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Story by Curtis Steudeman

The retro car trend started out very strong. The Volkswagen New Beetle came out in 1998 and was one of the first, drastically retro rebirths of years past. The New Beetle was never quite the hit the original was during the gas crunch of the 70’s, but it was quite popular. I have a friend who has owned two different New Beetles.

The Beetle only got things warmed up though. Soon other cars were reborn. Some of them never ceased production and moved right into a completely new body style. Others wore badges that hadn’t been seen for years. Ford Mustang, Pontiac GTO, Mini Cooper and Ford Thunderbird were some of the cars to give into this new trend.

Some of these cars have been built for muscle and some purely for aesthetic nostalgia. The GTO and Mustang were built for performance as they were back in the day. The GTO doesn’t hold a retro design, but instead a retro attitude. The new GTO is a small, light, two door car that’s had a 400 horsepower engine shoehorned into it. Yes, I’d say this mirrors the concept behind the GTO of yesteryear.

These cars were mostly successful throughout the early 2000’s, but as we enter a modern mini gas crunch with price per gallon signs hovering around $3 it’s safe to say that most pocketbooks won’t have room for a car like the GTO that gets around 16 miles to the gallon.

While not all of these retro cars are geared for performance it was only time before it moved in that direction. Both Dodge and General Motors have released performance minded concepts within the past six months. The Camaro and the Challenger are almost certainly a case of too much too late. Both cars have been announced for production.

The Challenger will be seen in 2008 and the Camaro in 2009. The Camaro hosts a 6.0 liter V8 that will likely get less that 20 mpg. The Challenger will probably host a hemi similar to the one in the Magnum and Charger that are currently in production.

GM and Dodge are too late. GM especially completely missed the boat on this one. Don’t get me wrong, these cars look beautiful, but if want to make a muscle car today, it’s got to be toned down a little bit. There are very few people who can afford to own a car that gets closer to 10 mpg and needs premium fuel.

Camaros will be sold to muscle car enthusiasts who can still afford the hobby, and some other people who probably can’t, but will buy one anyway.

The situation is unfortunate, but by the time the Camaro comes out, hybrid and fuel efficient vehicles will be in such demand that GM will be scratching their heads and wondering what went wrong.

As a muscle car fan I hate to see it end this way, but right now there is just no room for a new generation of muscle cars.