[BigAls87Z28]

Originally Posted by LTb1ow

I could buy a new SS or whatever, (granted I would rather a new 2500hd) but regardless, I would not modify a brand new car and void the warranty that I paid the heavy new price tag for. Furthermore, ever been to a car show with "modern" muscle cars? Its all the same stupid tacky mods and guys who have never raced their cars cept for out of the garage and to a show. The hope that 5th gens will gain value like muscle cars of old, is laughable.

While you wouldn't, there is a huge market for those that want it done, and those people pay BIG money for it as well. Look at all the people that have their brand-new Corvettes shipped right from Bowling Green to performance shops to another $20-40k worth of stuff done to it.

The muscle car era was different and while the current class of performance vehicles easily outshines and outclasses anything made in the 60s to 70s, the purity of those cars is what makes the valuable. It's not the craftsmanship or the precise engineering that brings in the bucks, but the nostalgia of the era and what the cars meant to people.
When it comes to the Americans, we dug deep into that equity and came up with unoriginal copy-cats like the current Mustang, Camaro, and Challenger. Sure, they are great performance cars and are way more reliable than their counterparts of yore, but there is not a single original idea with any of them that makes an impact with people like the originals, like the Mustang did.
Same goes for the Beetle and Mini.

Buying a new warranty intact muscle car seems stupid to then mod it to hell and back. Thats why they made cheap, disposable 4th gens to mod/ruin. Then again, I am getting old.

All of this makes my head explode.

But back to car mags, yea their cool and all, but I think the advent of major internet car forums have put a large hole in the smoke/mirrors routine the car mags could get away with just blind sponsor promotions. Anyone with half a brain can google stuff and fact check how badly a car mag hyped up something etc. Case in point, the silly edlebrock "LT4 topend package", post up asking bout that and you all but get run out of town from people saying how dumb a purchase it is. But yet, countless magazines will push that along with their air gap intake (another documented loss of HP irl).. so I can see how the newer age of guys modding cars has shifted away from car mags.

It's not the smoke and mirrors but the fact that the information of how to mod cars has changed.
Years ago, before the dawn of the internet, the way information on how to modify cars was transmitted through magazines. This was the way that people from all parts of the country, and the world for that matter, could read about the latest carb or exhaust system for their muscle car.
Sure, they might be lucky to have a parts store in the area that could get them the stuff, and the counter guy is hopefully a "car guy", but there was no other way to get this and see what people are doing.

The internet took over this function with forums and message boards and now with blogs and websites devoted just to the art of car tuning.
It's ironic that a magazine who's focus was to be "high tech" totally missed out on going to a digital format or even changing the game all together when it came to how it could keep it's finger on the pulse of the modern GM performance car culture. And it's just one of many mags that are on the way out, so we can't just isolate GMHTPM but a whole slew of "enthusiast" magazines that just didn't retain the numbers to stay afloat.

Originally Posted by WayFast84

Al, I agree with several points you made. 20 somethings generally don't have the money for these cars with the way of the economy and crazy student debt. While GM had those eight fun and practical cars I don't think the majority of people know about them or they just aren't appealing or stand out which is what car guys like. A great example of this would be to think back and remember the last GTO, Monte Carlo or Grand Prix you saw. I can't remember it but I can remember the last Corvette, Camaro and Trans Am I saw.

A majority of people don't buy these cars, and they never will.
Don't forget that for every Chevelle SS LS6 sold, 4000 4-door straight-six models went out.

Beauty and appeal is in the eye of the beholder. A 67 GTO doesn't look all that different from a 67 Lemans, so you had to know about these cars to even understand what you were looking at in the first place.
I know exactly when I saw my last Pontiac Grand Prix GXP. It was making a left onto route 27 in Kendal Park last Tuesday. It had that dark pewter color and had chrome wheels.
Now, the GXP is not exactly my cup of tea, but I know the difference between that and a regular GT or even GTP. In fact, my interest is peaked a bit more when I see a car like that when compared to seeing just another 4th gen.

You can't discount or disqualify another car just because it doesn't fit into your spectrum of "cool". This narrow-minded focus is exactly what GMHTPM had because they thought they knew what was cool.