As expected, the rear-drive coupe segment is dominated by the seventh-generation Mustang. According to Ford's Q2 2024 sales report, the pony car moved 27,444 units in H1 2024 stateside, representing a 7.7% improvement from the 25,471 deliveries from the first half of 2023.
Unfortunately, the Ford Motor Company does not break down said figures into fastbacks and convertibles or two- and three-pedal transmissions. The Chevrolet Camaro and Dodge Challenger sold 5,306 and 21,217 units, respectively, in these past six months. Both of them were discontinued back in December 2023.
Although the Challenger indirectly soldiers on under a different name for model year 2024 and beyond, the new Charger is a different animal from the Challenger. Not only does it feature a Stellantis-developed platform, but it comes in either fully electric (Charger Daytona) or inline-six (Charger SIXPACK) flavors with either three or five doors. The Hurricane twin-turbo I6 develops up to 550 horsepower and a Ram 1500 RHO-matching 521 pound-feet (706 Nm) of tire-shredding torque.
The Camaro nameplate will return at some point, as highlighted by General Motors in a press release from a year ago. “While we are not announcing an immediate successor today, rest assured, this is not the end of Camaro’s story," declared Scott Bell, vice president of Chevrolet. Hearsay suggests either an electric car (believed to be a sedan) or an electric sport utility vehicle.
Rear-wheel-drive coupes also include Audi's R8. The Ingolstadt-based automaker sold 266 units in the past six months, with said units including coupes and spyders. Over at BMW, the Bavarian automaker bundles the 2 Series Gran Coupe and 2 Series Coupe together. All told, the 2er moved 6,436 vehicles.
Photo: Ford
The 4 Series and 8 Series are listed with 19,935 and 2,875 units, respectively, while rival German automaker Mercedes-Benz AG couldn't be bothered to publish the sales report for Q2 2024 and H1 2024 in a timely fashion. The same applies to Porsche, whose last sales release at the moment of writing is for the first quarter of 2024. Moving on, the targa-topped Corvette Coupe and retractable hardtop Corvette Convertible, which are mid-engined affairs just like the R8, sold 17,914 examples.
Mazda's MX-5 Miata RF sold 2,258 units compared to 1,746 for the soft-topped sibling, whereas Nissan lists the Infiniti Q60 with 48 deliveries to its name. As for the Z and GT-R, make that 1,457 and 151 examples. Turning our attention back to Stellantis for a moment, can you believe that Dodge sold a Viper in Q1 2024? Considering that Viper production came to a screeching halt in 2017, that sure is something.
The final entries come from Subaru and Toyota, with Subaru moving 1,414 units of the BRZ versus 7,467 for the mechanically similar GR86. Both are manufactured by Subaru rather than the larger partner, which is hardly a surprise given that Subaru has more boxer engine know-how.
The BMW Z4-twinned Toyota GR Supra couldn't do better than 1,495 year to date, whereas the Lexus RC sold 941 units. Last but not least, LC deliveries totaled 966 in these past two quarters, of which 8 cars were specified with the hybrid V6 powertrain rather than the standard V8 engine.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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