Ford Mustang Leads Q1 2019 Muscle Car Sales, Dodge Challenger Sits Second

Ford Mustang and Dodge Challenger are both slumping while the Chevrolet Camaro improved, but still sits third.

Sales numbers for the first quarter of 2019 are in and during the first three months of the year, the Ford Mustang leads the muscle car sales race. The Dodge Challenger is currently second and the Chevrolet Camaro is third in the segment, so the sales trends of 2018 have continued through the first quarter of 2019. As a reminder, the Mustang lead the segment in 2018 with the Challenger second and the Camaro third.

For those wondering why we are discussing quarterly sales rather than monthly sales, both General Motors and Ford Motor Company are using a quarterly sales reporting system for 2019, so we are unable to assess monthly numbers. FCA still reports monthly sales numbers for now, but without monthly numbers from Ford and Chevy, we are reporting quarterly muscle car sales.

Ford Leads the Way
Over the course of the first three months of 2019, Ford sold 16,917 examples of the Mustang. That is down by almost 12% from the first quarter of 2018, but the Motor Company still moved enough units to lead the segment for Q1.

The Dodge Challenger was second with 13,431 units sold in January, February and March, down by 24% from 2018, but the numbers last year benefited from the deliveries of the one-year-only Challenger Demon. The Challenger posted record numbers during the first quarter of 2018, including the best month ever for the modern Mopar muscle car.

The Chevrolet Camaro moved 12,083 units in the first quarter of 2019, up 2.5% from the first three months of 2018 – making the Chevy the only muscle car to post positive growth. Camaro numbers are still incredibly low, but at least sales numbers are headed in the right direction.

Overall, the muscle car segment is down 12.7% this year, with 42,431 units sold in 2019 Q1 after the three companies moved 48,604 units sold during the same period last year.