It didn’t take long for the digital cash registers to ring at Neiman-Marcus, the highline retailer selling out a special edition of the long-awaited Chevrolet Camaro Convertible in a matter of minutes.
Now, however, it’s time for everyone else, and days ahead of the ragtop’s official debut at the upcoming Los Angeles Auto Show, we’ve gotten the first official pick of the 2012 Chevrolet Camaro Convertible that will be rolling into showrooms next year.
Beyond the clean lines of the soft-top, which manage to maintain the look of the Camaro coupe, Chevrolet has more good news for potential buyers, the base price will come in around $30,000 – less than half the $75,000 Texas-based Neiman-Marcus was getting for its special model. (Click Here for a look at that special edition.)
This relatively small image, revealed, curiously, only through Facebook, shows a midnight black Camaro Convertible. The maker plans to offer a range of color options – and will deliver both V6 and V8-powered versions.
In RS trim expect the convertible to make 312 horsepower. The top-line LS3-powered Chevrolet Camaro SS will bump that pony count to 426.
Anticipation has been building for some time for the Camaro Convertible, which will hit market more than a year later than originally promised. The plans had to be reworked when the original supplier of the ragtop went bust during the depths of the ongoing automotive downturn.
But timing might prove better, at least from Chevy’s standpoint. The maker’s pony car has proved even more popular than many anticipated, routinely pummeling the long-lived Ford Mustang, but pony car sales tend to follow a steep parabola and the 2012 Chevrolet Camaro Convertible could help keep demand going, mid-cycle, when sales of the coupe might have otherwise started to slip.
