First Quarter 2021 Muscle Car Sales

[edco]

Ford_Mustang.................17,274 Units Sold -4.4% Q1_2020
Dodge_Challenger..........15,096 Units Sold +24% Q1_2020
Chevy_Camaro.................7,089 Units Sold -1.3% Q1_2020

Ford continues to lead the segment. Charger is up from 12,138 units Q1 2020.
That is a wow. Ford to lead in Q2 is a fair bet. The pandemic lockdown is lifting.
Demand is pent up. The Mach One is just hitting dealer lots. Hell Cats and Demons
proved the high end high HP models stimulate overall sales. GT 500 should give
Mustang a bump also.


Camaro rumored to die in 2023. Nothing new or exciting in C6G city.
I think Chevy just missed the target on design. 2019 Camaro 1LE set
with two run of the mill Mustangs. In my experience Mustangs look
better in person than photo and Camaros look worse in person than photo.
What do you think?

Sponsored

 

[Carbide]

Glad I could help.

 

[Pronichkin]

Do you happen to know the numbers in $$$? With volumes being so close, I would suspect that Challenger might become more profitable for the manufacturer than Mustang. It seems that Dodge muscle cars are more powerful, on average, and hence must have better margins, I guess.

It's great to see tight competition in this niche nevertheless, and I wholeheartedly hope that all three make/models will stay on the market for longer.

 

[samd1351]

Really sucks the Camaro is failing. I don't get the hate for the looks. I really kind of like it (but then again, I'm the guy doesn't like the way the Porsche looks, so....).

We need the three pony cars to survive. I was talking about this with my younger son. We agreed Chevy needs a new design, but they also need new nomenclature. Too many LT, LS, LE. They all run together. The SS needs to be bigger on the car, and they need to bring back the Z28.

Base Camaro, RS gets some trim upgrages, the SS is the V8 with some options available similar to GT PP, and the Z28 should either be geared toward a drag setup or track setup. Or something alomg those lines anyway.

 

[RPDBlueMoon]

In my experience Mustangs look
better in person than photo and Camaros look worse in person than photo.
What do you think?

That's probably because the Mustang overall has a better design. The Camaro looks cool because of the aggressive addons, like the canards and the huge wing in the back. Take all of that away and it doesn't look that cool. Even some of the Eco Boost Mustangs can look really cool with just a nice set of rims and a low profile spoiler.

Less is more. Mustangs don't need a bunch of "makeup" to make them look cool

 

[detamble13]

Camaro's look better obviously.

Chevy has pretty much given up on selling the car and are wondering what to do with it if anything at all. The 1LE should have been a Z/28 but they would also have to look at a bespoke engine for that model and that probably ended that discussion.

Mustang has Shelby, Boss, Terminator, Bullitt, GT350, GT500, Mach 1 etc. Dodge has Demon, Hellcat, Scat Pack. All cool recognizable names that help sell the car and the lesser trims without those names. An SS badge is probably the most well known and it's not helping to sell $hit. A ZL1 1LE is a badass car but someone on the fence might be more inclined to buy a muscle car with a name you don't have to explain to the average person.

 

[edco]

Camaro's look better obviously.

What is obvious?

 

[Qcman17]

Where are the pony car police?

 

[Mike Pfeifer]

Camaro's look better obviously.

Chevy has pretty much given up on selling the car and are wondering what to do with it if anything at all. The 1LE should have been a Z/28 but they would also have to look at a bespoke engine for that model and that probably ended that discussion.

Mustang has Shelby, Boss, Terminator, Bullitt, GT350, GT500, Mach 1 etc. Dodge has Demon, Hellcat, Scat Pack. All cool recognizable names that help sell the car and the lesser trims without those names. An SS badge is probably the most well known and it's not helping to sell $hit. A ZL1 1LE is a badass car but someone on the fence might be more inclined to buy a muscle car with a name you don't have to explain to the average person.

I had been car shopping for over a year and entertained the idea of the Camaro. When first looking at them, came across all the names and agree that they are confusing if you aren’t an enthusiast. Who the hell can remember the difference between 1LT and LT1? Can you imagine accidentally ordering the wrong one? Just not very inspiring at any level, like most of the German car names. Maybe that’s what they were going for. But that said, I hope they all stick around, competition is the best thing for this category of cars. Keeps them all honest.

 

[snake bite]

Do those numbers include Mustangs sold overseas

 

[Friend of Dorothy]

Do those numbers include Mustangs sold overseas

That is just sales in the USA. 130 Mustangs were sold here in Australia last month, not the best month.

I hope the Camaro stays in production a bit longer, even though they are not seen on the road very often. They are not official available for sale new at the moment.

I think the looks of the Camaro are a personal thing, but I am not keen the styling forward of the windscreen. But each to their own.

 

[Bandi]

The Camaro was a nice looking car until the facelift. Kinda don’t like the new look but the new tech they shoved into it (rear view camera to help with crap visibility) was nice.

I considered all of them but given that my family is all Chevy with two to three generations of both Corvettes and Camaros and with Challenger insurance prices being astronomical even for someone like me with zero bad driving history, the Mustang became the choice. I’ve wanted one since I was 18, anyway.

 

[Ace]

GM is not investing any money in the Camaro anymore and focuses on the C8. While Mustang and Challenger are still pushing their marketing with new models (Bullitt, Mach 1, Widebodys, Shaker combos, etc), Chevy is just doing nothing but let the Camaro be around at some race events. It is actually quite interesting that it still sells ok for absolutely no efford from Chevy.

While overall numbers of course are low in comparison, don't forget how friggin expensive it is to develop new stuff, do marketing campaigns, fly reviewers and magazines in to write aout your car, buy them in into movies/series, etc. You have to get back these millions of dollars through the increased sales.

Also Chevrolet is the only carmaker of these three that actually has a higher class model with the C8 Corvette that sold 6,611 units with an average asking price around $82k - I doubt Ford and Dodge are selling that many Shelbys and Hellcats. So overall I think Chevy is a fine spot.

 

[CrowsHeadSoup]

In my experience Mustangs look
better in person than photo and Camaros look worse in person than photo.
What do you think?

I think the Camaro looks good, sporty, I’d be proud to have one in my garage. However, the Mustang has it all, sleek, sexy, an energetic badass. It takes more than brute horsepower to appeal to me, and so I’m not much on Dodge.

 

[Zach@Granger]

Do you happen to know the numbers in $$$? With volumes being so close, I would suspect that Challenger might become more profitable for the manufacturer than Mustang. It seems that Dodge muscle cars are more powerful, on average, and hence must have better margins, I guess.

It's great to see tight competition in this niche nevertheless, and I wholeheartedly hope that all three make/models will stay on the market for longer.

I'm sure Dodge is way more profitable because it's based on a platform that came out in 2005 with the magnum/300. Engineering costs for a whole new platform with Ford in 2005 then 2015 are much more expensive.

It's really amazing what Dodge has done just with refreshes and bigger engines to keep the challenger interesting.

Sponsored