The Chevy Camaro continued to dominate the pony car segment through September 2011. Sales were up 10% over last September and 6,994 examples rolled off dealer lots. GM has off loaded more than 70,000 Camaros this year with Ford trailing in a distant second with just over 56,000 units sold. Moving down the line, Chrysler sold 3300 Challengers and Nissan sold a laughable 469 units of their 370Z. It appears that the bloom is off that rose.
The only month that Ford outsold Chevy in this segment was June. Other than that, the Camaro has dominated the year. Unless something wild happens, Chevy will wear the sales crown again amongst performance car buyers. What stings doubly for the Ford camp is not only the sales differential, but also the trends. As the Camaro saw a bump year over year, the Mustang saw a decline of 12% over the same month in 2011. Yes, the economy sucks worse now than it did then, but using that as an excuse when your primary rival saw an increase would be a cheap way out. The Camaro is simply connecting better with buyers looking for a hot car. The reasons for that are anyone’s guess.
The Challenger, while a distant third to the other two cars is still plugging along. More tha 30,000 have been bought and paid for this year and the numbers show a 6% bump year over year for the fattest assed pony car in America. Looking at the size of Chrysler as compared to Ford and GM, the 30,000 sales figure is pretty decent and we’re thinking that compant executives feel the same way.
As for the 370Z and the paltry sub-500 unit sales number. We couldn’t be happier for them.
Ford should look no further than the greedy dealers. I’d love a GT-500 or a Leguna Seca Boss302, but I’m not paying a dealers premium. Camaros and Challengers are too heavy.
11. Pend-up demand among the Chevy fanboys (no Camaros sold from 2003-2009)
10. At the peak of the fashion cycle (traditionally, sporty cars have about a four-year “in style” lifespan)
9. Better product placements and promotions (Transformers, Hawaii 5-0 vs. ???)
8. Some Americans still like vastly overweight cars with horrible ergonomics.
7. 2010 Mustang restyling was a flop (ugly tail panel, squinty headlamps . . . yet still too much like an inferior copy of the retro 2005-2009 design)
6. Dealer greed (particularly regarding the Coyote-powered and Shelby models)
5. Glut of used Mustangs (the flip-side of GM’s pent-up demand)
4. Ford’s abandonment of the “blue collar market” (No more LX 5.0, too many luxury V6s that cost more than an SVT Cobra used to)
3. Debut of the Camaro convertible vs. 25 years of Mustang convertibles to chose from
2. Irrational fear of Ford’s new DOHC engines (among average buyers) and no EcoBoost option (for early adopters) (sales will pick up after buyers get more confortable with the new engines).
1. GM is winning the last cubic inch war (before CAFE standards kill off the cheap V8)
The styling problem cannot be underestimated in this fashion-conscious segment, considerting that Ford has won virtually every comparison test since the new engines became available. In short, virtually all the experts conclude that Mustang is the better car, but buyers are ignoring this advice because of Camaro’s cartoonish styling and oversized, antediluvian engine.
Ford desperately needs to get back into the lower-priced market (a V6-priced, high-m.p.g. small DOHC V8 option might do it — sort of a “baby Coyote” for folks who need economy but want that V8 sound) and at least match Camaro cube-for-cube (a 6.2-liter DOHC would give luddite LS worshipers morning sickness) But doing something GOOD to fix the styling problem is the highest priority.
relief checks go further at “Government Motors” . . . .
speedy, as a die hard chevy guy I grudgingly have to agree with you and an earlier post from you about the camaro being heavier than my ’65 impala convertible (My ’68 Camaro weighs 3100 lbs, wtf happened?) but what I really enjoyed was the word ‘antediluvian’. That’s even better than ‘featuring an undervalved Kettering-style V8, force-fed by an 19th century mine-shaft air pump’, You’ve made my day, twice. thank you.
Yeah, and half the country still thinks Dubya was a great president too. The numbers don’t mean shit. The car’s an ugly ass, heavy POS.