Challenger Maintains No. 2 Sales Spot Through 2019 Q1

Dodge Challenger has been competing with the Camaro since GM rolled out their modern muscle car for the 2010 model year.

FCA is currently the only one of the three American automakers to offer monthly sales, with both Ford and General Motors switching to a quarterly reporting method. Because of that, we cannot properly evaluate monthly muscle car sales, but with the other two companies finally announcing their numbers for the first three months of 2019, we know that the Dodge Challenger is holding steady in second place.

Challenger’s Climb

The Dodge Challenger has been competing with the Chevrolet Camaro and the Ford Mustang since GM rolled out their modern muscle car for the 2010 model year. The Challenger finished third in segment sales every year from 2010 through 2017, but when Camaro sales plummeted with the introduction of the sixth generation car, Dodge has slowly been closing the gap.

The steady, dramatic decline of Camaro sales coupled with the steady Challenger sales allowed the Mopar muscle car to beat the Camaro for the first time in 2018. This comes at a time when the segment as a whole is on a slight decline after almost a decade of strong growth, but with 66,716 units sold, 2018 was the best sales year in the modern era of the Challenger.

Unfortunately, Challenger sales are down during the first quarter of 2019 while Camaro sales are up, but Chevrolet’s sales have been so bad over the past two years that even with an improvement over the first quarter of 2018, Dodge still beat Chevy on the sales charts.

2019 Q1 Sales

In the first quarter of 2019, the Ford Mustang once again led the segment with 16,917 units sold, down 11.7 percent from the same three months last year. The Challenger moved 13,431 units, down 24 percent, to sit second after the first quarter of the year while the Camaro’s 12,083 units places it third. The good news for Chevrolet is that the Camaro is the only one of the three with positive growth, up 2.5 percent, but the GM muscle car is still posting some of its worst sales numbers since returning in late 2009.

While the Challenger posted a significant decline in sales during the first quarter of 2019, we should keep in mind that the Demon was being delivered at full force during the first three months last year, leading to March 2018 being the best sales month for the modern Challenger. When you compare the 6,562 total for March 2019 sales to the March 2018 number of 8,150, it looks bad, but aside from 2018, this was the best March in the modern era (2008 and beyond). In other words, numbers are down from the months when the Demon was being delivered, but compared to previous years, the Challenger is still selling well.

Segment Decline

During the first quarter of 2019, Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge have combined to sell 42,431 examples of the three cars being discussed here, down 12.7 percent from the Q1 total in 2018, but this is not a sudden decline. The American muscle car trio has been on a steady decline for the past three years, with 64,756 units in the first quarter of 2016, dropping to 53,487 in 2017 and 48,604 in 2018. However, while the segment declined each year from 2016 through 2018 (again, we are talking about the first quarter each year) by a total of 25 percent, Challenger Q1 sales during that time consistently improved, helping the Dodge muscle car reach an annual sales record in 2018.

Again, while the Challenger is down in 2019 Q1 compared to the 2018, Dodge is still posting solid numbers for the winter months and that is allowing it to stay out ahead of the Chevrolet Camaro.

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Patrick Rall

"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.

"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.

"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.

"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.

"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.

"Being based on Detroit," says Rall, "I never miss the North American International Auto Show, the Woodward Dream Cruise and Roadkill Nights, along with spending plenty of time raising hell on Detroit's Woodward Avenue with the best muscle car crowd in the world.

Rall can be contacted at QuickMirada@Yahoo.com

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