Muscle car sales are tanking. There is no other way to put it. Sales figures for the first quarter of 2025 are showing that people are buying more SUVs and crossovers and fewer and few muscle and sports cars.

2025 Ford Mustang 60th Anniversary Package in Brittany Blue

Muscle car sales, for which we include the Corvette and Charger EV, are — how shall we say it? — not good. Very not good. Corvette and Mustang sales are way, way down and the buying public’s reaction to the Charger EV has thus far been to pretty much avoid it.

The 2025 Corvette Stingray in Hysteria Purple Metallic with the Z51 Performance Package. Perhaps it needs more horsepower

Corvette sales dropped 21 percent, to 6,794. The Mustang, with no competition from the Chevrolet Camaro or Dodge Challenger, plummeted 32 percent to 9,377 units.

Dodge sold more leftover 2024 Charger and Challengers in the first quarter than the all-new ’25. Yes, Dodge introduced it most expensive models first, but with tales topping out at 1,947 for the “world’s first electric muscle car,” there has to be panic in Detroit. And Auburn Hills.

The all-new Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack EV is quick, exciting to look at and not selling very well at all.

There are lots of possible reasons for the downturn in muscle car sales. Certainly, the political and economic uncertainty of the last month or so has some people sitting on their hands and checkbooks. That has not, however, stopped them from mobbing dealerships for crossovers and SUVs. The Chevy Equinox is up 31 percent in the first quarter, while the new Traverse is up 62 percent.

Are Corvettes, Mustangs and Chargers simply just impulse buys at this point? The fact that Corvette had its second-best sales year ever in 2023, with 53,785 sold, so we question that. Perhaps the sports car market is saturated at this point or people are waiting for the ZR1 or the ’26 model, which is supposed to be getting a revised interior.

Reaction to the 2024-up Mustang has been decidedly uninspired. Many have said they don’t want one until the computer can be tuned (so far it is locked out).

Can The Charger Survive?

The Charger should be getting less expensive models into showrooms soon, not to mention the twin-turbocharged I6 Hurricane engine. Will that gas-powered engine make a difference or will people be holding out for the HEMI version (a story we broke here). Unfortunately, the HEMI Charger is probably at least two model years out. Can Dodge sell enough EV and I6 Hurricane versions in the meantime?

Maybe it is all of these things or maybe the muscle car sales market is going away again, just as it did in 1972. Time will tell.