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FEATURE INTERVIEWS:
Rick Schmidt – Ask Rick:
Happy May! Rick Schmidt is back again for an all new Ask Rick segment, this time devoted to the future of new American performance cars …. specifically the Corvette and the Mustang. Both of those iconic cars have a new “electric” version available along with an amazing gasoline variant….at least for now. American buying habits started changing long before the high gas prices and inflation surges we are experiencing now. As Rick pointed out, in the case of the Mustang (the “Mach-E” SUV, specifically) it’s only crime is bringing many new first-time customers to Ford! At the same time, it would appear that the gasoline powered Camaro’s, Challengers, and Chargers are all on borrowed time. What does the future hold?
While the ‘Vette is gaining a new electric life, it’s actually just keeping up with the competition. The exotic cars that the Corvette compete with have had hybrid AWD variants for some time and the reality is that those things are just plain fast. The Mach-E Mustang on the other hand isn’t really “normal Mustang” at all, but an electric SUV with Mustang naming (you can still buy a regular V8 “real Mustang”). The Mustang name of the Mach-E proved to be a wise gamble by Ford; it’s a great seller with an iconic name paired with a platform Americans really like: midsize 4-door SUV convenience.
The future of the Camaro unfortunately seems pretty gloomy. It may have less to do with its gasoline only powertrain and more do with the the lack of 4 doors. Reports are the the Camaro will be cancelled again, but this time for good. Dodge has not specifically said what will happen with the Charger and Challenger, but the Charger has already had a future AWD electric model teased. The future of the V8-RWD Mustang is not known but it remains to be a decent selling car. Actually, it’s the only car Ford still offers (everything else is an SUV or a truck).
In the end, it would seem that the high performance gasoline car is coming to an end, perhaps sooner than we all thought. With that in mind, I wanted to see if that news only helped the investment value of the classic petrol rollers….so we did did a deep dive on three eBay car listings that featured the biggest, baddest, and most powerful big block classic muscle cars ever made!
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Thanks Rick!
This interview sponsored by our pals at National Parts Depot – your premier source for muscle car restoration parts!
