Despite an otherwise depressing sales report, GM had one good reason to celebrate recently: For the first time since 1993, the Chevrolet Camaro outsold the Ford Mustang.
The brand-new 2010 Chevrolet Camaro has turned out to be GM's hottest seller since its debut. GM Vice President of Sales Mark LaNeve says that California is devouring the coupe, and the company has only a six-day supply. The Camaro handily outsold its main competitor last month, with consumers purchasing only 7362 models of the redesigned 2010 Ford Mustang compared to 9320 Camaros.
According to Automotive News, the last time GM's muscle car outsold Ford's was in October 1993, when Chevrolet sold 10,985 of its redesigned fourth-generation Camaros and Ford sold 5680 Mustangs. You'd have to go all the way back to 1985 for the last full year that the Camaro outsold the Mustang, 199,985 units to 157,821.
In recent years, Ford has had a monopoly on the muscle car segment in the U.S. While Chrysler retired the Dodge Challenger in 1983 (and the name had been tarnished at that point by the 1978-1983 iteration) and GM retired the Camaro in 2002, the Mustang has soldiered on uninterrupted from its original debut in 1964. In 2005, Ford introduced a redesigned, retro-styled Mustang that became an instant hit with critics and customers, spurring Chrysler and GM to revive their own muscle cars.
With a new round of muscle cars all vastly improved over anything the Detroit automakers have produced before, the competition in the segment is white hot. Chevrolet dealers have reported selling Camaros right off the delivery truck, with some consumers paying up to $500 over sticker. Few vehicles in this depressed market have amassed so much demand.
Source: Automotive News