The Ford Mustang Was King Of The Sporty American Cars In 2025, But Can It Repeat In 2026?

By Gary Gastelu |

Jan 6, 2026

The Chevrolet Corvette may have spent last year pushing the Ford Mustang around on the track — with the Corvette ZR1 beating the Mustang GTD in every face-off — but the pony car came out on top in the sales race.

Ford delivered 45,333 Mustangs to U.S. customers in 2025, which was an increase of 3% from the prior year. The pricier Corvette managed just 24,533 deliveries for a whopping 26.4% drop.

As far as sporty cars from mainstream American brands are concerned, their only new competition was the Dodge Charger that for most of the year was only available as the all-electric Charger Daytona, which chalked up 7,421 deliveries, while 1,800l leftover 2023 Challengers finally found homes.

Dodge also lists 2,141 Charger deliveries, but that combines old 2023 models and a few of the all-new Charger Scat Packs that began shipping to customers in December with its 550 hp “Sixpack” turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six. The new Charger is available as four-door and a two-door, the latter essentially replacing the Challenger.

2026 Dodge Charger Scat Pack — Credit: Dodge

Sixpack Charger production began the first week in December and is still ramping-up, which should have Ford worried. During its last year of production in 2023, two-door Challenger sales trailed the Mustang 44,960 to 48,605 while the old four-door Charger left both of them in the dust with 75,920.

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Now that Dodge has consolidated the two-door and four-door under one model name, the Charger should have no problem catching the Mustang in 2026. The only hitch is that the cheapest Charger is set to be the 420 hp Charger R/T that will soon be added to the lineup for $51,990, while the Mustang starts at $34,635 for an entry-level model with a 315 hp EcoBoost turbocharged four-cylinder engine.

Ford will be adding some new Mustangs to the mix next year, however, with the launch of the Mustang RTR and a likely, but unconfirmed, Mustang Shelby GT500 successor. There also appears to be a more extreme and more expensive version of the $327,000 Mustang GTD in the works that could contribute dozens of extra sales.