Dodge Charger Sales Climb as Other Large Cars Slump

The odds are good that if you pay much attention to the American automotive industry, you have heard all of the talk about the growing popularity of sport utility vehicles leading to the demise of cars in general, but the Dodge Charger continues to buck those trends. Through the first half of 2019, the full-sized, rear-drive sedan is up 9% while the key competitors in the large sedan segment are down compared to a year ago. In fact, if you look at the sales figures of all three American automakers, there are a few cars that have shown positive growth through 2019, but when it comes to larger cars, only the Dodge Charger is having a good year.

Dodge Charger Sales in June
June 2019 was the final month where FCA will report monthly sales, as starting in July, they are switching to the same quarterly reporting system that General Motors began using last year and that Ford started using at the beginning of 2019. In June 2019, Dodge sold 9,034 examples of the Charger, making it the bestselling large sedan in the US market, but more importantly, the four-door muscle car posted growth of 36% compared to June 2018. Mind you, this comes at a time when consumers are being told that no one wants cars – especially big cars – rather than an SUV.

Critics might question whether this sales growth by the Charger comes due to a lack of a popular, large SUV in the Dodge showroom, but that isn’t the case. In June, FCA sold 5,538 examples of the Dodge Durango, which is a 4% improvement over the same month last year.

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On the year, the Charger is up 9% with 45,046 units sold while the Durango is up 13%, so the sedan is selling well alongside a strong-selling SUV.

Ford and Chevrolet do not offer monthly sales for June, but during the second quarter of 2019, the Taurus moved just 2,390 units, down 70% while the Chevy Impala moved 12,536 units in April, May and June combined, down 8%.

Charger Leads the First Half
As mentioned above, Dodge sold 45,046 Chargers during the first half of 2019, comfortably outselling the Ford Taurus at just 8,121 units and the Chevy Impala at 25,795 units. More importantly than just outselling the competition, the Charger was the only one of the three big American sedans to post positive growth, improving by 9% while the Impala was down 7% and the Taurus is down 48%.

There was one other big, American sedan that has shown positive growth through the first half of 2019, with the Cadillac XTS moving 9,093 units, up 6% compared to the first half of 2018. Granted, Dodge sold almost as many Chargers in June as Cadillac sold the XTS through the first half of the year, but we wanted to point out that Dodge is not the only automaker seeing some success in the large sedan segment.

In other words, the Dodge Charger continues to post positive sales growth while cars in general die off in the United States market, with large sedans showing the biggest declines. Some people question Dodge’s decision to stop making their smaller cars a few years back, but with the Charger posting solid year-over-year growth and the Challenger posting the strongest growth in the muscle car world, it looks as though FCA has made the right move with regards to the go-fast brand.

See you in my next story where I am discussing 3 new wheel changes for the 2020 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat.

Patrick Rall @TheAutoBeard is the Managing Editor of Torque News. Please follow us on Twitter at @TorqueNewsAuto, Facebook and send us tips. You can also Follow Patrick on Youtube.