Well gang, rhetro is no longer just a fad. Camaro may be back.

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Tuesday, January 10, 2006


DETROIT - When General Motors Corp. stopped building Camaros and Firebirds in Ste. Therese, Que., five years ago, the company promised Canadian Auto Workers president Buzz Hargrove it would not build the car anywhere else.

As recently as last summer, when the union was negotiating a new labour agreement with GM, Mr. Hargrove said he believed GM still had an obligation to build the cars somewhere in Canada if it resurrected the mass-market sports car.

GM appears to be on the brink of reintroducing the Camaro, which it showed yesterday as a concept car. Given Ford's success with its new Mustang and Chrysler's plan to bring back the Dodge Challenger, GM is under pressure to get back into the "pony car" wars with its own two-door, rear-wheel-drive car.

However, product chief Bob Lutz said the Camaro probably will not be built in Canada, even if enthusiasts demand it be built and the billion-dollar project is given the green light by the troubled company's financial planners.

"For a while, we were very sensitive to that," Mr. Lutz said of the agreement yesterday when reminded of his pledge to Mr. Hargrove. "But we believe that enough time has gone by. We have fulfilled our obligations."

Pressed by Canadian reporters about the verbal deal, he said, "We couldn't move it to another facility."

"We have fulfilled the obligation of not moving the car. Five years have gone by. It is no longer a sensitive issue."

Mr. Hargrove said yesterday GM had a "moral obligation" to give Canada the first crack at building the new Camaro, and that the union will be asking the company to recognize that.

"We don't have a formal commitment from GM" to build the car here, he acknowledged in an interview. "But that doesn't stop us from saying to GM, 'Give us some consideration.' "

Automotive assembly plants usually have to bid on such work against other plants within their own companies.

"We do think GM has a moral obligation to do this in Canada and in Quebec," Mr. Hargrove said.

"Since we haven't approved the car yet it would be way too early to speculate on where it would be built," Mr. Lutz said.

He said GM would make a decision on the Camaro concept in "about six months. That's how long it took us to decide on the [Pontiac] Solstice."

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