for the sake of being contradictory, but I haven't looked at pricing on the 3er in a while. Is it a base model? If so, no thanks, if I've learned one thing from BMW, it's that they really make you feel like "I really should have gotten [insert package here]" throughout ownership. I don't know if they've come a long way since then, but the base models back then and for years and years before that were pretty terribad in some respects. The great thing was these discrepancies were very often easily fixed by getting ZSP/ZMP, ZPP, etc...

Does your buddy not like money? Man that 20% is a lot of dough. I guess it is a bit of a hassle even if the dealer does cooperate though.

 

[Kensington]

You can get a new 340i for mid-40s??? My 335 was almost 50 ten years ago and they've driven the prices up a good amount since then, so what does mid-40s get you? Not being an ass or contradictory just for the sake of being contradictory, but I haven't looked at pricing on the 3er in a while. Is it a base model? If so, no thanks, if I've learned one thing from BMW, it's that they really make you feel like "I really should have gotten [insert package here]" throughout ownership. I don't know if they've come a long way since then, but the base models back then and for years and years before that were pretty terribad in some respects. The great thing was these discrepancies were very often easily fixed by getting ZSP/ZMP, ZPP, etc...

Does your buddy not like money? Man that 20% is a lot of dough. I guess it is a bit of a hassle even if the dealer does cooperate though.

Yeah, base price 3 series, so I guess if you start optioning them up, you'd probably get into the 50's territory, but I think I'd still rather be in that for that price, personally.

Truth be told, the more I think about it, the less and less I'd want a sports sedan. I'd prefer a sports car (Mustang GT or Camaro SS) and a beater wagon. I so rarely have someone other than my GF in the car with me. And even then, I have the beater wagon to haul shit and people around if necessary. If I had $45K to spend, $40K on a 2018/19 Mustang GT 6-speed PP and $5K on a Forester to haul my shit around with.

IDK what was up with my buddy. I tried. You can lead a horse to water, can't make him drink it.

 

[ragingclue]

Well yeah if the 6th Gen doesn't have a disqualifier, and the SS doesn't fulfill a need the Camaro can't, that's an easy one IMO.

I love beater wagons. It's my new obsession.

 

[Blood on Blood]

Saw the video and can see his point as to why it only sold 12k volume.

Guy at work has one. Blends in with the rest of the 4 door Dad Bod sedans until he starts it (aftermarket exhaust).

 

[ragingclue]

No more than 12k juice in the squeeze though, as far as production numbers go.

Nothing on earth would have made that number bigger. If God appeared and displayed his scrotum with an SS tattoo on it to the earth's inhabitants, it wouldn't have somehow produced more.

 

[Blood on Blood]

Doesn’t make sense as to why GM didn’t get behind the car unless it doesn’t align with their long term strategy and there wasn’t a high profit margin in it.

 

[ragingclue]

They had to fulfill a prior obligation. If they had their druthers, it wouldn't have ever made an appearance here.

 

[Blood on Blood]

That’s just stupid

Get behind the car and make money

 

[Mike K]

The car failed because like the GTO and G8 before it, it was based on an old design and given a mild refresh for the US market, looked too similar to other much cheaper cars GM sold and GM didn't try selling it at all. It's almost as if there was some internal struggle to bring this car to the US and corporate sabotaged the project.

I have sat in a few and found them to be rather janky feeling inside, more along the lines of what I'd expect from a Cruise. I don't know if that's just a GM thing or what but I was not impressed and if I paid 40 large for that I'd be disappointed.

 

[Blood on Blood]

Nice way of calling it abomination that was engineered by idiots

 

[Mike K]

Also, boy oh boy is Doug Demuro becoming insufferable. His videos used to be watchable because he got cool cars and discussed their very real quirks but in the past few videos I've watched he's just pointing out regular stuff as if it's some sort of oddity unique to that vehicle. Missing logos on the door sills, a key holder, ski pass through and windshield washer nozzles under the hood. These aren't quirks; they're just design choices. I mean a ski passthrough... WTF.

Also, he's been doing this for a year and the production value is still negative 10. This is why I don't post videos. I'm afraid I'll sound like this. And I like the guy!

 

[Mr_Roboto]

The car failed because like the GTO and G8 before it, it was based on an old design and given a mild refresh for the US market, looked to similar to other much cheaper cars GM sold and GM didn't try selling it at all. It's almost as if there was some internal struggle to bring this car to the US and corporate sabotaged the project.

I have sat in a few and found them to be rather janky feeling inside, more along the lines of what I'd expect from a Cruise. I don't know if that's just a GM thing or what but I was not impressed and if I paid 40 large for that I'd be disappointed.

I think you nailed it on the head with these two points.

1-GM didn't really care or want this to sell. That would take away from the 'vette and the Camaro. A low optioned version of this would have likely been a viable "step up" from a Mustang GT and probably would have cannibalized extremely profitable Camaro sales. Why would you buy a 6 popper Camaro for more bread instead of getting this in a base model as an enthusiast?

With no real advertising they left it up to people on forums like this one to serve as the "advertisement." GM also has a habit of killing off cars and platforms it doesn't like. Look at Delorean in the 60s wanting to make a 2 door fiberglass body Pontiac, the power to weight limits of the 60s and the end of multiple carbs, the Grand National (imagine the landscape now if Buick had acquired an F-body platform car to stuff LC2s into) and so on. Basically anything that could steal the spotlight on the vette flavor of the month.

The other point is why it was never a competitor for the European cars. GM has never had great interior quality compared to a lot of the European marques (even a CTS is not in the ball park of a Mercedes last time I was at the auto show for feel and quality.) That said, the interior looked a lot like a fith gen Camaro which was remarkably like my wife's Cruze. It's a damn decent interior for say a $25K car but for a $45K car? I really think at that point you're paying $20K for RWD and a V8.

That said when they hit the beater territory I will be looking for a high milage one to hop up and hoon some. They're a cool car akin to the GTO and G8, without a lot of the crappiness of the GTO in terms of being adapted to the US market (e.g. zero trunk space.)

 

[Yaj Yak]

I still want one.

 

[ragingclue]

Also, boy oh boy is Doug Demuro becoming insufferable. His videos used to be watchable because he got cool cars and discussed their very real quirks but in the past few videos I've watched he's just pointing out regular stuff as if it's some sort of oddity unique to that vehicle. Missing logos on the door sills, a key holder, ski pass through and windshield washer nozzles under the hood. These aren't quirks; they're just design choices. I mean a ski passthrough... WTF.

Also, he's been doing this for a year and the production value is still negative 10. This is why I don't post videos. I'm afraid I'll sound like this. And I like the guy!

Not to mention he could have picked his pot shots better. He chose to call out the functional vents when those giant embarrassments exist on the fenders, and the joke about the dash pad being glued over a Holden logo... yeah buddy, you know they put the IP and steering where there in Oz, no???? And then there's the whole premise that somehow still seems to escape people that it was intended as a limited production car, GM didn't care to sell more. They only sold the ones they had because of a Bobligation from back in the Pontiac days, and they did so with minimal investment (as evidenced by extreme lack of marketing, they didn't even bother to come up with a name for the fucking thing FFS). I feel like auto-journos should know that story by now. They came optioned like they did because that was how GM was going to see the largest margin, this is why we didn't see any lower trims. It was a minimal-effort, minimal-resource project on GM's part, the SS was not to be anything but that.

I agree with his dings on the MyLink and infotainment system, skip shift only appears when you really don't want it to (mainly when mingling with cross- or oncoming-traffic), but I agree with you he should have been able to do better than nitpicking about logos on sills and the engine cover (which BTW is the one from the V8 Holdens and $.30 per car on a volume that low for a unique mold is probably a just a tad bit low). I'm not sure how the hell he came up with a value of 10 though, and his comfort score is lower than I'd think. He did hit on a few good points throughout but the production quality and overall effort he put into evaluating the product seem underwhelming at best.

 

[RICH17]

The car failed because like the GTO and G8 before it, it was based on an old design and given a mild refresh for the US market, looked too similar to other much cheaper cars GM sold and GM didn't try selling it at all. It's almost as if there was some internal struggle to bring this car to the US and corporate sabotaged the project.

I have sat in a few and found them to be rather janky feeling inside, more along the lines of what I'd expect from a Cruze*. I don't know if that's just a GM thing or what but I was not impressed and if I paid 40 large for that I'd be disappointed.

Fixed.

I still want one.

Yuuuuuupppp

 

[Mr_Roboto]

I agree with you he should have been able to do better than nitpicking about logos on sills and the engine cover (which BTW is the one from the V8 Holdens and $.30 per car on a volume that low for a unique mold is probably a just a tad bit low).

Realistically unless things have changed, a mold that size is easily 6 figures. I remember being in high school and talking with some Maytag guys, the pump impeller mold they had/made was $120K and it was for a part that was ~2.5 inches diameter much less an engine cowl. Over a 13,000 car run I'm betting a minimum of $10/car and a lot closer to $20 in reality for the engine cowl alone. Certainly not 30 cents.