Bad news (rumors) for the Camaro

[bill25]

Here we go again... Hopefully just rumors.

Is selling almost 51,000 cars a year really that bad? Especially when it gets such glowing reviews? Seems like it is worth it just to keep the good press for Chevy and GM. And, seriously, 51K sold per year on a shared platform, engine, transmission, etc. Why would you kill this car? I mean, I could see for the 2019... That was really bad... But seriously, go back to the 2016 front bumper and move on.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/autos-s ... spartanntp
https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/autos-s ... spartanntp

[kevm14]

Adam and I discussed this at lunch.

https://www.musclecarsandtrucks.com/exc ... o-shelved/

[kevm14]

http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2019/04/sp ... arch-2019/

Some items of interest:
GM and Ford are reporting quarterly so you need to hit a quarter to find GM and Fords which is annoying. So the above is from March. Obviously we are about to close another quarter but it will be another ~3 weeks before those figures are available I'd assume.

So as of May, Camaro sold 12,084 year to date which is a 2.5% growth from the year to date figure a year ago.
The Challenger sold 13,431 but that is a 23.9% drop from a year ago.
The Mustang sold 16,917 but that is an 11.7% drop from a year ago.

This entire list doesn't even hit 4 figures, and are directly comparable to the above.
BMW 8-Series
Audi TT
BMW Z4
Mercedes-Benz SLC-Class
Jaguar F-Type
Alfa Romeo 4C
Porsche 718

Only one in this list hit 4 figures and that was the Porsche 911 at 2,894 which is about 10x more than the average of the rest of these. This tells me that it is possible to buck trends but that will be the exception not the rule:
BMW 8-Series
Audi R8
Mercedes-Benz SL-Class
Nissan GT-R
Porsche 911
Ford GT
Acura NSX
BMW i8
Mercedes-Benz AMG GT
Lexus LC

And here's a list of random stuff that includes the Corvette, which was #3 on this particular grouping. Most of the cars on this list are cheaper than the Corvette. All of these are down (Corvette among the least), some down by over 30%.

Car | Sales YTD | % Change from last March YTD
Subaru Impreza WRX 6,203 -13.7
Audi A5 5,478 -9.8
Chevrolet Corvette 3,943 -11.5
BMW 2-Series 2,062 -25.5
Mazda MX-5 Miata 1,530 -22.2
Infiniti Q60 1,304 -34.5
Lexus RC 963 55.8
Subaru BRZ 819 -6.3
Toyota 86 / FR-S 807 -31
Buick Cascada 746 -18.7
Nissan 370Z 647 -34.2
Fiat 124 Spider 513 -29.8

As usual, it is important to point out that broad market trends are very important to understand when looking at an individual model because there are almost always external forces that cannot be inferred from ANY particular characteristic of the vehicle itself (i.e. styling, performance, price, etc.).

[bill25]

Seems crazy to withdraw a car selling 51,000 units per year. Some of the cars on the list selling low numbers have likely very high profit margins, but there were plenty on the list that were not super high ticket cars (Miata, 86, even the 2 series).

[kevm14]

And for 2018 sales...

Chevrolet Camaro 50,963 -25
Dodge Challenger 66,716 3.4
Ford Mustang 75,842 -7.4

Camaro clearly trailing. And down 25% which is a problem. Challenger had slight growth. Mustang had some decline but not nearly as much as the Camaro. But to Bill's point, I don't see what's wrong with a nominal 50k/yr unless the platform is just too expensive for that to make sense. But if the CT4 and CT5 are going on A2XX I don't understand why you wouldn't want to tack on another 50k/yr of platform sales, even if it is down market. And honestly I bet there would be a ton of pricing overlap between a CT4 and Camaro on A2XX anyway. Just totally different market segments.

Euro 2018. Low numbers and pretty bad decline except Porsche.
Porsche 718 5,276 3.7
Jaguar F-Type 2,268 -44.8
Mercedes-Benz SLC-Class 1,993 -30.3
Audi TT 1,289 -43.8
Alfa Romeo 4C 238 -41.4
BMW 8-Series 223 0%

Premium sports car (a little annoyed the Corvette is not on this list - it would have been #1 by two-fold - but it's just a grouping that they made up I think). This one is more all over the map. Overall segment is stable from 2017 into 2018 but individual models varied by quite a bit.
Porsche 911 9,783 9.1
Mercedes-Benz SL-Class 2,126 -27.7
Lexus LC 1,979 14.3
Mercedes-Benz AMG GT 1,525 -5.2
Audi R8 927 20.1
BMW i8 772 58.2
Nissan GT-R 538 -6.9
BMW 8-Series 223 0
Acura NSX 170 -70.7
Ford GT 126 41.6
Dodge Viper 19 -96.8

And for misc, almost all suffered pretty significant declines from 2017 into 2018 except the Audi A5.
Subaru Impreza WRX 28,730 -8.4
Audi A5 25,972 21.9
Chevrolet Corvette 18,789 -25.1
BMW 2-Series 9,208 -21.5
Mazda MX-5 Miata 8,971 -20.6
Infiniti Q60 8,405 0
Buick Cascada 4,628 -17.3
Toyota 86 / FR-S 4,133 -39.6
Subaru BRZ 3,834 -7.2
Fiat 124 Spider 3,515 -21.5
Nissan 370Z 3,468 -24.8
Lexus RC 3,358 -54.4

[kevm14]

Premium sports car (a little annoyed the Corvette is not on this list - it would have been #1 by two-fold - but it's just a grouping that they made up I think). This one is more all over the map. Overall segment is stable from 2017 into 2018 but individual models varied by quite a bit.
Porsche 911 9,783 9.1
Mercedes-Benz SL-Class 2,126 -27.7
Lexus LC 1,979 14.3
Mercedes-Benz AMG GT 1,525 -5.2
Audi R8 927 20.1
BMW i8 772 58.2
Nissan GT-R 538 -6.9
BMW 8-Series 223 0
Acura NSX 170 -70.7
Ford GT 126 41.6
Dodge Viper 19 -96.8

And for misc, almost all suffered pretty significant declines from 2017 into 2018 except the Audi A5.
Subaru Impreza WRX 28,730 -8.4
Audi A5 25,972 21.9
Chevrolet Corvette 18,789 -25.1
BMW 2-Series 9,208 -21.5
Mazda MX-5 Miata 8,971 -20.6
Infiniti Q60 8,405 0
Buick Cascada 4,628 -17.3
Toyota 86 / FR-S 4,133 -39.6
Subaru BRZ 3,834 -7.2
Fiat 124 Spider 3,515 -21.5
Nissan 370Z 3,468 -24.8
Lexus RC 3,358 -54.4

On the Corvette comment...."premium sports car" probably just has a price cutoff. And it's pretty illuminating when you consider it is priced in the bottom group but performs in the first group. Of course we already knew this from every Lightning Lap ever but I digress.

[Bob]

I didn’t realize NSX sales were so poor. I actually saw one in traffic yesterday.

[kevm14]

From Wiki:

Year Unit sold
2019 132
2018 170
2017 581
2016 269

[Bob]

This appears to be Thermal Orange Pearl which debuted for 2019.

[kevm14]

One of 132 sold is pretty rare. Though the calendar year isn't over yet...

Bill and I looked up the MSRP. I forgot it was only like $160k.