Pony Car Sales Accelerate, With Camaro in the Lead

There is little else as significant in demonstrating the health of the economy as car sales are on a monthly basis. For pony car fanatics, the current “race” between Dodge, Chevrolet and Ford monthly deliveries continued to favor the Camaro, despite a remarkable recovery by the Ford Mustang this past month.

Camaro sales for the month of March, 2011 totalled 8,964, resulting in a year to date total of 19,972. Overall sales of GM passenger cars improved by 15 percent during March, and by 49 percent for the first quarter of the year.

Meanwhile, Mustang sold 8,557 units during March 2011, representing a 46% jump compared to the same period last year, but also a 131% gain over last month’s pitiful tally of 4,860 units. Closing the gap, but still lagging by 1.7%, year to date sales were 15,419 for this year compared to 15,691 units in 2010.

Dodge’s Challenger sold 3,989 units in March 2011, a significant increase of 24 percent versus the same month a year ago. Year to date Challenger sales were 9,742 units, compared to 7,039 a year ago, for a 38% increase.

Across all product lines, the March results represented Chrysler’s best sales for any month since May 2008.

There remains little doubt that while the return of both Chevrolet and Dodge to the contemporary muscle car market has split up sales, the market has also grown significantly from when it was a one-horse race. March sales for the aggregate was 21,510 units – approaching double the best monthly Mustang sales ever in the modern era.

While the economic recovery remains shaky in some areas, these car sales figures are good news overall.