While some saw Chevrolet's controversial redesign of the 6th-generation Camaro as a mistake from the design team, another way to view it is as a cry for help because although Chevy hasn't exactly been advertising it, its muscle car has been going through somewhat of a sales slump lately. In 2018, only 50,963 Camaros left dealership lots, a 25% drop from the year before. What's worse is that the decline follows a downward trend in Camaro sales dating back to 2014, when 86,297 units were sold.

It means that the 6th-generation Camaro is not selling nearly as well as the 5th-generation did, which itself only went on sale after Chevy received rave reviews about the Camaro Concept it brought to the 2006 Detroit Auto Show. Following the concept's reveal, a production version was built and put on sale in 2009, ending the Camaro hiatus that began in 2002 after the model was killed off due to sluggish sales.

Thing is, the Camaro's current sales figures are so bad that they are within reach of the numbers Chevy was posting before the muscle car was first taken off the market in '02. But we didn't know how bad the situation was until spotting a new report by Muscle Cars and Trucks, which claims that Chevy will once again kill off the Camaro due to poor sales.

MC&T cites multiple internal sources within GM, which all claim that the development program behind the 7th-generation Camaro has been canceled and the nameplate shelved until further notice. For now, the news signals that Chevrolet will at least continue producing the Camaro until the completion of the 6th-generation model's product cycle, which is set to end in 2023.

We reached out to Chevy and weren't able to get confirmation about the Camaro's future. "While we will not engage in speculation, we will remind you of our recently announced updates coming to the Camaro lineup this fall," replied a Chevrolet spokesperson. "An all-new LT1 model will provide customers V8 power with the design and affordability of our LT trim. The award-winning SS model will feature a new front fascia from the Camaro Shock concept. All of our updates are customer-driven to improve the car and its driving experience."

In either case, if the news is true then today marks a terribly sad day for Camaro fans, a group that includes your fair writer. Our tests of the 2019 Camaro SS Convertible revealed that the muscle car had a great powertrain and class-leading handling, but that it had questionable interior quality, was rough around the edges, and not as good a daily driver as the Mustang. Combined with the fallout Chevy received from the 6th-generation's facelift, that may have been enough to send muscle car buyers over to Ford dealerships.