Originally Posted by COmaro
It is mind boggling to me how the ancient Challenger has been able to overtake both the Mustang and Camaro in sales. Kudos to Fiat for knowing how to market a car, and knowing how to make a car that appeals to more of a mass market than Mustang and Camaro. Hell, they even make an AWD Challenger.
Having grown up in the 60's and 70's when two door sedans and coupes were a big part of the market, it is scary how low sales of all cars have gone, let alone the few two doors left. Wrap your heads around this: in 1979, Pontiac sold 117,000 Trans Ams. Not Firebirds, just Trans Ams! All Firebirds combined were over 200,000, more than all Challenger/Mustang/Camaro combined today. Then you had Camaro, Mustang, and a whole raft of other 2-door sport coupes like Monte Carlo, Grand Prix, Thunderbird, Dodge Magnum, Pontiac LeMans, Chevy Malibu/Laguna, Olds Cutlass, Buick Regal, etc. And Corvette, of course. Hell, GM sold 54,000 1979 Corvettes, more than they will sell Camaros in 2019. (GM sold 35,000 Vettes in 2019).
Chevy, Ford and Fiat decided several years ago to go upscale with the Camaro, Mustang, and Challenger which is 180 degrees from the original cars, which were designed to be inexpensive and available to young people. Now the Camaro, Mustang, and Challenger appeal mostly to people like myself who have fond memories of the originals. What GM, Ford, or Chrysler vehicle for 2020 appeals to someone under 30, and is not a pickup truck or a Jeep? They don't have one.
Meanwhile, Honda is killing it with the Civic, the Civic Si, and the Civic Type R. They sell 30,000 Civics a MONTH. They provide young people with an inexpensive entry point from which they can trade up. Once they age out of a Civic, they have the Accord or several SUVs or Acura. This *used* to be the US car maker's strategy, give the kid a really cool car to start, and keep them as they got older. If they got away from Chevy, they had the other GM brands to hook them.
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