Mopar Outsells Ford !

[Murphy Slaw]

Oh yeah...

It's Mopar or no car!

I actually drive a Ram...

https://www.allpar.com/news/2018/10/...us-sales-42377

[Daniel Grenier]

Really? That is surprising.

I had one "Mopar" in my life (25+ cars/trucks so far...). Never again. I am on my 4th Ford and no complaints. But hey, to each their own. Glad you like yours.

[noledog]

Originally Posted by Daniel Grenier

Really? That is surprising.

I had one "Mopar" in my life (25+ cars/trucks so far...). Never again. I am on my 4th Ford and no complaints. But hey, to each their own. Glad you like yours.

+1...ditto BUT the Mopar are very cool looking with a lot of horses! I still take a Stang over most anything. My Bullitt was crazy fun and ran like a top when I sold it. Even after 12 years, the AC ran like brand new!

[architype]

That's surprising. They sure spend a fortune on advertising and sponsorship. Maybe it's paying off. Lots of commercials featuring the Challenger and Charger..."brotherhood of muscle" theme.

I have watched a few reviews on the new top of the line Ram truck and it is very impressive.

I hope Chrysler has improved their issues with reliability. Even if their quality has improved, there is a history of unreliability that takes a long time to overcome in the minds of car buyers.


My dad bought a brand new 1966 Chrysler Newport and that car was trouble free for 20 years. He finally sold it to his brother-in-law, (a Chevy guy), that had been begging him to sell it to him for years.


My first car was a 1971 Barracuda that I bought for $1200 in 1977. It was a good looking, and great car that I never should have sold. '71 barracudas are in high demand right now for rest-o-mod candidates. They are bringing high dollars for cars that would have gone to the crusher a few years ago.


So given that history, I have a soft spot for Mopars. I'm glad to see the success of the Challenger and the Charger. It is truly a golden age for the muscle car. I hope Fiat doesn't screw it up.
I guess as guys my age die out there will be an inevitable decline in demand for those cars.

[harpspitfire]

hmmm, 1 post mentioned dodge is the fastest growing, all i can figure is, people must love rust

[Neil K Walk]

Meh. I'm actually fine with my Honda minivan. I have no need to overcompensate. I'm all about the utility, not the style.

[Steve DeRosa]

In this second "Golden Age" of the musclecar, I'm not surprised in the least:

• The stock Demon (sadly discontinued) requires a competition license and SFI-certified rollcage to run at your local NHRA/IHRA dragstrip;
• The skunkworks Stage III tune boosts the Demon's horsepower to well over 1000 : drive the car to the next NHRA National Event (legally), qualify for the SAM Tech Factory Stock Showdown (takes mid-8's @ 160 to make the field), and drive it back home at the end of the day - something that hasn't happened since the mid-60's;
• It could be argued that Mopar was the originator of both the modern Funny Car (with the altered-wheelbase A/FX cars of 1965) and Pro Stock (with the '68 Hemi Barracuda/Dart - which currently race in their own class in NHRA competition), as well as a major player in the early-60's Super Stock and NASCAR wars with their Max Wedge engines (the Hemi was banned from NASCAR in '64-65);
• The last time Ford/Chevy produced street machines with similar capabilities - never mind the current purpose-built COPO Camaro and Cobra Jet Mustang factory race cars - were the ultra-rare SOHC 427 Fairlanes (a $3000 option in 1966-67 - and Ford was losing money on every one) and aluminum-block ZL-1 '69 Camaro (nearly all of which found their way to the track) - and TMK neither has any plans to meet the challenge(r)...

Those "Cammer" engines made me a Ford fan back in the day, I bracket-raced an '02 Z-28 for several years, but Mopar is so far above the others as of late that IMO there's no contest when it comes to American muscle...

[Basalt Beach]

Originally Posted by architype

That's surprising. They sure spend a fortune on advertising and sponsorship. Maybe it's paying off. Lots of commercials featuring the Challenger and Charger..."brotherhood of muscle" theme.

I have watched a few reviews on the new top of the line Ram truck and it is very impressive.

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

In this second "Golden Age" of the musclecar, I'm not surprised in the least:

It is worth mentioning that FCA has six brands and Ford has two, thus not an apples to apples comparison. That said the gains at FCA were primarily in the Dodge, Jeep & Ram product lines.

"FCA (Fiat Chrysler) US has six brands, not counting Maserati, which brought in 199,819 sales (adding Maserati brings the total to 200,769). Ford has just two, Ford and Lincoln; for September, Ford brand sales were 188,328 and Lincoln was 8,168."

At the same time, Ford elected to reduce it's participation in the rental fleet market which the article attributes to the primary reason: "Ford’s drop appears to have come almost entirely from (probably voluntary) cuts in rental-fleet sales, which went from 11.4% of sales last year to 5.5% of sales this year. FCA and Ford had nearly identical fleet sales in September, 25% of total sales. And, in fairness, Ford claimed a truck shortage, and had higher transaction prices on its F-series than Ram enjoyed."

And in pick-up trucks, Ford still holds a commanding lead: "Ford still reigns in pickups, with 75,092 against Ram’s 51,856" while in muscle cars Ford slightly edged out Challenger: "The Mustang registered 5,770 sales, while the Challenger hit 5,462".

Certainly impressive for FCA however like all numbers, the devil is in the details.

[noledog]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

In this second "Golden Age" of the musclecar, I'm not surprised in the least:

• The stock Demon (sadly discontinued) requires a competition license and SFI-certified rollcage to run at your local NHRA/IHRA dragstrip;
• The skunkworks Stage III tune boosts the Demon's horsepower to well over 1000 : drive the car to the next NHRA National Event (legally), qualify for the SAM Tech Factory Stock Showdown (takes mid-8's @ 160 to make the field), and drive it back home at the end of the day - something that hasn't happened since the mid-60's;
• It could be argued that Mopar was the originator of both the modern Funny Car (with the altered-wheelbase A/FX cars of 1965) and Pro Stock (with the '68 Hemi Barracuda/Dart - which currently race in their own class in NHRA competition), as well as a major player in the early-60's Super Stock and NASCAR wars with their Max Wedge engines (the Hemi was banned from NASCAR in '64-65);
• The last time Ford/Chevy produced street machines with similar capabilities - never mind the current purpose-built COPO Camaro and Cobra Jet Mustang factory race cars - were the ultra-rare SOHC 427 Fairlanes (a $3000 option in 1966-67 - and Ford was losing money on every one) and aluminum-block ZL-1 '69 Camaro (nearly all of which found their way to the track) - and TMK neither has any plans to meet the challenge(r)...

Those "Cammer" engines made me a Ford fan back in the day, I bracket-raced an '02 Z-28 for several years, but Mopar is so far above the others as of late that IMO there's no contest when it comes to American muscle...

Excellent post Steve! ...I've had camaros, f-birds and street-raced my self-made Bullitt, but these new Mops are killin' it; they are all over in my neck of the beach! I'm still a Pony guy tho from late 60's, bypass 70's, to the Fox 5.0 and even New Edge till finally they rolled out old school in '05 to which I bought one and converted it to a Bullitt...and btw, Ford "re-imagined" LOL! the muscle car era with the '05 Stang. Chevy followed with the Camaro and Dodge as well.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by noledog

...I'm still a Pony guy tho from late 60's, bypass 70's, to the Fox 5.0 and even New Edge till finally they rolled out old school in '05 to which I bought one and converted it to a Bullitt...

If you're an old Ford guy I'd strongly recommend doing a little Internet research on the 427 SOHC engine Ford introduced in 1965, in response to Mopar's introduction of the second-gen 426 Hemi in '64. Also banned by NASCAR like its Mopar counterpart it quickly found a home on the dragstrips of the day, but where an all-out Hemi could give you around 550 HP with a good tune and a tankful of Sunoco 260 the Ford "Cammer" produced 625 HP with dual quads off the production line, and guys like Gas Ronda and Don Nicholson were tuning them to 725-750 HP in legal A/FX trim (pump gas/2% wheelbase relocation); when they started running in the nines @ 140+ (still formidable by modern standards - keep in mind we're talking 1965 technology here - and comparable to the '17 Demon, which boasted similar horsepower) it was small wonder the Mopar boys - Ronnie Sox, Butch Leal, Dick Landy, the Ramchargers, et al. - were forced to resort to Hilborn injectors and heavy doses of nitro in their altered-wheelbase Belvederes/Coronets to keep pace. All for naught, though - when the hardcore fuel guys like Kalitta, Prudhomme, Robinson, Chrisman, and the legendary Mickey Thompson discovered the Cammer (and the Blue-Oval doorslammer guys got on the nitro bandwagon) it quickly became the dominant professional-class drag-racing engine through the end of the decade; only with the introduction of the Donovan and Keith Black aftermarket powerplants in the early-70's did the Hemi design return to the top of the heap among the nitro crowd, where it remains to this day...

Them was the days, my friend...

[noledog]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

If you're an old Ford guy I'd strongly recommend doing a little Internet research on the 427 SOHC engine Ford introduced in 1965, in response to Mopar's introduction of the second-gen 426 Hemi in '64. Also banned by NASCAR like its Mopar counterpart it quickly found a home on the dragstrips of the day, but where an all-out Hemi could give you around 550 HP with a good tune and a tankful of Sunoco 260 the Ford "Cammer" produced 625 HP with dual quads off the production line, and guys like Gas Ronda and Don Nicholson were tuning them to 725-750 HP in legal A/FX trim (pump gas/2% wheelbase relocation); when they started running in the nines @ 140+ (still formidable by modern standards - keep in mind we're talking 1965 technology here - and comparable to the '17 Demon, which boasted similar horsepower) it was small wonder the Mopar boys - Ronnie Sox, Butch Leal, Dick Landy, the Ramchargers, et al. - were forced to resort to Hilborn injectors and heavy doses of nitro in their altered-wheelbase Belvederes/Coronets to keep pace. All for naught, though - when the hardcore fuel guys like Kalitta, Prudhomme, Robinson, Chrisman, and the legendary Mickey Thompson discovered the Cammer (and the Blue-Oval doorslammer guys got on the nitro bandwagon) it quickly became the dominant professional-class drag-racing engine through the end of the decade; only with the introduction of the Donovan and Keith Black aftermarket powerplants in the early-70's did the Hemi design return to the top of the heap among the nitro crowd, where it remains to this day...

Them was the days, my friend...

Another killer post Steve! ...growin' up in South Florida as lil dreamin gearhead, my daddy took me and my bros to every kind of race from Miami Speedway drags to dirt demolitions and hydrofoil boat races! It was Don Garlits-ville LOL!

[imwjl]

I'm past being very into cars but read the Wall St. Journal pretty much daily and thought market share might change when I read Ford and I think others cut down on the not so profitable rental fleet sales.

The popularity of pickup truck type vehicles escapes me because they were not as nice vehicles I just had to drive because of work earlier in life. That I had to drive pickups, others, Macks and Kenworths has always made cars attractive and people wanting to play super trucker seem silly. Looking around my neighborhood or when I go shopping I think maybe the popularity is in part from there being so many who are overweight.

The quality of all vehicles has risen but I still see evidence that Chrysler Fiat stuff is not in the same league of others. I'd be more impressed if they would pull off something like the Korean auto makers in past decades.

People should look at how silly vehicle ownership has become. Look at the horsepower race along with the efficiency we've gained. We (the country on average) could have huge amounts of money for other important matters people complain about if we did our spending differently. Power for entertainment or sport should not be on public roadways.

The ultimate in how absurd the vehicle habits are is my living where there's been good planning. I can use my feet or a bike to do errands and work. I watch people in the same neighborhood take same amount of time or only save a few minutes for things in auto vs bike. At times I can beat autos. Over some years I've watched a young mom grow out instead of up as she even uses her SUV to get the mail at end of her driveway or take her kids to the bus stop 2 blocks away. She's not alone. At same time my learning different ways has done a lot for my health and well being.

Great if Mopar outsells Ford but so much about autos is just silly. Let's get to the autonomous car and better transportation systems instead of spending on outdated ideas.

[brad2001]

How I wish I had my 67' GTO back....

[brad2001]

Any suggestions on a good general purpose tadpole design recumbent trike? Man those things are pricey and hereabouts not well stocked for comparison.

[Neil K Walk]

Originally Posted by imwjl

I'm past being very into cars but read the Wall St. Journal pretty much daily and thought market share might change when I read Ford and I think others cut down on the not so profitable rental fleet sales.

The popularity of pickup truck type vehicles escapes me because they were not as nice vehicles I just had to drive because of work earlier in life. That I had to drive pickups, others, Macks and Kenworths has always made cars attractive and people wanting to play super trucker seem silly. Looking around my neighborhood or when I go shopping I think maybe the popularity is in part from there being so many who are overweight.

The quality of all vehicles has risen but I still see evidence that Chrysler Fiat stuff is not in the same league of others. I'd be more impressed if they would pull off something like the Korean auto makers in past decades.

People should look at how silly vehicle ownership has become. Look at the horsepower race along with the efficiency we've gained. We (the country on average) could have huge amounts of money for other important matters people complain about if we did our spending differently. Power for entertainment or sport should not be on public roadways.

The ultimate in how absurd the vehicle habits are is my living where there's been good planning. I can use my feet or a bike to do errands and work. I watch people in the same neighborhood take same amount of time or only save a few minutes for things in auto vs bike. At times I can beat autos. Over some years I've watched a young mom grow out instead of up as she even uses her SUV to get the mail at end of her driveway or take her kids to the bus stop 2 blocks away. She's not alone. At same time my learning different ways has done a lot for my health and well being.

Great if Mopar outsells Ford but so much about autos is just silly. Let's get to the autonomous car and better transportation systems instead of spending on outdated ideas.

I wish there was a "like" option on threads with this forum's software because I agree with this sentiment completely. Cars are a poor investment and while I once thought that leasing vehicles was just throwing money away I've found that once a car is paid off you still have to invest to keep it running.