People really weren’t buying those though. It’s a hot take, but I think they made the right choice on that one. They followed it up with the wrong choice to not develop hybrid wagons/cross overs. I don’t think anyone saw the return of the minivan.
People stopped buying sedans because the car industry made a concerted effort to demarket them. They’ve been pushing SUVs for nearly 30 years, trying really hard to get people to stop buying sedans and were too successful. Now there’s a fuel crisis and no sedans in production (from American brands at least) so the manufacturers are getting caught with their pants down again
I do wonder if the fleet market is sufficient to keep both sedans and vans in production, since each makes a very competent fleet vehicle platform for different usecases, see the venerable Crown Victoria for example
I’m not sure. I think they were reacting to buyers, not the other way around. I remember the late 90s and early 2000s. SUVs and crossovers were relatively new and exploding in popularity. Partly as a back lash against the “soccer mom” minivan stereotype. I never liked them, but I also never liked sedans. I’m definitely a wagon guy. It’s sad that they all became crossovers.
The last 5-10 years have been primarily reacting to buyers (and choosing not to market sedans more) but there was a specific concerted push to change market opinions toward SUVs and SUV-like vehicles, so I’m inclined to instead blame marketing with a healthy sprinkling of availability.
The last time I bought a sedan I really had to go out of my way to find the only one on the lot that happened to be in my budget and in my desired age/mileage/mechanical shape, and I happened to test drive all 5 sedans that they had on that lot. If I were indifferent towards the body/chasis style I probably never would’ve looked at the sedans just by pure math of there being easily a hundred or more SUVs, a smattering of trucks and vans and that was about it
People really weren’t buying those though. It’s a hot take, but I think they made the right choice on that one. They followed it up with the wrong choice to not develop hybrid wagons/cross overs. I don’t think anyone saw the return of the minivan.
People stopped buying sedans because the car industry made a concerted effort to demarket them. They’ve been pushing SUVs for nearly 30 years, trying really hard to get people to stop buying sedans and were too successful. Now there’s a fuel crisis and no sedans in production (from American brands at least) so the manufacturers are getting caught with their pants down again
I do wonder if the fleet market is sufficient to keep both sedans and vans in production, since each makes a very competent fleet vehicle platform for different usecases, see the venerable Crown Victoria for example
I’m not sure. I think they were reacting to buyers, not the other way around. I remember the late 90s and early 2000s. SUVs and crossovers were relatively new and exploding in popularity. Partly as a back lash against the “soccer mom” minivan stereotype. I never liked them, but I also never liked sedans. I’m definitely a wagon guy. It’s sad that they all became crossovers.
The last 5-10 years have been primarily reacting to buyers (and choosing not to market sedans more) but there was a specific concerted push to change market opinions toward SUVs and SUV-like vehicles, so I’m inclined to instead blame marketing with a healthy sprinkling of availability.
The last time I bought a sedan I really had to go out of my way to find the only one on the lot that happened to be in my budget and in my desired age/mileage/mechanical shape, and I happened to test drive all 5 sedans that they had on that lot. If I were indifferent towards the body/chasis style I probably never would’ve looked at the sedans just by pure math of there being easily a hundred or more SUVs, a smattering of trucks and vans and that was about it