Is the family sedan over?

[TehMac]

Originally posted by: JDub02
My grandparents used to tow their boat with their '69 Chevelle SS 396

I want your grandparents

 

[exar333]

Originally posted by: iFX

Originally posted by: ExarKun333

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
No, I just think people got bored of American boats (Camry excluded) and started demanding more BMW-like sedans (Accord, Mazda 6, etc.).

The market is giving them what they want.

So the sedan is not dead. Is the 3-series dead??? Just the American highway boat is dead.

Thats a bunch of crap. No one got tired of boats on the road at all, they just got BIGGER boats (SUVs).

I agree with this.

During the 1980s the American sedan was transformed from a V8, RWD platform to an I4/V6, FWD platform (for the most part, there were a few exceptions). Passenger volume went down, cargo volume went down, towing capacity went down. Remember when everyone towed with their cars and the only people towing with a truck were construction or service industry folks? I do.

People still wanted large, V8, RWD vehicles with large passenger space, large cargo capacity and the ability to tow. Well, the SUV and pickup truck were the only vehicles being sold that met these requirements so they sold well.

IMO Detroit created the SUV bubble by killing the traditional sedan. Rather than pushing buyers into FWD throw away sedans in the late 80s and 90s they should have been improving the traditional RWD sedan. We all joke about most SUVs never leaving the pavement and it's true, most people don't need them for that purpose - they need them to serve the "large sedan" purpose and that's what most are being used for. Hauling the family and their stuff.

Great post!

The only think I disagree with is that I don't neccessarily blame Detroit (or any auto makers, for that matter) for killing the traditional sedan. The 80's and 90's saw significant safety and emission changes, and this did help facilitate the changes from a large V8 sedan to either a truck (RWD V8; towing/hauling) or smaller sedans (FWD i4/v6).

For many people, a decently-powered family sedan is really a great all-around vehicle. I would also argue that multiple-vehicle familes also fed this changes. Familes that may have just had one large sedan/station wagon changed to a mid-size or full-size truck and a smaller car. This allowed them to use the vehicles in a more specialized way.

 

[StageLeft]

now they?ve moved on to a combination of SUVs and so-called ?crossover? vehicles, which are essentially five- and seven-passenger SUVs built not on truck, but on car platforms, for better handling and fuel-efficiency.

And the proper version:

now they?ve moved on to a combination of SUVs and so-called ?crossover? vehicles, which are essentially minivans without sliding doors.

Anyway, this article is mostly worse than the dump I did earlier today. No numbers, no actual quantifying trends, sizes of cars, or sales, just a load of steamy conjectury crap.