The Crank: Mustang vs. Camaro winner depends on which side of the Canada-U.S. border

By John LeBlanc The bleating from General Motors' U.S. PR flacks about the Camaro beating its archrival Mustang on the sales charts, can be heard all the way north of the 49th parallel. So far in 2010 in the U.S., Chevy has sold 75,685 Oshawa-built Camaros, 7,421 more than its bitter, pony car archrival, Ford’s U.S.-made Mustang.But up here in the Great White North, the Pony Car War couldn’t be any more different. Through October, Ford Canada has sold 4,687 Mustangs, compared to the 3,842 Camaros GM Canada has moved. Now, normally, model sales across the Canada-US border can be roughly calculated on a 1:10 basis, in favour of the more populated U.S. So why do Canadians like the Mustang over the Camaro, and vice versa south of the border? I can’t speak for my American friends’ affections for the Camaro. Although they are in the pipeline, unlike the Mustang, there’s no convertible, or high-performance (Shelby GT500) Camaro. Maybe it’s the simple fact that the Camaro is relatively seen as “new”, pent-up demand from Camaronation for a car that was dropped in 2002, or that Americans think we build high quality cars. I dunno. But I do know that in the Pony Car Wars, I’ll gladly side with my Canadian compatriots. On all fronts—as a lighter, more nimble car to drive, with a higher-quality interior and better visibility, richer-sounding V6 and V8 mills—the Mustang is a better pony car to drive than the more Rubenesque Camaro. What do you think? Are the Americans nuts to be favouring the Camaro?

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