Chevy Camaro Sales Rebounded With a Strong July
American muscle cars are simply iconic, and while the classics are the best, the modern versions aren’t that bad either. Many automakers are selling a modern version of their classic muscle car, and Chevy is one of them. And fortunately for Chevy, its Camaro sales have seen an uptick despite a pandemic slowing everything down.
The auto industry slows down
Like most aspects of people’s lives, the auto industry was forced to change due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For autoworkers, this meant changes to their workplace, and, in some cases, bonuses for their hard work during the pandemic. However, for car companies in general, this also meant fewer sales than usual.
Obviously, fewer people need a car right now, and on top of that, many people can’t even afford a car to begin with due to economic struggles in the current climate. While many people can and are buying cars, this drop in demand has led to a drop in car sales too. Some automakers are offering special financing deals to help their customers out, but this doesn’t seem to be enough as car sales are simply down across the board.
Certain cars are getting more sales than before, and that’s usually because they’re new models or, in the case of the Ford Bronco pre-orders, a revival of an old model. This may be an explanation for why the Chevy Camaro’s sales saw a significant jump in July, but it’s complicated.
The Chevy Camaro makes a July comeback
As GM Authority wrote, GM sold 22 percent more Chevy Camaro models in July than compared to the previous month. That said, there are a lot of unknowns. GM Authority said that GM has stopped reporting the actual number of unit sales on a monthly basis, so right now, it’s actually not known exactly how many Camaros were sold in July.
GM will do a quarterly report where it will break down unit sales, so eventually, those numbers will be revealed. Regardless, this 22 percent jump in sales on a month-to-month basis is still very significant for multiple reasons. Obviously, the pandemic has slowed everything down, and the fact that customers are buying more Camaros than they were buying in June is remarkable.
What’s also remarkable, though, is the fact that the Chevy Camaro was seeing drops in sales even before the pandemic hit. For example, GM Authority reported that Chevy sold about 68,000 Camaros in 2017, about 51,000 Camaros in 2018, and about 48,000 Camaros in 2019. In 2019, GM Authority estimated that Chevy sold about 4,100 Camaros every month. So, a 22 percent jump would mean a jump of about 900 sales.
Is this a good thing for GM?
There are a couple of reasons why this may be a good sign for GM. Off the bat, the Chevy Camaro wasn’t actually updated that recently, so this can’t be an explanation for why its sales saw a jump. Like GM Authority wrote, the 2021 Camaro has new standard features, including Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility, but the 2021 Camaro only became available in August, which means that customers couldn’t buy it in July.
This could mean that despite the fact that the 2020 Camaro didn’t have any major updates, customers simply wanted a Camaro in July. If this really was the case, then this is a good sign for GM. This means that the Camaro’s inherent popularity is more than enough to make customers want to buy one. It also means that the Camaro may help lead GM out of the rut that the pandemic has put it in.
That said, this could just be a math issue. Since it’s not clear how many Camaros were actually sold in July, the 22 percent change may be meaningless. In any case, a 22 percent growth in sales is nothing to scoff at.