[Martinjlm]

Originally Posted by lbls1

Just to be clear, I am not doubting anyone's facts or statements; I am merely giving a viewpoint as I see it. Statistics tend to be accurate at figures, however it doesn't portray an entire image of a market or a subject of analysis.

It is plain that Crossover vehicles are a trend and are popular currently. Realistically, one cannot deny that there is still a sizeable market for traditional sedans. In addition, market trends can change, sometimes erratically. It is my opinion that it is not business wise to ignore a segment that (while sales wise may be down) still has significant purchasing traffic in it. Camry, Accord and Civic are posting respectable sales numbers, so one can ask why other makers are having difficulty doing the same.

The industry is in the middle of a shakeout. Three “shakeouts” actually. Remember the early ‘90s thru the early ‘00s? Minivans? Every family seemed to have one. Every brand had at least one minivan. Most brands had two (fwd for people hauling / rwd for cargo). Chevy had Lumina and Astro. Ford had Windstar and Aerostar. Then consumers discovered SUVs. Minivan volumes dropped off the cliff. Ford, GM, and others got completely out of the minivan market and dove headlong into SUV. Chrysler, Toyota, Nissan, and Honda stayed in the minivan market and pretty much divided what was left of the market into pretty decent business. They had larger slices of a much smaller pie.

Same thing is going on with sedans now that consumers have discovered CUV. If everybody stays in the sedan market, there will be smaller slices of a smaller pie for everybody to divide. Chevrolet used to have 4 sedans (Impala, Malibu, Cruze, Sonic). For a short time there were 5 (Chevy SS). Now there’s one. And it’ll stick around for a while. Ford was in the same boat (Taurus, Fusion, Focus, Fiesta). Now they have none. Asian automakers will continue to develop sedans because they are actually popular in their home markets, even with the advent of CUV. So it makes sense for them to also provide them here. They can afford to provide them at lower volumes since they can combine the volume with their home market volumes. So they will in the long run be like Chrysler, Toyota, Honda, and Nissan we’re during the minivan wind down. With GM, Ford, and Stellantis pretty much out of the sedan market, the size of the market is shrinking rapidly and Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai-Kia are splitting what’s left. In the meantime, GM, Ford, Stellantis all have at least 4 crossovers for each of their multiple brands, plus 2-3 SUVs per brand, and the all-important pickup. None of which they would trade for better position in sedans. Those are the bets they’ve placed.