The Chevrolet Camaro saw a 26% decline in sales last month compared to December of 2009 but thanks to steady sales throughout the year, 2010 marked the first time since 1985 where the Chevrolet Camaro outsold the Ford Mustang in annual sales.
In the month of December, Chevrolet delivered 5,614 Camaros compared to Ford’s 5,452 Mustangs sold bringing the two American performance cars to reach grand totals of 81,299 for the Camaro and 73,716 for the Mustang. Unlike the Camaro and Mustang, the Dodge Challenger saw a healthy 31% year over year gain with 3,330 units sold last month (compared to 2,536 last December), giving the Mopar muscle car a total of 36,791 cars sold in 2010. The most promising news is that sales were up quite a bit for all three companies from November and for the year all three cars saw impressive improvements over the previous year. The Dodge Challenger showed a 42% improvement over 2009, while the Camaro saw a 32% gain and the Mustang showed an 11% gain over the 2009 sales numbers.
Even though fuel prices continue to rise, the future remains bright for these three American muscle cars. The Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang both offer excellent fuel economy both in V6 and V8 form and the 2011 Dodge Challenger SRT8 features Chrysler’s fuel saver technology so performance car buyers don’t have to suffer at the pump. Also, Chevrolet will begin selling the new Camaro Convertible later this year and that should cut into the Mustang’s lead a bit, as this past year if you wanted a drop-top American muscle car, your only choice was the Mustang but that comes to an end in 2011.
In addition to the topless Camaro, many expect that the 2011 Detroit Auto Show will introduce the world to the return of the mighty Camaro Z28 – high performance trimline packing a supercharged V8 and revised handling setup to give the Camaro a shot at the title of the best-performing muscle car on the market. The Ford SVT GT500 is waiting…and so is the rest of the automotive world!
The beginning of the 2011 Detroit Auto Show is just 6 days away so we will soon know what the next solider in the modern American horsepower war might be.
Other Industry News:
The Camaro leads the Mustang, Challenger in November sales
Ram and Jeep brands lead the pack for Chrysler in November
General Motors leads the US market in November 2010 sales
Ford forges ahead in November, leads everyone in sales