Car rivalries heating up in early months of 2011

It's baseball season again, but the biggest rivalry in the country may not be between the Yankees and Red Sox. If the early sales numbers are any indication, the real competition people should be watching is between the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro.

The rivalry dates all the way back to the sixties, and the current incarnations of the vehicles are so close in price and statistics that it's easy to say General Motors and Ford take the competition very seriously. March was a good month for Ford, as the automaker was able to outsell GM for just the second time since 1998. Yet it couldn't surpass the Camaro, according to USA Today, which sold 8,964 units to the Mustang's 8,557. Chevrolet also easily won January and February thanks to some nice incentives, making the overall score so far 19,972 to 15,419.

In more modern rivalries, Ford is doing a bit better. Its Fiesta subcompact is thrashing the Honda Fit and Toyota Yaris, selling 9,787 vehicles in March alone. Of the two other cars, the Fit was closest, with 6,955 cars sold.

The closest race, however, is between minivans. The Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna are very similar cars, and Honda only eked out the win by about 100 vehicles, selling 10,586 compared to Toyota's 10,449.

Drivers interested in any of these vehicles should consider New Jersey State Auto Auction, which offers both new and used versions of these popular models.