New Camaro to sticker higher than Challenger, Mustang

The 2010 Chevrolet Camaro will carry a higher price tag than the Dodge Challenger or Ford Mustang. The base 6-cylinder version will sticker out at $22,245, almost a thousand dollars higher than the equivalent Challenger SE and more than $2,500 more than a stripper Mustang. A V8 Camaro SS will start at $30,245, according to information released by General Motors. That’s $925 more than a HEMI-equipped Challenger R/T. The prices do not include destination or dealer prep charges.

The new Camaro goes into production in mid-February 2009 and faces an uncertain future. Sales of the Mustang are down more than 28 percent for the first nine months of the year.

A GM spokesman declined to give sales or production targets for the Oshawa, Ontario-built Camaro but the Canadian Auto Workers union has said GM is planning 100,000 units annually, a number that may be very optimistic. Last year, Ford sold 134,626 Mustangs when the Ford pony car had no serious competition in the muscle-car market. In 2002, the last year it was in production, Chevrolet managed to sell just 28,404 Camaros, just about eleven percent of the number it sold in 1978, the peak year for Camaro sales.