Reprinted with Permission from torquenews.com
By Patrick Rall
After trailing the Chevrolet Camaro in September and October sales, a combination of a sales surge for the Ford Mustang with the worst sales month of the year for the Camaro has allowed the Mustang to climb back to the top of the muscle car chart – even as sales slump across the segment compared to last year.
The Ford Mustang led the muscle car segment in sales for 22 straight months after it went on sale back in November 2014, but with a dip in Mustang sales combined with a jump in Camaro sales, the Chevrolet muscle car was able to get lead the segment sales race in September and October. Unfortunately for GM fans, that two-month streak has been broken, as November 2016 brought the slowest sales of 2017 for the Camaro while the Ford Mustang rebounded from a very poor October to reclaim the title of the bestselling muscle car.
November 2016 Muscle Car Sales
In November 2016, the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro and Dodge Challenger combined to move 14,997 units, down from 16,852 in November 2015. That year over year decline is present across all three cars and even though the Mustang saw the biggest decline of the group, Ford still sold enough Mustangs last month to lead the segment.
Ford sold 6,196 Mustangs in November, down from 7,286 in the same month last year. That isn’t a great number, but was better than the previous month – although still one of the worst months since the current generation Mustang first went on sale.
The Chevrolet Camaro was second in November 2016 sales with 4,893 units, down from 5,303 units in the same month last year. Although Camaro sales have been unexpectedly low this year, November was the worst sales month for the Chevy muscle car of the calendar year and the worst sales month since the 6th generation Camaro went on sale across the country.
The Dodge Challenger was third with 3,908 units sold, down from 4,263 one year earlier. As was the case for the Camaro, November 2016 was the worst sales month of the year for the Challenger, while also being the worst sales month since the middle of 2014 – prior to the current Challengers going on sale. So, while the Mustang fell by almost 1,100 units while the Camaro and Challenger “only” dropped by around 400 units 350 units (respectively) – the Mustang still won the race for November 2016. That marks the 9th time in the 11 months of 2016 where the Mustang led the segment in sales and since the “new” generation was introduced for the 2015 model year in November 2014 – the Mustang has led 23 of 25 months.
Ford Leads by 30K+ on the Year
While the Chevrolet Camaro was able to win a pair of monthly sales titles this year after being shut out during the 2015 calendar year, the annual muscle car sales race is well out of reach for GM. Through November, Ford has sold 98,868 Mustangs while Chevrolet has sold 65,705 examples of the Camaro and Dodge has sold 59,221 Challengers, giving the Mustang a lead of more than 30,000 units over the next closest car in the class.
In other words, the Ford Mustang is guaranteed to be the bestselling muscle car, the bestselling performance car and the bestselling 2-door in the United States for the second year in a row.