The Ford Mustang has reined on the Dodge Challenger’s retirement parade.
The original pony car rode a fourth-quarter sales surge to become the best-selling American two-door sports car in 2023 after losing out to the Dodge Challenger the prior two years.
The Dodge held a slight lead at the end of the third quarter, but the final delivery tallies were 48,605 Mustangs to 44,960 Challengers.
Challenger production was discontinued on December 22 and its replacement isn’t expected to arrive before the end of 2024 as a 2025 model.
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An electric car will take the place of V8-powered Challenger models, but there may be versions of it with six-cylinder internal combustion engines.
The coupe bows out with the title of Most-Powerful V8 Muscle Car Ever thanks to the 900 hp Challenger SRT Demon 170, which can be boosted to 1,025 hp when running on E85 fuel.
Both handily outsold the Chevrolet Camaro, which racked up just 31,208 deliveries in its final year of production. Chevrolet has not announced a successor to the Camaro, but is working toward becoming an all-electric brand by 2035.
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The Camaro was even outsold by the more expensive Corvette, with 34,353 of the mid-engine sports cars delivered during the year.
One might argue that the real king of American sports cars is the Dodge Charger. It was built on the same platform as the Challenger and made it to 75,920 customers before its production wrapped up the same day as the Challenger’s, but the Mustang is tops among two-door models.
Ford probably could’ve delivered a few more Mustangs, but production and distribution was hampered somewhat by both the changeover to the redesigned 2024 model that went on sale mid year and the UAW strike.
Even though it’s going to be the only game in pony car town for a while, Ford isn’t letting the Mustang rest on its laurels.
Along with the updated mainstream models, it will be launching the $300,000 Mustang GTD supercar, which is modeled after its IMSA race cars.
It features a carbon fiber body and an 800 horsepower supercharged 5.2-liter V8 that won’t take the Challenger SRT Demon 170’s title, but will make it the most powerful Mustang ever sold.
For now.
This breaking news story has been updated with additional information