|
|
||
Date published: 11/27/2009
By TIM HIGGINS AND BRENT SNAVELY Detroit Free Press DETROIT --The new Chevrolet Camaro is fast approaching its longtime rival, the Ford Mustang, as Detroit's muscle car sales leader.The Camaro outsold the Mustang by more than 3,000 last month--the fifth month in a row that Chevy outsold Ford since bringing back the storied car this spring. The battle between the two cars has been raging since the original Camaro went on sale in 1966 as a rival to the Mustang, which had launched two years earlier. GM officials say the Camaro might even outsell the Mustang this year, which would be the first time it topped the Mustang since 1985. Through October, GM has sold 47,233 Camaros--9,236 shy of the Mustang. The Camaro "definitely could overtake Mustang as the segment leader by the end of the year," Susan Docherty, GM's vice president of U.S. sales, told reporters last month. She added: "We will hopefully do that with only nine months' worth of sales versus 12." Ford, meanwhile, doesn't seem too concerned. "I don't think Mustang sales would have been much different one way or another," George Pipas, Ford's top sales analyst, said last week. GM is back selling Camaros after ending production in 2002. Pipas noted that loyal Chevy buyers have not had an opportunity to purchase a new Camaro in several years. "There are people that buy Chevys just like there are people that buy Fords. The passion for one brand or another is strong," Pipas said. "What we are seeing right now is 10 years of pent-up demand rather than some positive indicator about the economy." The Camaro comes at a critical time for GM, whose U.S. sales are down 33.6 percent through October, compared with 2008, according to Autodata Corp. By comparison, total U.S. auto sales are down 25.4 percent for that period.
1. Be respectful. No personal attacks.
|
|
|||||||||||||
