Chrysler posted its recent sales figures for February and the good news is sales of the Challenger are up, the bad news is they are still down from sales this time last February.   Chrysler reported the sale of 2,145 Challengers during the month while this time last year those numbers were 3,283.

Slow economy?  Not according to General Motors.  The Chevrolet Camaro has posted sales increases over each of the last nine months beating out the Mustang (a tall order in itself) and Nissan 350Z.   The Camaro factory (Oshawa plant) is working overtime just meet the demand.

Ford Mustang sales were up from both last month and from this time last year.  Ford dealerships moved 5,115 Mustangs last month compared to 2,990 for this time last year.   Overall Ford has put 9,862 Mustangs on the road this year compared to 5,934 for this time last year.  An increase of over 60%.

Kind of hard to blame the slow Challenger sales on the economy when Ford puts 60% more on the road and Chevy is having to work overtime at its plant just to keep up with the Camaro demand.

Rather than a slow economy I’m more inclined to think the problem is Ford and Chevrolet are willing to sell their flagship cars while Dodge dealerships are insistent on adding outlandish and insulting “market adjustments” to its Challengers hoping to lure in some sucker willing to pay sticker ++.

My recent experience with one such dealership (AutoMax Dodge in Shawnee, Oklahoma) was entertaining although infuriating at the same time.  They had Challengers on the lot with $8,000 over sticker markups and went so far as to offer me $8,000 for my 2009 SE Challenger with less than 15K on the odometer while at the same time telling me their Challenger was worth $5,000 over sticker.

Dodge could sell more Challengers if the would shutter up these kinds of rip-off dealerships.  If I hadn’t set my heart on a Dodge R/T Track Pak car I would have added +1 to the Mustang sales.