Michael Accardi 
If you’ve ever bothered to compare sales figures of crosstown rivals the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro you’d know that the Camaro seldom comes near the numbers of Ford’s iconic pony car. At least in the case of the sixth-generation Camaro and S550 Mustang. But things haven’t ever really been as dire as they were in 2020.
That’s because over the last 12 months the Mustang outsold the Camaro at a rate of two to one. Ford sold 61,090 Mustangs—making it the best-selling sports car in the country for the sixth straight year—while Chevrolet managed to move just 29,775 Camaro muscle cars. That’s less than a third of total Camaro sales from eight years ago, according to data from Good Car Bad Car.
Ford’s figure is down 15.7% from the 72,489 Mustangs sold in 2019, but within that data sales of Shelby badged models were up 14% year-over-year, which was definitely due to both the GT350 and GT500 being available concurrently in 2020.
Contrast those figures with those of the Chevrolet Camaro which was down 13% from the 48,265 sold in 2019. The Camaro hasn’t shown sales figures that low since the fourth-generation Camaro bowed out in the early 2000s, and is a troubling continuation of the Camaro’s perpetual decline in sales since it peaked in 2014 with 86,297 units moved.
Adding fuel to the fire, Dodge sold 52,995 Challenger muscle cars last year, a figure that was also down 13% from the 60,997 cars sold in 2019. Proving that life is more fun if you don’t fix what isn’t broken the Challenger is largely unchanged since 2008, but its long-term fate is also unclear considering FCA is in the midst of merging with PSA Group to form Stellantis.
We’ll have a total breakdown of 2020 muscle car sales soon, so be sure to check back with MC&T for more.
