Photo: Capito Lincoln Ford
If you scratch your head and wonder how Dodge gets away with selling a Challenger with the underpinnings of a two-decade-old platform, the proof is almost always in the profit.
The latest report from Fox News Autos Editor Gary Gastelu shows that the Challenger sold neck and neck with Ford’s Mustang throughout 2021 only to surpass the Mustang towards the end of the year. Gastelu reports that the Challenger was trailing slightly behind the Mustang throughout most of the year, but in recent months, has taken a lead of just over three thousand more units sold, 44,142 to the Mustangs 41,065.
This unexpected – yet not entirely unexplainable – climb in sales goes directly against Dodge’s new owners at Stellantis and their new sustainability initiatives, which have pledged to move to carbon-neutral status by the mid-2030s. But with sales that outpace everything else in its class, it seems turning away will be hard to do.
Meanwhile, over at General Motors, their muscle car, the Camaro, is still struggling as much as ever to move out of the Corvette’s shadow, now a bigger ordeal than ever before on account of the Vette's transformation into a mid-engined supercar.
Only 15,084 Camaros were sold from Chevrolet dealers in America during the course of 2021, almost 30,000 units off the pace of the Mustang and Challenger. The Camaro managed to sell almost ten thousand units less than the more expensive but more desirable mid-engined C8 Corvette.
Sales figures for Challengers and related Hellcat and Demon models are even more astonishing, considering competitors like the Mustang and Camaro see limited releases in foreign markets. At the same time, the Chally remains a North American-only model.
Say what you will about its antiquated platform and stone age pushrod engine. But it seems Americans simply don’t give a rat’s behind about such things. A supercharged 700 horsepower engine does much to silence critics behind a wall of noise and tire smoke.
This unexpected – yet not entirely unexplainable – climb in sales goes directly against Dodge’s new owners at Stellantis and their new sustainability initiatives, which have pledged to move to carbon-neutral status by the mid-2030s. But with sales that outpace everything else in its class, it seems turning away will be hard to do.
Meanwhile, over at General Motors, their muscle car, the Camaro, is still struggling as much as ever to move out of the Corvette’s shadow, now a bigger ordeal than ever before on account of the Vette's transformation into a mid-engined supercar.
Only 15,084 Camaros were sold from Chevrolet dealers in America during the course of 2021, almost 30,000 units off the pace of the Mustang and Challenger. The Camaro managed to sell almost ten thousand units less than the more expensive but more desirable mid-engined C8 Corvette.
Sales figures for Challengers and related Hellcat and Demon models are even more astonishing, considering competitors like the Mustang and Camaro see limited releases in foreign markets. At the same time, the Chally remains a North American-only model.
Say what you will about its antiquated platform and stone age pushrod engine. But it seems Americans simply don’t give a rat’s behind about such things. A supercharged 700 horsepower engine does much to silence critics behind a wall of noise and tire smoke.
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