The world is not exactly ending, but it might be for muscle car enthusiasts. The year 2025 may go down in history as when modern muscle cars died, if not in actuality, then in spirit. Sales of the 2024 Ford Mustang tanked and the Challenger and Camaro are both dead.

For fans of the Blue Oval, the Ford Mustang, the one car that executives said would have a V8 until the government outlawed them, is struggling. Mightily. It could be all over except the shouting.

Lee Iacocca (left) might be rolling over in his grave after learning of the 2024 Mustang’s sales performance.

Despite having a brand-new pony car in its corral and a lack of competition from Chevrolet and Dodge, the Ford Mustang registered its worst sales year ever in 2024. Worst. Sales. Year. Ever.

According to the Q4 sales report, a mere 44,003 new Mustangs made their way to customers in calendar year 2024 (down 9.5 percent). Previously, the worst year on record was 2022, with 47,556 sold.

Some history, which has nothing to do with this story: on the first day the Mustang was on sale in April 1964, Ford sold 22,000.

Want an even bigger kick in the horse’s testicles? The Mustang Mach-E, an electric vehicle everyone hates and nobody considers a real Mustang, outsold America’s favorite rear-drive 2+2 over the same period. Over 57,700 Mach-Es found homes in 2024.

We understand the world has changed, but in 1965, Ford was selling almost 47,000 Mustangs a month. What the hell happened?

Chevrolet and Dodge stopped production of the Camaro and Challenger, respectively, in 2023, so only leftovers were sold last year. This left the playing field exclusively to Ford, with the advantage of having a redesigned vehicle in showrooms. Normally, this would make cash registers overheat. Instead, they were left silent.

The Challenger’s roots went back to 2006, and the Camaro, well, sales of the sixth-gen were always puzzling. In its first year, Chevy moved fewer copies than in the last model year of the outgoing fifth-gen—and it was all downhill from there. Even worse, Camaro was handily outsold by the much more expensive Corvette in 2021, 2022, and 2023. Ford people had to be high-fiving each other from board rooms to service bays.

So why is the new Mustang so unpopular? I think several factors are at play.

The 2025 Ford Mustang 60th Anniversary Package in Brittany Blue. It’s certainly a looker.

From day one, the Mustang was wildly successful because it appealed to everyone from the 16-year-old who just got their license to retirees on Social Security looking to feel a little younger before the Grim Reaper came calling.

Today, the market has shifted to small crossovers for these demographics. I remember feeling depressed when my neighbor bought her daughter a tiny, new Buick CUV for her first vehicle. She’d be safe in it, right? Well, unless she hit a curb and rolled over three or four times. At least she’d have a commanding view of the road.

Baby boomers, who were the bullseye in the target when Lee Iacocca conjured up the Mustang in the early 1960s, have shifted to German and Japanese cars, both small and large. They are not giving up their 3-, 4- and 5-series Bimmers, Lexus SUVs, or Honda Pilots. Many struggle just to get in and out of a new Mustang now. America’s legendary pony car is simply not on their radar.

Did anyone mention the insane popularity of pickup trucks, small, medium, and large?

Women once made up over 40 percent of Mustang customers, which in the non-PC ’60s and ’70s gave it the reputation as being a “girls car” (or as Carroll Shelby called it, a “secretary special”). What are they buying? Many women still love Mustangs—all you have to do is go to a race track or car show to see that—but they sure are not buying them like they used to.

Here’s something people don’t usually talk about: Many in Gen X, Y, and Z have grown up in houses where there has never been a domestic automobile (unless you are referring to transplant vehicles, such as a Honda Accord built stateside). They are convinced buying a Ford, GM, or Dodge product is folly or uncool.

The V8 Charger (shown) is gone, replaced by a two- and four-door electric model. A twin-turbo inline-six engine option is in the pipeline.

The new Mustang is also a very large car. Remember when Ford felt the Mustang had gotten too large by 1971-’73? Well, the 2024-up version is even longer. That’s right; it is the largest pony ever. Yes, if you are putting a dual overhead cam V8 under the hood and using 20-plus inch wheels with enormous brakes behind them, cars naturally have to grow around them. But what was the last truly great-selling Mustang? The SN95 from 1994-2004.

In 2000, Ford sold a whopping 215,383 of them, with over 52,500 of them being V8 models. I currently own a 2022 Mustang GT and had a ’97 SVT Cobra before that. I love my S550, but in my opinion, the ’97 was the right size. Whether it was rolling through a crowded parking lot or placing it precisely on a road course, the SN95 was easier to drive.

I grew up driving Detroit’s land yachts, so don’t get the idea I am anti-big car. I still yearn for my ’75 Oldsmobile Delta 88 convertible, but in my opinion, a sporty car like the Mustang should be pony-like and not a Clydesdale.

Wanna know another problem? Ford keeps adding horsepower to the Mustang, but it has gotten so heavy it has not gotten any faster since the 10-speed automatic was released in 2018. The only exceptions have been the Shelby versions.

There are those in the congregation who will tell you the new Mustang is too gadget-laden and, even worse, cannot be tuned thanks to the computers being locked out. You may have something there. The problem is which gadgets do you get rid of? The screens that replaced the traditional instrument cluster. Yeah, that’s a good place to start.

But what else? People love their gadgets. Remember when Ford offered the 248A package SN95 Mustangs, which offered GT buyers de-contented V6 interiors and a lower price? It’s OK if you don’t. Few people bought them.

Do you recall when Chevrolet Vice President Jim Perkins demanded a cheaper entry-level Corvette? This was to attract younger, less affluent customers. I was all for it. The average Corvette owner at the time was between the ages of 68 and deceased. This gave birth to the 1999 hardtop, or what is now known as the fixed-roof coupe.

It was a lighter, quicker, less expensive Vette. It was an animal to drive, a total blast—and only lasted two years. It was replaced in 2001 with the Z06, which used the same body and became the most expensive new Corvette. It was also wildly successful, outselling the 2000 hardtop by 5,773 to 2,090.

The Mustang is probably right up there with the Tri-Five Chevys and first-gen Camaros as the most modified car in history. So to a lot of folks, if you can’t modify them, why bother buying one? Of course, many only get modified after the warranty’s gone bye-bye, so is that really holding people back?

No doubt, the 2024 Mustang was expensive—too expensive in the eyes of many. Well, with an average price of $48,000, what new car is not? In theory, the Mustang might be, but in reality, the lines get blurred. My ’22 GT Premium convertible had a base price of $45,950. An ’87 GT ragtop was $14,945. My car has 450 horsepower—double that of the ’87 GT—plus a 10-speed automatic that fires off hard, quick shifts instead of the dreadful, sloth-like shifts you got with the old AOD.

Best of all, the ‘22 actually stops and steers like a sports car, unlike the ’87, which had woeful brakes, steering, and handling that I’d describe as merely adequate. My GT is roughly three seconds quicker in the quarter-mile than the equivalent ’87 GT ragtop and in a completely different league on a road course or slalom. Look, I started driving Fox bodies in 1979 and I’ve owned or road-tested virtually every model, from six-cylinder Capris to turbocharged SVOs to Saleens.

Even a base 4-cylinder Mustang today, which has a sticker starting at under $34,000, would destroy the ’87-93 Mustang in any measure of performance. Besides, thanks to rebates and haggling, no one pays sticker. There’s always a deal to be made.

But is the muscle car dying? What exactly is a muscle car? I could write a series of articles addressing that subject (and just might). If you think it has to be a two-door car with a V8 engine, you have two choices: Mustang and Corvette. Are you one who believes the Corvette is not a muscle car? That leaves the Ford in a category of one.

Dodge is calling the new Charger the first EV muscle car. I think that’s a bit misleading because shouldn’t a muscle car have, you know, a real engine? Small-block or big-block, I’ll let you, the readers fight over that. If you accept the premise that the late Buick Grand National and GNX were muscle cars, despite having six-bangers under their hoods, then the soon-to-be-released I-6 twin-turbo Chargers will qualify. Some will even have two doors.

Incredibly, Dodge got everything else right on the Charger. The styling is great, it is the size of a ’68 Charger, the interior is righteous, and the handling is said to be terrific. Should it have gotten the Hemi? Absolutely, and there is some hope that powerplant will come back now that Carlos Tavares has resigned. Will Dodge survive that long without it? It remains to be seen.

In theory, the Camaro is supposed to return in some form, but if it is all electric and/or an SUV/crossover, I say let it rest in peace. Can Chevy build a proper Camaro enthusiasts and non-enthusiasts alike will get excited over? Good question. It dropped the ball twice in the last three generations trying to follow up successful cars.

When machines like the Dodge Little Red Express, Ford SVT F-150 Lightning, and GMC Syclone and Typhoon were unveiled, the traditional definition of “muscle car” went out the window. The Chevrolet Trailblazer SS also proved an SUV could be included in that grouping.

Does it matter in the grand scheme of things if future performance machines are trucks and SUVs? I say yes. When I worked for the NMRA and NMCA (RIP), we had a class for trucks in NMRA and categories that were open to SUVs, crossovers, etc., in both NMRA and NMCA. Precious few showed up to compete in any of them, outside of the HEMI Dodges, Jeeps, and Ram trucks.

Go to a test and tune night at any drag strip. Ninety percent of the stuff going down the track is a late-model Mustang, Corvette, or HEMI Mopar. The rest is comprised of foreign cars from Germany and Japan and vintage American muscle from the ‘60s. Perhaps there might even be a Tesla or two. If new muscle cars go away and people stop going to the track, the strips will eventually die off. Then what?

The roads are already a bland place, overloaded with black, white, silver, and grey minivans and anonymous trucks and SUVs. They are colorless transportation pods that will soon be driverless.

What can be done to save the great American muscle car? Have you bought one? If not, why? We’d love to hear your comments (email: [email protected]).