Chevrolet Camaro Concept – Click above for high-res image gallery
General Motors and Magna may weren't exactly seeing eye to eye when the Canadian supplier failed in its efforts to purchase Opel from The General, but the two companies are obviously still on speaking terms.Automotive News reports that Magna's Car Top Systems group has won the convertible contract for theChevrolet Camaro. The General is reportedly expecting the droptop Camaro to account for 20,000 sales annually, matching the Ford Mustang as the top convertible sold in the States.
While Magna is the latest supplier to win the Camaro convertible bid it, isn't the first. Edscha AG originally won the contract, but the abysmal state of the convertible car market in the U.S. contributed to the German supplier filing for insolvency. And when we say the market for convertibles was bad in 2009, we're talking flat-line, bag it and tag it bad. Fewer than 50,000 convertibles were sold during the year, compared with over 200,000 sales only four years ago. GM switched the contract to the far healthier Magna to ensure that production of the upcoming Camaro variant isn't delayed. Magna will reportedly build the Camaro tops at GM's Corvette plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky with materials from Mexico.
It's hard to say if the Camaro will keep enough momentum in the next year to make 20,000 convertibles possible, but we're guessing a droptop version of the Bowtie pony car may well be the right recipe for keeping the Camaro lineup fresh. Now, about that Z28...
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