In the American muscle car wars, there are three main competitors: the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro, and Dodge Challenger. Now that the new year has dawned, 2019 sales figures for all three pony cars are in, and so, of course, we need to compare them. No prizes for guessing which model was 2019's best-seller.

Dominating the muscle car sales war once again is the Ford Mustang, which Ford boasts is "America's best-selling sports car" for the fifth year in a row. In the final quarter, the mighty Mustang saw a gain of 20.4 percent in Q4 2019 with 17,124 cars sold compared to 14,223 in the same period in 2018.

It wasn't all good news for Ford, however, as yearly sales for the Mustang were down. In 2019, Ford sold 72,489 Mustangs, down 4.4 percent from 75,842 in 2018. Things get interesting, however, when comparing sales figures for the Chevrolet Camaro and Dodge Challenger.

In Q4 2019, sales of the Dodge Challenger were down slightly, with 14,298 units sold compared to 14,403 in the same quarter in 2018. Likewise, total 2019 sales for the Dodge Challenger were 60,997, representing a nine percent drop from 66,716 sold in 2018.

As for the Camaro, sales dropped by 5.3 percent last year, with 48,265 cars sold in 2019 compared to 50,963 units the year before. This means the Dodge Challenger outsold the more modern Camaro by a significant margin, which is an impressive achievement considering it debuted for the 2008 model year.

That makes it ancient compared to the Chevrolet Camaro, which was hastily updated for the 2020 model year in response to the negative reception of the 2019 Camaro SS refresh. Q4 sales for the Camaro were up slightly, however, with 11,474 units sold in Q4 2019 and 11,135 in Q4 2018. With the next-generation Dodge Challenger not expected to arrive until 2023, it will be interesting to see if the Challenger can continue to outsell its main rival.