Camaro Coupe

Make
Chevrolet
Segment
Coupe

At the beginning of the month automakers release sales figures for the previous month. Like clockwork the automotive media pounces on the muscle car sales data. We here at CarBuzz are no different. Over the past few months a common theme has emerged: Chevrolet Camaro sales are going down the crapper. But that's all changed, at least for a month. For September 2016 the title of America's top-selling muscle car belongs to Chevy, not Ford. That's right, the Camaro has finally outsold the Mustang.

We say "finally" because the Mustang was America's top-selling muscle car for an amazing 22 months. But that streak was snapped by just 148 sales. The Camaro finished the month of September with 6,577 sales. The Mustang secured second place with 6,429 sales and the Dodge Challenger took third with 5,698 units moved. Losing a tight race decided by less than 150 cars is nothing to be ashamed of, but Ford might be a bit worried about its declining Mustang sales, which are down 9.3% on the year. Yes, overall auto sales and muscle car sales are down after a record breaking 2015. But compare September 2015 to September 2016. You'll see a sales decline of 32%.

The Camaro is September's muscle car sales champ, but it took the Mustang's worst sales month of the year for it to take the title. On the year the Camaro's sales are down 11.4% but its September figures increased a whopping 25% from 2015 to 2016. While the Challenger is usually found in third place, or sometimes second depending the month, its sales are up 19% on the year and down just 2% when you compare September 2015 to September 2016. So what can we infer here? Well, unfortunately for Chevy fanboys it seems like this month may be an aberration. When it comes to selling cars 148 units is not a huge margin of victory, especially given the fact that Camaro sales in 2016 peaked (so far) at 7,457 units back in April.

The big winner seems to be the Challenger. Despite having no chance at taking the top spot, Dodge's burly muscle car has a good shot at taking second place on the year. How tight is the race? The Camaro leads the Challenger by just 3,000 sales with three months to go. It'll take a massive effort but it doesn't seem like an impossible task.