Ford Mustang Secures 3rd Straight Annual Muscle Car Sales Title

The Ford Mustang had a commanding lead in the 2017 muscle car sales race coming into December and without a legendary month by the Camaro, the Mustang was a lock to claim the annual title. The Camaro posted poor sales figures in December while Ford posted their 5th-best Mustang sales of 2017, allowing the Mustang to roll to its 3rd-straight annual sales title in the muscle car segment.

December 2017 Muscle Car Sales
In December 2017, Ford sold 7,714 examples of the Mustang, beating the same month in 2016 by about 10% while beating the next closest competitor in the class – the Dodge Challenger – by more than 3,200 units. Dodge sold 4,508 examples of the Challenger to take the 2nd spot in the last monthly sales race of 2017 while the Camaro settled for 3rd with just 3,802 units sold.

The win in December gives the Mustang its 7th monthly win of the year and in the 5 months where Ford didn’t lead the segment – their muscle car finished 2nd in the class. The Challenger finished 2nd in the segment for the 3rd time in 2017 while also grabbing a pair of monthly segment wins (June, August). The Camaro settled for last in the segment for the 6th time in 2017, but the Chevy muscle car managed to lead the group in monthly sales three times (April, September, October) in addition to finishing 2nd three times as well.

Mustang Wins the 2017 Annual Race
With its 7th monthly win of the 2017 calendar year, the Ford Mustang secured its 3rd-straight annual muscle car sales. After watching the Camaro lead the segment in 2010 through 2014, the Mustang has battled back to lead the trio of American muscle cars in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Throughout 2017, Ford sold 81,866 examples of the Mustang, beating the Camaro at 67,940 units and the Challenger at 64,537 units. Sales were way down for the Mustang compared to 2016 and for the Camaro, 2017 marked the worst sales year since the car returned to the lineup for 2010. On the other hand, the Dodge Challenger saw a slight improvement in numbers over 2016, so while the Mopar muscle car was still the 3rd-best in terms of sales volume – it was the only one of the three to show growth in 2017.

The bottom line here is that the Ford Mustang sold far fewer units in 2017 than it did in 2016, but it still moved enough units to beat the Chevrolet Camaro and the Dodge Challenger for its 3rd-straight annual muscle car segment sales title. It was a “good enough year” for the Mustang and an awful year for the Camaro, while being a good year for the Dodge Challenger.

With the refreshed 2018 Ford Mustang arriving and the new Shelby GT500 expected to arrive sometime this year, Mustang sales should remain strong enough to lead the segment as Camaro sales continue to slump. Meanwhile, the Dodge Challenger will continue to soldier on with numbers growing steadily thanks to the arrival of the Hellcat Widebody and the Demon packages for the new model year.