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It's got nothing to do with euro mentality. I think people in general during those days just put up with shit a lot better. If you could afford a small sedan (mostly RWD back then) you would put bags of sand in the trunk for winter traction and come hell or highwater you were going to stuff your family of 5 into what is considered a compact sedan these days and go on a cross country road trip. I was born at a later point in time than my siblings so the minivan was the king at that time and we always had minivans up until about the mid 2000's where my Dad started buying SUV's.
Dad loves his SUV's because he says it is easier to get in and out of and gets back pain from driving in cars apparently. He also says he hates having to duck down to get in and how difficult it is to get out of a car when it is parked on a driveway with an incline. Lmao I admit to the hard to get out on an inclined driveway part, I really have a lot of difficulty with that lmao.
RWD vehicles normally don't need bags of sand in the back. True story.
what they need is good tires, stupid for the type of climate.
I've known enough people with mustangs and G35s in the winter that never had issues driving because they invested in winter tires. Trucks are a different story, as they have no weight on the back. But even so, a winter tire changes everything. Most people do not buy winter rubber for their trucks.
holy crap, American shale producers are now making profits at $40/barrel.
as long as the Shale producers are fracking, we will always be in a surplus of oil.
which means low gas prices for the consumer!
I personally can't stand the look of pretty much any of the large slope hatchback "cars" / SUVs things. BMW GT, Venza, Acura ZDX et. al. The closest ones to being acceptable are the Panamara and A7. I think mostly because they didn't try to jack them in the sky. I guess maybe the taller ones remind me of the Pontiac Aztec.
Combination of gas prices and newer engine/auto tech that allows SUVs to get tolerable MPGs these days.
I myself am looking at potentially a CR-V for a next car....driving dynamics/practicality of a regular sedan (decent mpg) with the benefits of SUV-like features (higher ride height, interior space)
Personally I don't see much appeal to the larger SUVs to me unless you are truly need to use the added space/towing on a more regular basis to justify the negatives (cost, larger size for manuvering, maintenance/mpg, etc.)
Combination of gas prices and newer engine/auto tech that allows SUVs to get tolerable MPGs these days.
I myself am looking at potentially a CR-V for a next car....driving dynamics/practicality of a regular sedan (decent mpg) with the benefits of SUV-like features (higher ride height, interior space)
Personally I don't see much appeal to the larger SUVs to me unless you are truly need to use the added space/towing on a more regular basis to justify the negatives (cost, larger size for manuvering, maintenance/mpg, etc.)
Wife got a 2017 CRV EX-L AWD three months ago and loves it. I drive it occasionally and it's really nice, the 5G was totally redesigned for 2017 and Honda extensively revised the the infotainment system.
Overall it's a great vehicle (ride, handling, sportiness, versatile, tech,...)
CARMagazine’s automotive insider, Georg Kasher, has confirmed Ferrari’s first utility vehicle will be unveiled in 2021. Codenamed F16X, the Ferrari SUV/crossover/high-sided vehicle will be a partner vehicle of the GTC4Lusso successor, itself a direct descendant of the Ferrari FF, Ferrari’s first all-wheel-drive vehicle.
Ah, it’s all coming together now. The FF was a trojan horse.
It's pretty annoying, the whole crossover/SUV phase. At least if you're not driving one.
People say they like the higher driving position, you can see more, etc. But when you park your SUV at a street corner, or when you get stuck in front of somebody in traffic, you create a big blind spot. Can't see over or around them. I end up going full Asian, pulling into the street and just hoping for the best!
Maybe they shouldn't make them so damn ugly. WTF did they do to the Accord? Maybe they want their customers getting into SUVs. I think there is more profit in them.
Wife got a 2017 CRV EX-L AWD three months ago and loves it. I drive it occasionally and it's really nice, the 5G was totally redesigned for 2017 and Honda extensively revised the the infotainment system.
Overall it's a great vehicle (ride, handling, sportiness, versatile, tech,...)
Nice. The new CR-V looks great and likely will be more of a family car. Fiancee got a Focus hatchback and I'm still rocking the TL. We're both quite frugal on car so it may be a while before a CR-V is in our possession. I do despise the new trend to remove physical buttons and move everything to a touchscreen.....sigh
Originally Posted by nanxun
It'll be interesting to see the trend in the next 5-10 years. WIll it plateau?
My own theory as I posted already is the non-realization of the Peak Oil dooms-day scenario (where gasoline prices skyrocket and the end of civilization is nigh...although I assume eventually this will happen???) and the much more driveability and usability of smaller SUV-type vehicles today vs yester-years. If you're comparing a Accord and a CR-V....prices and MPG are similar in ballpark range except you get more cargo/people-room and higher view in the CR-V (or insert another crossover here).
Just a very quick look from Honda.com shows (using base model LX as comparison):
Accord LX MPG: 25-30 combined (depending on transmission type)
CR-V LX MPG: 27-28 combined (depending on drivetrain type)
Accord LX cargo room: 15.8 cu ft
CRV LX cargo room: 39 cu ft to 75 cu ft
When a vehicle with that much more room for cargo is that much close in MPG I think many decide to go for the bigger vehicle. But I would be interested in reading other's theories on why there is such a huge uptick in crossover/suv demand with sedans dropping so much
Updated quite frequently and gives breakdowns by companies and also type of vehicles in a nice visual graph as well as with numbers:
The trend is easy to see here: huge drop in car sales and big spike in Crossover/SUV/pickup sales:
Interesting breakdown by specific models:
Somehow the Nissan Rogue is a top selling suv....don't see it all that often on the streets but they are selling like hot cakes.
All the mid size sedans are down (Accord, Camry, Altima, Fusion). Interestingly the Honda Accord suffers the least loss % wise, and the Ford Fusion is taking a HUGE hit.
I wouldn't be surprised if the BMW 3/Audi A4/TLX/Model 3 small to midsize vehicle category remains, the small economy Civic/Corolla range remains, but the rest kind of goes away. But I also wouldn't be surprised if wagons came back.
Take one Honda Fit or Chevrolet Sonic or Mazda 2, alter the exterior body panels, clad the wheel arches or bumpers in a modest amount of black plastic, periodically route power to the rear wheels without any fancy AWD systems, elevate the roofline, and increase ride height just a bit. Use a typical small car engine, the same transmissions, and many of the same interior bits.
The result: HR-V, Trax, CX-3. Call it a crossover. Dare even to call it an SUV.
And then, according to Kelley Blue Book, charge customers $7,700 more for the privilege.
Never been in a Trax, but the CX-3 drives pretty well for a 'lifted' Mazda2, just a shame it doesn't have a manual option.
The HR-V isn't bad either, but I hated the stereo/touchscreen interface & the rev-hang was annoying on the 6MT I had as a loaner.
Americans aren’t just buying more trucks and SUVs these days; they’re also apparently shoring up their loyalty to these vehicles. Consider this from the market-research firm IHS Markit: the SUV and crossover “loyalty rate” has grown from just under 53 percent in 2012 to more than 66 percent through the first four months of 2017. To come up with that figure, IHS Markit looked at new-vehicle purchases and leases from 2012 through April 2017 among owners who had also acquired a new vehicle within the past 10 years. It then looked at whether they chose the same body style when they returned to the marketplace.
The analysis does not distinguish between purchasers replacing a vehicle and those adding one to a fleet. The Michigan market-research firm also found that loyalty rates for pickup trucks are increasing, at 51 percent in 2017 through April compared with 43 percent in 2012. The rises in these segments necessarily means reductions elsewhere, and the most acute decrease is in the sedan segment. Sedan loyalty rates have fallen to just below 49 percent in the first four months of this year, down from 56 percent in 2012.
According to IHS Markit data, two-thirds of sedan owners buying a new vehicle “defected” to the SUV and crossover segment in the first four months of 2017, which represents nearly 300,000 purchases. “If this trend continues through the rest of the year, this will mark the first year in which less than half of sedan households acquired another one when they returned to market,” IHS Markit said.
The growth in U.S. truck and SUV sales has been driven in large part by lower gas prices, increasingly better fuel economy among trucks, and a generally improving American economy, IHS Markit noted.
What's still unknown is what are the main reasons for the jump from sedans to CUV/SUV. My contention is the similar MPG with better ride height and cargo vs sedan. Pricing isobvioulsy a bit more and it looks like the public is willing to pay.
I too love wagons but I think this may be a car enthusiast-only thing. Most of the regular folks I talk to think wagons are the ugliest thing ever.....
04-18-2017, 11:08 AM
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