Muscle car wars 2009

Despite demands for greater fuel economy, there's still a market for big-power performance.

Performance plays its part
Performance plays its part
The desire to go faster - even the desire to go too fast - has played a role in the development and sale of cars since the first automobiles were built. Henry Ford came to broad public attention behind the wheel of a race car he had designed.

Performance models attract customers, motivate engineers and designers and, ultimately, build sales. Although the cars themselves will probably sell in low numbers, they provide an image-boost for car companies and attract foot traffic into dealer showrooms.

There's no question that cars like these burn more gas than economy models or, in some cases, even large SUVs. But, let's face it, that's the reason few people will buy them and, in turn, car companies won't make too many of them.

Customers may turn, instead, to more fuel-efficient and less expensive V6 versions of these models. Or they may even turn to an economy model and enjoy feeling like they're driving a car from the same company that still produces a legendary performance car.

While the car magazines will concentrate on whether the Challenger can beat the Camaro on the track, what Chrysler and GM really care about is which one gets your attention on the street, even if you end up buying a Caliber or Cobalt.


Madness?

Challenger

Camaro

Shelby

Performance's part
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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.