Photo: Ford
Even though the Dodge Challenger outsold the Ford Mustang in the fourth quarter of 2020 back home in the United States of America, the Mopar muscle car couldn’t keep up with the Blue Oval-badged pony car. For the entire year, the ‘Stang took the cake with 61,090 units versus 52,955.
The biggest loser in the mainstream sports car segment is, of course, the biggest of the Big Three in Detroit. Chevrolet sold 7,549 examples of the Camaro in Q4, translating to 29,775 for the entire year. Considering that General Motors hasn’t come up with a more exciting specification than the ZL1 1LE from the 2017 model year, I’m not really surprised.
Looking through the sales figures of these three competitors, there’s even a bleaker picture that may raise concern among pony and muscle car enthusiasts. More to the point, all three nameplates have sold fewer units than in 2019, and the health crisis had little to do with this downturn.
The Mustang is down 15.7 percent, the Challenger has contracted by 13 percent, and the Camaro’s U.S. volume has declined 38.3 percent. That’s huge in an already troubled segment, but that’s what happens when everyone and their mother buy crossovers and trucks.
Ford, Fiat Chrysler, and General Motors have all posted negative results in 2020 compared to 2019, but the least-affected segments are… wait for it… SUVs and workhorses. The F-Series soldiers on as the best-selling vehicle in America with 787,422 units, and instead of domestic brands, Toyota has the best-selling SUV in the guise of the RAV4.
Given these circumstances, hearsay suggests that General Motors has already pulled the plug on the next-generation Camaro. Ford and FCA, by comparison, are looking forward to electrified powertrains for the Mustang and Challenger.
The seventh-generation S650 is due in 2022 as a 2023 model, while Mopar muscle will be reinvented with the help of an electric motor integrated into the eight-speed automatic transmission supplied by ZF Friedrichshafen.
Looking through the sales figures of these three competitors, there’s even a bleaker picture that may raise concern among pony and muscle car enthusiasts. More to the point, all three nameplates have sold fewer units than in 2019, and the health crisis had little to do with this downturn.
The Mustang is down 15.7 percent, the Challenger has contracted by 13 percent, and the Camaro’s U.S. volume has declined 38.3 percent. That’s huge in an already troubled segment, but that’s what happens when everyone and their mother buy crossovers and trucks.
Ford, Fiat Chrysler, and General Motors have all posted negative results in 2020 compared to 2019, but the least-affected segments are… wait for it… SUVs and workhorses. The F-Series soldiers on as the best-selling vehicle in America with 787,422 units, and instead of domestic brands, Toyota has the best-selling SUV in the guise of the RAV4.
Given these circumstances, hearsay suggests that General Motors has already pulled the plug on the next-generation Camaro. Ford and FCA, by comparison, are looking forward to electrified powertrains for the Mustang and Challenger.
The seventh-generation S650 is due in 2022 as a 2023 model, while Mopar muscle will be reinvented with the help of an electric motor integrated into the eight-speed automatic transmission supplied by ZF Friedrichshafen.
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