Posted on 04/07/2018 9:56:30 AM PDT by upchuck
After a century of ferrying millions of daily commuters and taking countless family road trips, simple passenger cars are disappearing from American life, and they may not come back.
Detroit's Big Three automakers — Chrysler, Ford and General Motors — pioneered the mass production of the car, but in just four years, all three may be known to Americans simply as truck and SUV makers, with only a stray sedan for sale.
The automotive industry in America is making what many observers think is an irrevocable shift toward pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles and crossovers. While carmakers are producing sedans and sports cars that are safer, faster and more comfortable than ever, customers continue to flock to taller vehicles with features cars simply cannot offer.
"Since 2009 or 2010 it has been a truck story," said Jeff Schuster, senior vice president of forecasting at LMC Automotive, which tracks the auto industry. The exception was a slight pullback in 2012, when the midsize car segment underwent a major refresh, he said.
The trend shows no sign of abating, despite cries from car enthusiasts that crossovers lack the driving dynamics of sedans and complaints from environmentalists that SUVs and trucks are typically less fuel-efficient than cars.
By 2022, LMC Automotive estimates 84 percent of the vehicles General Motors sells in the U.S. market will be some kind of truck or SUV. Ford's ratio of domestic SUV and truck sales will hit 90 percent; Fiat Chrysler's will notch a whopping 97 percent.
"We have SUVs eventually crossing the 50 percent threshold by themselves in the near future," Schuster said.
Signs suggest SUVs and crossovers are also taking hold elsewhere in the world.
Automotive executives and industry watchers think there will be only a small space for sedans in the U.S., perhaps consisting mostly of sports cars or niche vehicles favored by enthusiasts.
A few factors that drove this unprecedented shift can be attributed to gas prices, a stronger economy and big improvements in the design of sport utility vehicles, said Karl Brauer, executive publisher at Cox Automotive.
"It was really a one-two-three punch," Brauer said. "Essentially every force lined up to help SUVs, and that has been hurting car sales."
More at the link.
The problem is, they're forgetting why the Chevy S-10s, Ford Rangers, Nissan hardbodies and Toyota trucks of the '80s and '90s were so popular.
It wasn't because they were small. Instead, it was because they were cheap. Or at least as cheap as any car..."
SUVs still have roll over death rate 2-5 times their regular car counterparts.
stability control can’t change the laws of physics - a CG 36inches in the air will always be far more dangerous than a CG of 12inches.
plus the enormous weights of SUVs are just scary frightening. Trying to control a 7,000lbs object traveling 60MPH is orders of magnitude more difficult than controlling a 3,000lbs object at same speed.
Empirical Data shows the death rate for SUVs is off the charts.
The Equinox is a really good SUV. It’s not as fun as a Challenger though.
Consoles go back to at least the sixties, before government got so much into style dictation, becoming popular in Europe before coming here. I also fail to see what difference it makes where your feet are when you’re strapped down in a side collision.
Bench seats were still available from Chevrolet as late as 2014 but customer preference and safety (air bags can’t help the guy in the middle) have pretty much replaced them.
https://jalopnik.com/why-front-bench-seats-went-away-1776706852
“We love our SUV’s. Much easier to enter and exit than low slung autos. Cars are so ...yesterday.”
I’ve had full size SUV’s, vans or pickup trucks since 1975. Feel terribly vulnerable and low to the ground with poor visibility in “cars”.
My 2001 Toyota Highlander just keeps rolling along.
Widely successful new car introduction that hugely influenced every sedan on the market.
When Ford re-designed the body of the Taurus, an auto analyst made a pithy comment on how much the Taurus had influenced the sedan market:
"The new Ford Taurus is now the only sedan on the market that doesn't look like a Ford Taurus."
“I do wish I could buy a new American car the size of a Crown Vic.”
Thanks to CAFE standards, you can’t! The people will always find a way to get around government regulations that work at crossed purposes to their needs. The “full-size” car is gone, but the full-size SUV is a more than acceptable alternative.
But these “intermdiate-size” SUVs are of limited value except for Liberals with two dozen kids.
“I think it is the stupid CAFE standards that screwed our cars up more than anything else.”
It is. And the big democrat plan to have us paying $8-$9/gallon for gas is shitcanned...at least for the time being.
I have a 2001 Tahoe, assembled in Windsor Canada.
It has 209,000 miles and runs perfectly. There’s a couple of rattles...burns a little oil...and needs shocks.
I didn’t even get a single dealer service on it and the plugs have never been replaced.
I must be crazy then. I angle them and use some english.
“I have an Avalanche. I love it. The wife has a Tahoe and loves it too.”
My three Corvettes make up for the fact that we no longer have a “family car!”
And my wife has a Bimmer Convertable for her “fun car.” Still, the Avalanche is the “go to” vehicle when we go somewhere because we can take what we need to have and the dog too! Today, I’m off to build an interior wall in a property we own that’s 45 miles from home. With my roll out tray in the Avalanche, I can load everything I need except the lumber, which will go int the trailer.
“Being 6’3” / 245, I enjoy the fact that it has lots of interior room. Had a 2014 Corvette Stingray before I got the Challenger. It was a little tight for me. LOL”
I buy fit and only fit: 6’7” and well over 250 lbs
Prius fully folded down 17 cubic foot cargo section
Instead of cheap, plastic, unstylish, "crap cars", that all look the same. Filled with cheap, junk parts "manufactured" in third-world, hell-hole sweat shops located in Communist China and Mexuco that are then shipped back to America to be thrown together on an assembly line and branded "American nade" cars. Then most well informed people would still be buying them.
Our entire extended family hasn't bought a new American manufactured car in over 16 years, not one. And unless the above changes, we will never buy an "American car" again. And we are not alone.
http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/general-statistics/fatalityfacts/passenger-vehicles
Death rate looks to be about the same for pickups. 2016 is the latest year there are stats for.
You can, it is call the Expedition with more room to boot.
I wish I could get deeper into it, however an auto gnome denotes what is published knowledge, that consumers want the CUV/SUV thing, and IMHO it is about the roominess, or perceived roominess. Many of the CUV's are tall cars on small car chassis. I also think it has to do with the stuffolla that Millenials and Z's carry around with them and they treat their car like a teenage bedroom floor with all the junk all over it. They don't revere the car as a transportation device that moves your soul, just something that gets you to the next experience. You wouldn't keep the interior of a 68 GTO like a pig sty, they do so with their cars.
The Chevy Bolt is a tall car that handles well because the C.G. is so low because the batteries are below the floorboards.
I just switched from my Jag S Type (really low) to a Mercedes E (not quite as low). Hubby drives a Mercedes SUV because he can’t get in and out of a sedan anymore. I just don’t like driving SUV’s so guess I’ll stick with my sedans.
Figures from the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show that most passenger cars have about a 10% chance of rollover if involved in a single-vehicle crash, while SUVs have between 14% and 23% (varying from a low of 14% for the all-wheel-drive (AWD) Ford Edge to a high of 23% for the front-wheel-drive (FWD) Ford Escape)
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_sport_utility_vehicles
Length: 68 inches from my driver seat position to the back edge of the hatch floor mat. So I scrunch forward a bit and tie the hatch down, plywood at an angle to get the last few inches width. It has been done.
But usually I ask a friend with a truck to pick it up.
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