Traditionally, the American muscle car sales race has three competitors: the Ford Mustang, Dodge Challenger, and Chevrolet Camaro. For the last six years, the Ford Mustang has beaten its competitors by a huge margin. Last year, Ford's pony car outsold the Challenger by nearly 10,000 units to become America's best-selling muscle car. But 2021 could be the year the mighty Mustang finally gets overtaken by the Challenger.
With the semiconductor chip shortage still causing supply issues, fewer people have been buying muscle cars during the last quarter. As reported by Stellpower, only 28,312 American muscle cars were sold in Q3 2021, around 10,000 less than the same period last year.
With nearly 14,000 units sold, the Challenger absolutely dominated muscle car sales in Q3 2021. At this rate, the Challenger will defeat the Mustang to become the best-selling muscle car of 2021 if Dodge can keep up this momentum. That will be a commendable achievement considering the Challenger hasn't had had a major redesign in 13 years.
Looking at the numbers, Dodge sold 13,994 examples of the Challenger during Q3 2021 - a 14 percent decline compared to Q3 2020. Sales were also down by just over 1,000 units compared to Q2 2021. For comparison, Ford sold 9,115 Mustangs in Q3 2021, a sharp 34 percent decline compared to the same period last year as the Blue Oval automaker continues to struggle with parts shortages.
As always, languishing at the back of the pack in the sales race is the Chevrolet Camaro, with a paltry 5,203 units sold during Q3 2021. This was a 37.8 percent drop compared to Q3 2020. Clearly, this is going to be a two-car race in the fight to the finish. Right now, the Challenger is leading by 3,078 units.
Will the Ford Mustang finally be dethroned after years of domination? Time will tell, but Ford will need to sell a lot of Mustangs in the final three months of 2021 if it's going to catch up with the Challenger this year. With the semiconductor chip shortage showing no signs of ending soon, that certainly won't be easy.