Report: Chevy Camaro convertible contract goes to Magna, 20,000 units per year expected

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Chevrolet Camaro Concept – Click above for high-res image gallery
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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 the Chevrolet 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...

[bonnevista]

So, the best idea they can come up with to make a convertible is to take a hard top and cut the roof off and add the 'vert hardware to it.  I know they did the same thing back in the '80's, but if this is the best they can do, it's no wonder these buttheads are going broke.  

Once upon a time, GM was the biggest corporation in the world, and now they get a contractor to supply convertible hardware on a Chevrolet, the brand they sell more of than anything else.  I'm well aware that all the manufacturers use contractors to supply various parts, but I thought it was their job to make stuff like this??

[roadhound]

Camaro a bowtie pony car oh come on enough crap

[Bumblebee]

You guys are a tough audience, I like it.  I do agree with Bonnevista, why on earth outsource this stuff?