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The Next American Car Recession Has Already Started
- samfisher83 8y agoSuv sales are going up. It's just people don't like sedans. I think title is a little misleading.
- agumonkey 8y agoI've read somewhere that SUV attracted people because they were in an easier emission category, which meant they appear cheaper for the size.
- berberous 8y agoSedans are also less desirable as more and more people drive SUVs -- it makes it hard to see traffic and it's more dangerous when you are the lowest person on the road.
- swerveonem 8y agoNah, low center of gravity with nimble handling is better. I'll take an all wheel drive S4, ATS, C class or 3 series over an SUV any snowy day. Sport sedans have swagger too, the only swaggerific SUVs are the Escalade, Cullinan, Urus, Porsche SUVs. But those are out of the price range most of humanity can afford to buy within. I have never had a problem seeing traffic.
- u801e 8y ago> I'll take an all wheel drive S4, ATS, C class or 3 series over an SUV any snowy day I hope you're putting on the correct type of tires for snowy days. A lot of those models come with summer/performance tires which are incompatible with snow. For my S4, I have a set of Bridgestone Blizzak snow tires that I use during the winter months.
- berbec 8y agoI had an awd ats with blizzak all around. It handled the snow better than any suv I'd been in.
- ianai 8y agoDriving absolutely is an arms race. I wonder what engineering would come up with if they started with a premise of 2 seats, back to front, centered, and with an eye towards safety against large vehicles.
- agumonkey 8y agoAlso parking spot... So fun
- Johnny555 8y agoThat probably has something to do with automakers spending the past decade teaching us that we should like SUV's.
- mikeash 8y agoThe word “car” is really fun. It can mean “sedan” or “personal passenger road vehicle” depending or what kind of point you want to make.
- ndiscussion 8y agoIs this affecting non-American manufacturers? If not, why? To a casual observer, the writing has been on the wall for sedans for some time. Why would I want to buy a sedan when I could buy a crossover SUV with the same fuel economy for the same price? Ford has been on top of this trend - they announced they are discontinuing ALL sedan production earlier in 2018. Car manufacturers come out with new "generations" of vehicles every 5-10 years, so change in production methods is part of the industry. Why can't American manufacturers adapt?
- timbit42 8y agoFord is keeping the Focus and Mustang.
- masonic 8y agothe Focus No, but there will be a new "Ford Focus Active" which is an entirely new platform -- a crossover.
- crowdpleaser 8y agoIt's not affecting foreign automakers nearly as much for two reasons: The Japanese automakers have really worked hard to make their manufacturing lines (and vehicle designs) modular (a line that makes Camrys on Monday can make RAV4s on Tuesday), the foreign automakers' sedan sales didn't slip nearly as badly as the domestic automakers did so a lot of their plants/lines are still profitable to operate, and the US has always been uniquely interested in trucks and SUVs so many of the foreign-owned plants here were already optimized for SUVs (e.g the BMW plant in America has made SUVs since its inception).
- jstanley 8y ago> a line that makes Camrys on Monday can make RAV4s on Tuesday In fact it is even more agile than this! I toured a Toyota factory in Japan last year and they were assembling many different models on the same line at the same time, with the same workers. From what I recall, it is supposed to improve morale as the work is less repetitive. I highly recommend the tour. It is free, and there is an English-language option. The only downside was it was quite a long train ride away from Tokyo, for quite a short tour.
- elihu 8y agoI wonder how many potential sedan buyers are just deferring their purchases awaiting a cheap electric with good range?
- btbuildem 8y agoWaiting for a station-wagon, actually
- King-Aaron 8y agoThis. BTW, fellow wagon connoisseur... Have you seen the 2018 Porsche Panamera wagon?
- paulie_a 8y agoPorsche used to be cool looking beautiful vehicles for whatever time periods. They really went downhill when they released the Cheyenne.
- lozaning 8y agoThe Cayenne and Macan are their best selling vehicles and largely credited with keeping the company in business.
- King-Aaron 8y agoMacan turbo is a cool looking car. But I also have an extremely low opinion about people who decide to purchase a performance sports car brand, and then pick the SUV model.
- paulie_a 8y agoThe Cayenne is ugly and it's a rare sight to see one driven by a responsible driver. The only reason I can anecdotally say that is because they are ugly and stick out like a sore thumb. It actually was memorable when I saw one using a turn signal and obeying the speed limit. It was like seeing a unicorn.
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 8y agoLooking at the graph in the article, it seems that the total number of vehicles across sedans, suvs, and pickup trucks has actually increased. Given that the demand for vehicles is actually increased, the automobile manufacturers don't have too many plants overall, they just don't have the right mix of plants.
- SovietDissident 8y ago#thanksobama for throwing taxpayer money at GM, only to have them do their inevitable restructuring a few years later than otherwise.
- mattthebaker 8y agoYeah, its not like the sitting president introduced 25% steel tariffs and 10% aluminum tariffs or anything.
- SovietDissident 8y agoYep, tariffs are probably a bad idea. Obama did those too (his economic ignorance knew no bounds). Two wrongs don't make a right.
- maxerickson 8y agoThe "GM" that got the money was already restructured, it is "new GM", the shareholders in old GM were wiped right out. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motors_Liquidation_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motors_Liquidation_Company Propping up GM legitimately helped hundreds of thousands of workers. Whether it was a good use of the money is a different question than that, but the money didn't go to shareholders, it went to keeping the operations going.
- SovietDissident 8y agoIt's impossible to tell exactly what would have happened in a bankruptcy, but the entire company would have almost certainly been restructured, which would have meant generally clearing out the dead wood: shuttering factories, renegotiating anachronistic/extravagant union contracts, etc. Coercing private citizens to pay for mismanaged companies and subsidize the gold-plated pension benefits of Baby Boomer employees is utterly immoral.
- maxerickson 8y agoIf you click the link I gave up there, you'll see that it was reorganized in a bankruptcy.
- S_A_P 8y agoFunny thing about SUVs. Everyone seems to universally hate them on the internet, but they make up for > 50% of all new car sales in the US. Even funnier to me is the folks that in one breath say they want the W126 manual wagon but then scoff at an SUV which is a STATION WAGON, slightly raised. Subaru has been killing it by marketing their SUVs as wagons or vice versa. I drive an SUV. Its a grand cherokee. Its the SRT model. Its my favorite car ever.
- alistairSH 8y agoI don't get it. Having owned both SUVs, wagons, and hatchbacks, I'll take a wagon or hatchback every time. Better handling (usually), better fuel economy (usually), and easier to get into (SUVs are tall), and usually less expensive (because SUVs have higher margins). If I really needed a third row, I'd buy a minivan.
- jimmydddd 8y agoI live in a NYC suburb, and driving a sedan or wagon on the highway feels awkwardly low among all of the 18 wheelers and SUVs. I would only feel comfortable in a sedan if everyone else also converted to sedans.
- S_A_P 8y agoUnless we are vastly different heights, an SUV is always much easier to get into. I had an Audi A4 prior to the Grand Cherokee, and nearing 40 years of age, I grew tired of the "fall in/climb out" ingress/egress of a sedan that is low to the ground. Im 6'2", and my Grand Cherokee (which sits about and 1.5" lower than the other models) is pretty much perfect sit height. I don't need a third row, and the grand cherokee is not 3 row, you have to get the Dodge Durango for that extra row. I love wagons and hatchbacks and SUVs. They are variations of the same flavor. That was the point I was driving at. A wagon is the same shape as an SUV. The spaciousness of a wagon is practical. An SUV sits higher and is easier for some to get in and out. I don't see why there is any distinction made. I would not correct anyone who called my Grand Cherokee a "wagon". Remember the original Grand WAGONeer?
- RickJWagner 8y agoWith gas under $2 a gallon, it's not surprising that SUVs are selling like hotcakes and sedans are barely moving. Bump gasoline up a dollar or two, then SUVs and trucks will slow down. Cars are also better these days, lasting longer. I've got a 10 year old car (had it for a year), it's been rock-solid reliable. I think good used cars are a compelling alternative to a new vehicle.
- mastax 8y ago>Bump gasoline up a dollar or two, then SUVs and trucks will slow down. That was true in 2003, but I don't think it is anymore. The MPG penalty for a crossover compared to a sedan is only about 15% now which is probably worth it for most Americans.
- woodandsteel 8y agoICE sedan sales may be falling, but the Tesla Model S and Model 3 are selling just great.
- shove 8y agoMy Mazda 3 hatchback manual gets 39MPG. I’m 6’2” and have 3 kids. Probably the best car I’ve ever owned. shrug