September 2011 Camaro Sales and Production Figures

[solo40oz]

I just pulled out my Camaro book to see how modern day sales compared to the 1st gen. Pretty interesting numbers....and holy crap that was a ton of mustangs in 1967 - there must have been lots of happy teenage girls driving around

1967:
Camaro 201,134
Mustang: 442,686

1968
Camaro: 217,700
Mustang: 299,061

1969
Camaro: 193,986
Mustang: 293,000

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by PoorMansCamaro

oh, didn't you know, it's because the 2011 camaro's are newer this year.

wait, wat?

[coolman]

This thread just proved to me that charts and numbers where invented by people only to make the outcomes appear as they wish them to be. To be honest ,from an outsider looking in, that is in a totally different business, I can put sense to both sides of this argument. I guess in the end only time will tell the real story.

[Supermaro585HP]

Bottom line is that when I drive down the street 9 out of 10 people point and stare at my 2011 Camaro. When my buddy drives down the street in his 2011 Mustang GT 500 he might have 1 person look at him and usually it is some older guy that probably has been driving Mustangs for years. I mean everyone knows what the new Camaros look like. The Mustangs look terrible. I know many people that would never of got a sportscar until the Camaro came out. The Camaro is back and it is only going to get better and better. I'm just saying...

[FenwickHockey65]

Originally Posted by solo40oz

I just pulled out my Camaro book to see how modern day sales compared to the 1st gen. Pretty interesting numbers....and holy crap that was a ton of mustangs in 1967 - there must have been lots of happy teenage girls driving around

1967:
Camaro 201,134
Mustang: 442,686

1968
Camaro: 217,700
Mustang: 299,061

1969
Camaro: 193,986
Mustang: 293,000

Those were the days before America fell in love with these...

[alexcfwu]

Wow, Corvette sold 900+. That's pretty good. As for Camaro, that is impressive. Consider the current economic outlook being gloomy, it shows that the pony car segment has a strong following. Second, the basic steady upward trend is also encouraging, but one does have to wonder how long that can last. Third, I do expect Mustang to drop as we get closer to the cutoff between the current generation and the 2014 next gen.

Charger is worrisome. There doesn't seem to be enough following for their product line.

[cab2g]

Originally Posted by alexcfwu

Wow, Corvette sold 900+. That's pretty good. As for Camaro, that is impressive. Consider the current economic outlook being gloomy, it shows that the pony car segment has a strong following. Second, the basic steady upward trend is also encouraging, but one does have to wonder how long that can last. Third, I do expect Mustang to drop as we get closer to the cutoff between the current generation and the 2014 next gen.

Charger is worrisome. There doesn't seem to be enough following for their product line.

There would be if they could do 3 things, bring performance up to par with Camaro/Mustang in all 3 trims, keep the prices where they are or lower them for the top trim, increase mileage in bottom trim. I would have bought the Challenger if the price/performance ratio had been anywhere near the Camaro SS. I had already fallen in love with the 1970 Cuda, and since I figured I wouldn't get my hands on one of those for decades, the 2008 Challenger was the next best thing. So I started saving up for that, but then I started researching the competition and the Camaro won hands down. I started to love the styling after the performance specs already won me over. And to be honest, I feel like there have to be a lot of people out there with similar stories that were pulled away from other cars that they'd typically have bought. That could've been the Challenger's story, but GM did it right the first time. Grant it, at the time the Mustang GT was only pushing an anemic 300 HP motor so even with the weight, the Challenger RT's 350 HP (for 2009 model) engine could beat the Mustang. But the Camaro's 426 HP and 200 lbs less weight was too strong of a selling point for me. Then it came to a close fight between the Mustang and Camaro for 2011, but looks won me over even though the Mustang's solid rear axle reduces drive train loss and the car is lighter, the Camaro just looks better in my opinion, and probably handles much better for everyday driving too.

[thePill]

Originally Posted by DGthe3

If the segement is dying, why is it on an upward trend vs a year ago?

Since the chart only really offers a look from August 2010 to September 2011, it doesn't really give an overall good picture of what the overall trend really is. August 2010 was pretty much the beginning of the worst sales months in the history of the pony car. After the sales leading Camaro started only pushing 5000 units, of course a new direction has to be taken. The V6 was pushed hard this year for the Camaro and V6's in general are in demand along with incentives for all three. Lets roll the chart back to April 2009 and watch the lines, If I really wanted to bend the numbers in a products favor, I would just seek out a different comparison ie Sept '10 vs. Sept '11, last month vs. this month. It is good that the current yearly trend from last fall is up, but this is natural because of the summer sales in which these cars are sometimes 40% stronger. If we started in April 2011, the sales would obviously reflect a different story. It would show that these pony cars are trending down but, numbers grown increasing smaller year after year...

As far as the Challenger outselling the Mustang, it could be possible. Dodge only produces about 40,000 Challengers a year, Ford produces about 70,000. Less product will return fewer sales, but I don't think Dodge cares about Ford's Mustang since I believe Dodge is making more profit per vehicle than Ford is. I'm sure Dodge would love to outsell Ford but if they are only producing half of what Ford does, does it seem like they care? I think at this point in the Mustang and Challengers life, total sales become less important and total profit becomes the focus. Minimizing waste such as overproduction and capitalizing on decreased production cost during a time when sales are not good. This is good business, stretching a product and matching production to sales as accurately as possible. This is currently not being done at Chevrolet because they are not in the same position as Ford or Dodge. The product is still new but is starting to age... and the product was released after the initial excitement of pony cars started to die down.. Irony would have us looking back to the 1967 Camaro as the 5th Gens rise and fall almost mirrors the originals year over year...

Every market grows old, this is reality... Even the mighty originals saw sales plummet after the wave broke... Every product has a high water mark, usually the first year or two and then, sales recess... At the current 3 year trend of these cars, they won't be very strong next year, in fact.. this winter will likely show a major decrease similar or more extreme than last years.

Of course I always look to the past, because it gives me a glimpse of the future. Those who ignore the past are bound to repeat it...

[Enator]

Originally Posted by thePill

Since the chart only really offers a look from August 2010 to September 2011, it doesn't really give an overall good picture of what the overall trend really is....

Here comes trend from 2009

[macwest]

Any numbers on breakdown by model type 1LT, 2LT 1SS, 2SS

[Enator]

Sorry http://camaro.spasticsquirrel.com/ is dead

[thePill]

Originally Posted by Enator

Here comes trend from 2009

If these cars can put in a stronger winter this year and push another big spring, the Mustang and Camaro can trend back up to 2009 numbers. It will be extremely difficult for the Camaro to produce numbers similar to 2009 year long. Hopefully the Mustang's redesign looks like the 2009 concept and attracts more sales this year.. We will see it in November...

The Challenger is the only one really making progress, although 3000 a month sounds bad, they are making more profit per unit than the other two. I can almost bet that their losses are just as small as Fords.

Thanks for putting that together, looks like about 2-4% decrease on a new model and a redesign model over the last 2 years. Not completely devastating, but the first two years are the strong sales period, an eventual loss is inevitable. Similar to the '05, sales decreased in a similar fashion then bottomed out after 5 years. I don't expect the Mustang to sell very well through the winter, especially when people see the 2013 car next month.

[S-eatin-grin]

The timing of the new generation of muscle cars couldn't have been better except that the economy tanked...Had the economy stayed healthy all the retiring baby boomers that were teens in golden years of muscle cars would be buying these as thier retirement toys. I came from a generation of teens driving 60's-mid 70's Chevy, Mopar muscle cars when they first became "classic" cars in the late 80's and they were the envy all those that didn't have one. The muscle car is a niche just like the ricer, euro sport and the high-end exotic sports car. If those charts say anything, it is that the muscle car currently enjoys a larger portion than the rest of unpractical car niches. As far as the muscle cars dying...making it front-wheel drive, lightweight and sticking a 4 cyl turbo will be the death of it. If it doesn't have a rearwheel V8 (V6 bare minimum) it is something other than a muscle car regardless of the skin/nameplate it is wearing or how fast it goes or how well it handles.

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by thePill

If these cars can put in a stronger winter this year and push another big spring, the Mustang and Camaro can trend back up to 2009 numbers. It will be extremely difficult for the Camaro to produce numbers similar to 2009 year long. Hopefully the Mustang's redesign looks like the 2009 concept and attracts more sales this year.. We will see it in November...

The Challenger is the only one really making progress, although 3000 a month sounds bad, they are making more profit per unit than the other two. I can almost bet that their losses are just as small as Fords.

How are you so sure that Dodge is making more money than Chevy or Ford? The way I see it, labour costs are going to be nearly identical between the Camaro & Challenger, since they're built less than an hour away from each other. Mechanically, they are very similar so there isn't going to be much difference there. They're priced pretty much the same throughout the lineup (except for the low volume SRT8s which currently have no competitor). However, the Camaro has volume on its side to decrease the per unit cost. So where is the extra profit for the Challenger coming from?