Camaro Sales Drop to 2-Year Low, Mustang Continues to Dominate

Camaro sales have been in the crapper for over a year and the new model has done nothing to prop up sales. As usual another case of GM not listening to its customers and critics. Visibility on this thing is piss poor and the price past affordability. Too bad because the LT1 is brilliant with the 6 speed manual now having 3.73 gears, and an 8 speed automatic.

We have a Corvette and were thinking of another fun car to replace our boring Acura. Challenge is too big, so I looked at the Mustang and Camaro. Sat in the Camaro and did not even bother to drive it. Bought the Mustang and love it. The only thing I wish is that I had gotten a manual instead of an auto trans because wife drives it all the time and I never get to!

Is anyone really surprised by the low sales? As a base model (the ones that sell the most), the new Camaro is just plain ugly. Base Mustangs and Challengers are cheaper and look better. The previous car's looks with the new mechanicals would sell better. Better yet, how about a new Camaro inspired by the second generation. Either way, its back to the drawing board.

The Camaro is a joke. Old engines, terrible visibility, awful headroom, the mustang beats it in all these categories handily.

I have been a life-long GM follower. Between 1976 to 1985 I bought 4 compact Chevrolets. It was 2007 before another GM product....a GMC Sierra 1500. GM had me, but I had to let them go for 22 years. Didn't even consider a GM product til '07. Between '85 and '07 I bought 2 Nissan trucks, a Toyota Corolla and a Jeep Cherokee. So why isn't the Camaro selling better? On paper the Camaro is new and improved over the previous Gen 5 model. For me two things matter. First, the car has to fit me. I must feel comfortable in the driver's seat. The controls must be logical and easy to use. It must have good visibility to see whats going on around me. From what I have read the V-6 and V-8 engine performance is good with either engine. For the sake of argument, lets say the Camaro checks all those boxes. The second thing that matters is an emotional response to the vehicle. The Camaro leaves me wanting more from an emotional standpoint. I fawned like a rabid dog over the Gen 1 Camaro....and the Gen 2 was a great follow-up act. Because I remember the original Camaro, those are the glassed through which I look at the present Camaro. No, you can't bring back those 60's Camaros, but I long for those Camaros once again. The 2016 just ain't cutting the mustard. And those folks who buy today's Camaros, most weren't even around when the Gen 1 was prowling the streets. So why isn't the Camaro better? I haven't a clue. My Holy Grail Camaro is the 1969 Camaro Z-28 in hugger orange. Also offered for your consideration, the '70 1/2 Z-28 with the split front bumper.....awesome, just simply awesome!

Once again despite being a way better car, The Camaro sales are slow. I love my 2016 Camaro. The price is the issue. The cheap basic Mustang is affordable. (Not a better car though)
Take a basic Camaro, Add a few options, (Not even the needed V6 upgrade) And can cost 36000.
The price we pay for having the Alpha platform etc.

Drives like an ATS! So they get an ATS. Drives like a Vette! So they get a vette. Why spend Cadillac money on a Chevy product, or why spend near 'Vette money on a near 'Vette, just get the Vette - which you can actually see out of. ;) The mustang inspired mustang owners and brought in a new breed of buyer. The new camaro body, in a quick look, looks "just" like the old body, unless you pay attention to details or put them side by side. That lack of a sense of newness in the styling hurt initial impressions, and keeps the people who aren't "real car people" and who don't buy the 1SS/2SS models, which are the majority, out of the showrooms. The car business is emotionally driven as much as data and performance driven. And the fact that on the track the chevy is better doesn't mean squat to 98% of all pony car buyers who never even take these cars near 7/10ths of their performance, never mind the 9/10ths where the differences actually show themselves. They're buying on emotion and impressions and the Camaro visage just doesn't make an emotional impact. Bad numbers hurt positive emotional impact, but if the numbers are close, which they are, the emotions win out (almost) every time. And Ford judged their audience way better than Chevy. Ford apparently involved many viewpoints, not just the track car guys, which is apparently what GM did for the camaro.

There's no great mystery here to Camaro languishing so badly despite being so dramatically improved or Mustang's continued dominance.

Camaro rode a wave of pent-up demand after the many-year absence during the tenure of the leadership which drove GM into bankruptcy (while also ridiculing Ford for hiring the former commercial aircraft executive who ultimately saved the Blue Oval). A subjectively appealing design which resonated with Camaro faithful at the same time S197 was growing long in the tooth resulted in the nominal marketshare edge Camaro 5G enjoyed over S197.

But that all changed with S550s arrival. Mustang faithful who always have been larger and more passionate than GM's group of Transformerites flocked to showrooms to add the best-ever Mustang to their garages and, in many cases, adding a vehicle rather than simply trading out an old one. Mustang didn't just overcome Camaro's nominal volume lead. Mustang trounced it with the kind of dominance that usually only exists around an initial launch persisting for nearly two years.

Part of this is attributable to GM being unable to help itself from being GM and using incentives to pull forward as much new business as possible, leaving a disproportionate amount of Camaro owners upside down in rapidly depreciating 5G cars in time for 6G's quantum improvements to reach the market. Hell, even as dealers were trying to exact premiums above sticker for ZL1, GM was tossing cash on the hood. Being fewer and less devoted than the Mustang faithful and subjected to Camaro's far worse ownership economics at the time, GM's faithful simply haven't been able to willing to bite the bullet to make the trade, or add a second Camaro for the sheer pleasure of ownership than the Mustang faithful.

Coinciding perfectly with the overall market's dramatic shift away from passenger cars toward trucks and utilities in general, GM launched Camaro 6G into a perfect storm of unprecedented competition, marketplace malaise and its traditional over-reliance upon incentives which have driven down residuals at the expense of its own most loyal customers' ability to buy GM's latest and greatest.

Combined with Chrysler coming out of nowhere to capture the popular zeitgeist with its Hellcats which made even its own antiquated platforms seem exciting and Ford pulling out all the stops to create a GT350 which pushes even C7 off of some buyers' shopping lists and GM couldn't have launched a better Camaro into a worse conditions at a lousier possible time.

Ironically, this isn't entirely dissimilar to the other two vehicles GM launched on the space age Aloha platform. Despite being among the very best cars to drive in their classes, ATS and CTS barely manage to outsell Lincoln's dolled up Fusion COMBINED. GM is learning that being able to tick every box and top every metric only matters if, first and foremost, customers want to own (or want to be seen owning) the cars it makes - a gulf it has yet to span which many would assert due to the fact that GM exists only by the fleecing of creditors and taxpayers and every vehicle GM produces is at a legitimate maker's expense, is the world as it should be.

Due to these changes in the marketplace, the Camaro and F-body stablemate Pontiac Firebird would gain the traditional ponycar market all to themselves and would amass record sales in the process.

It's funny how yesterday a 2016 gt 350 pulled up to me and gave me a thumbs up for my 2016 v6 Camaro. True mustang and Camaro fans respect each other.The guy had every right to put down my car. I am not in a v8. Plus his is top of the line. The Camaro no matter what the mustang fake fanboys (yes the ones who post how awful the Camaro is are not real muscle car fans. Or for that matter car fans. I pay MY money to drive the car I pay for. Simply hating on me or my car just because it exist is stupid. Here is the real facts I DARE you and want YOU to tell me if I am wrong. The Camaro has the better handling. YES The Camaro has the faster cars. (The basic 4 6 8) YES. Fit of parts for quality are better in the Camaro YES. Go to Mustang forums to see this fact.
Stop being haters. The 2 things I can agree with from you fake fan boys is.. My car cost about 4 or 5 k more than a similar Mustang. AND the Mustang is out selling the Camaro.
Point is I DONT CARE! I only need one car. Why the hell do I care if it sells 100 or 1000000? Does it make the Mustang drive better than mine? NO Now shut up fan boys GOD