The death of the American sedan was a leading story on the automobile industry in 2018, covered in automotive, business, and general news media.
The mid-market American sedan has been approaching extinction despite ongoing sales of sedans from Tesla and other luxury marques, and many regret this development. How it happened was widely discussed and debated, along with whether the trend is permanent or temporary, but a consensus exists on why: the rise of the SUV and CUV. This street scene from February 2019 could be an allegory of the mid-market American sedan’s demise: a ghostly white early 1980s Oldsmobile 98 points toward the graveyard, with black and grey SUV/CUVs surrounding it like pallbearers. The “One Way” sign may be just a sign, or a symbol of whether the sedan will ever come back.
CC Outtake: Archival Quality 1980-84 Oldsmobile 98 Regency
It amazes me that as auto manufacturers, specifically those in North America, are now building some of he best sedans in their history, they can’t sell them. The Fusion may be the best sedan Ford ever built, maybe better than the original Taurus. The current Impala – maybe the best since 1965. For the Japanese, the current Accord is the best ever, so too for the current Mazda 6.
It’s certainly ironic that buyers are turning away from this segment just as the products reach their highest level of excellence.
The best SUVs are just as good.
I disagee. In terms of road manners and handling they’re certainly not as good, due to the extra weight and higher centre of gravity, and they’re thirstier too, usually. The ‘extra’ space, over and above an estate (wagon) simply doesn’t wash. The only thing provided is extra height, giving the driver a commanding view of the road – which is more important to most drivers who simply don’t, or can’t, give a hoot about how their cars actually drive, rather than how they how they think they look. It’s a fashion trend – and the sheep will follow.
We have children and dogs, and have NEVER found an estate wanting for space and practicality. Show me an SUV/CUV that will drive as well as an Audi S/RS Avant, or equivalent, and we’ll buy one. Forgive me for saying this as a proud Brit, but this whole trend has the distinct whiff of the ‘Bigger is better’ mentality that started in the late 50’s US cars, and only ended when the Malaise era finally petered out and sheer size became a non issue.
Fashion be damned! – be different – go old school, we all know it’s the only proper way……
I like images like this–ones that are timed just right to portray a visual sign/meaning that many people would otherwise never notice if they didn’t look at every detail closely enough. Indeed, the Oldsmobile 98 is the only “car” in the picture. And I never realized the Kia Soul was actually a crossover; to me it looks too low to the ground to be one when compared to a CR-V, Escape, or Rav4.
I welcome it. I’ve never been a huge fan of the trunk. I prefer hatchbacks, but to me “crossovers” are just tall hatchbacks. And these days, one needs height to have any hope of surviving among Super Duties.
Can’t worry about the unloved (by me certainly) sedan; too busy still lamenting the loss of the station wagon.
Guess the SUV killed that too.
The auto makers fail to realize that “this too shall pass” as far as automotive trends go. They won’t be able to do a quick transition to what ever comes next.
EVs are next. The auto makers are getting ready.
EVs are a powertrain, not a segment.
They’re the next trend.
Yes I agree, like V8s in the 50s. A powertrain isn’t a segment though, it can come in all shapes and sizes, be it sedans, SUVs, trucks, or sports cars.
Why are you persisting in talking about segments? The OP’s subject was trends. Red paint or plaid interiors could be the next trend that affects purchase decisions.
“Tesla” is virtually a “segment” of its own. The guy I know who pulls a boat with his Model S decided between truck, SUV, or Tesla.
The OP is talking about the demise of the sedan and the rise of the CUVs, ie segments. EVs aren’t on deck to knock CUVs off their pedestal, they’ll simply power them as newer better technologies do.
Tesla’s are trendy, yes, they’re trendy now. Tesla’s key to success however was that they were the first EVs in a century that were based on popular segments without compromises. Tesla would have flopped if they used the same technology in a modern day Comuta-car.
Part of this is pushing crossovers, with higher ride height. Gotta get those butts up to fit in all those batteries. They’ll just drop the ground clearance a bit, and you’ll never notice.
What a perfect picture to serve as a metaphor.
It’s true that change is the only constant.
I think sedans will be appreciated and missed more once they are all gone. (like a lot of things)
Very profound picture!
People’s kids are getting much bigger now. Only an SUV has the room for them. I read a complaint (rather valid), about how some car seats won’t fit in some sedans or hatchbacks.
Those car seats are a major hassle, and likely a big reason why families don’t consider sedans much these days. It’s hard to maneuver them into a sedan (particularly in a tight parking space) because the door openings are narrow.
And many states now require those cursed rear-facing baby seats for children up to 2 years old (ridiculous, in my opinion). When kids are in those rear-facing seats in a sedan — particularly a fastback-style sedan with a sloping rear window — the sun is often shining directly in their eyes. In an SUV or minivan, the longer roofline prevents that problem. And anyone who’s traveled with a kid who’s screaming due to the sun in their rear-facing eyes can attest to the awfulness of that problem.
It’s not ridiculous to keep kids facing rearward until they are two. True, my wife and I did not with our own children in the late 70s and early 80s because the science was not yet there yet. Evidence now though indicates the heads of infants and young toddlers are proportionally so much heavier than the rest of their bodies that severe frontal crashes can cause serious, even fatal, neck and spinal cord injuries if in the forward-facing position. (And severe frontal crashes remain much more common than severe rear-end crashes.) Facing rearward in a semi-reclined safety seat provides much more effective support.
Streamlining killed the sedan. Relentless reliance on aerodynamics robbed space from the roof area, curving the corners and cramping the doors, especially in the rear. Extending the roofline with a hatchback helps rear access, though even that’s lost in many modern designs. Meanwhile, pedestrian safety dictates a tall, blunt front on cars. So we’re winding up with the worst of all design combinations. Like a Ferrari dropped onto a ’40s Ford. Like a reverse mullet- party on top, stodgy down below.
Not only that but the sheer amount of stuff that ‘has to’ go with the kid in the car.
I have a new granddaughter (well, 3 months old), whose family came to visit last week. And the amount of stuff in the back of their (sigh!) SUV was jaw-dropping – we didn’t carry half that stuff when we had her dad in the car (yes, a sedan!) 30 years ago. And the pram we had was simpler, smaller and folded to take less space than the new ones.
Still this does not explain the SUV phenomenon. Really if this were the argument then minivans should have ruled the roost, not SUVs.
Being a childless old geezer I’m giving both a pass but dread the time in which not even hatchbacks will be available.
Women don’t want minivans.
The Ford Flex is essentially a minivan minus the sliding doors but whereas my wife wouldn’t be seen in say a Pacifica or Caravan she would be fine in a Flex because it doesn’t look like a minivan (although it essentially is.)
Currently she’s driving a Terrain which is one of the many modern takes on the small station wagon.
If you really look at that picture you will notice that the lone sedan is from a “dead” American brand while the CUVs/SUVs are predominantly Asian branded vehicles…THAT should be just as important.
Supposedly, since CUVs/SUVs are often just elevated hatchbacks, designing a sedan off the same platform should be possible…if/when customer preferences change.
Me? I wish hatchbacks had been made available on more cars that were not CUVs. For example, Ford sells a hatchback AND a wagon based on the current Fusion (badged as Mondeo in Europe) tho neither body style was offered in the US.
In some ways, the sedan has dug its own grave. I love sedans, but was bitterly disappointed last year when I spent a few hours at Carmax looking around: Most sedans I sat in felt cramped and claustrophobic… a result of high window lines and confining interior designs. As much as I’m tired of SUVs, they generally felt more comfortable, and I’m not even a big person.
After that experience, I understand more clearly when the remaining sedans don’t even make people’s shopping lists any longer.
A sedan with SUV window dimensions, seating, step height, etc would look dorky and be unsalable. SUV styling is the most palatable way to deliver those dimensions (which is why SUVs crushed minivans before they killed sedans).
Yeah, but they could bring back deeper side glass. Sedans with deeper side glass look much nicer, and they’re safer because you can see more outside.
Many current sedans look dorky, and as to unsaleable, well…..
Envision a 4X4 AMC Pacer.
Visualise a sedan with the cowl/windshield and doors of a Ford Flex. Comfy. Unsalable.
The Flex itself stiffed because it didn’t have enough leather daddy drag and ride height.
If the sedan is dying, the American coupe is already dead. I`ll probably won`t be around to see it, but in the not-too-distant future, the SUV and the ‘crossovers’ it spawned will be the new normal.And every one will look the same, much like today`s sequel, reboot, and ‘franchise’ movies.
As has been pointed out many times, gleefully by many, the SUVs and Crossovers are merely a course correction to the long/low/wide anomaly(that lasted a mere 65ish years). Well it seems in the long term the course of the automobile isn’t just repeating history, it’s in full rewind: We’re now in the 1930s, next on the horizon is tall boxy autonomous ride sharing pods owned by private tech barons… also known as the trolly system.
The future is the 19th century, and hey, the antivaxers even are bringing back diseases from then, hooray! Who wants to by my home brewed elixir? Step right up sir or madam!
Great picture! I agree with a comment above – I cannot remember my last sedan that felt truly roomy. Oh wait, yes I can – the 68 Chrysler Newport. The 80s B bodies were cramped with a family of 5 as were the Panther cars in my driveway. I am now in a stage of life where a sedan would work, but have become used to a seat higher from the ground which makes entry and exit so much easier. So I lament the sedan’s passing but do not see myself buying one any time soon.
Evolution is taking place whether we like it or not. As was mentioned, the traditional sedan will join the standard sized two door “coupe’, the personal luxury car, the convertible, and the station wagon on the trash heap of history. As much as I liked them, the trad American sedan was just an anthem to poor space utilization and limited carrying flexibility. In any size, a hatchback is just a more useful configuration. From the lowliest econobox to a Ford Expedition you just get more utility from the vehicle. They just do a better job, that’s all.
Like many, I’ve got a F150 and an Explorer and I find them useful and like them both. It’s not like I could carry all that stuff in the back of my Cadillac Seville!
Big trucks and SUVs are now so refined that you don’t give up anything to yesterdays luxury sedan. As long as you can afford them and the gas, no different from yesterday.
Styling wise they are the new norm, I don’t find them especially attractive aesthetically, but some have pleasant lines and proportions. Up to this point I have resisted referring to SUVs and trucks as “cars” but I’m definitely in the minority. I am forced to accept the new reality.
But I sure do miss those Eldos and Mark VIIs!
My ’17 sedan is pretty roomy! But it’s from another dead brand. Not a few guys on the SS forum have said they bought theirs because it had gotten too hard on their aging bodies to get in and out of a Corvette.
I think the typical long trunk sedan–1939 to yesterday–was a style phase that hung around too long. So long, in fact, that it became the iconic norm, in turn encouraging people, without thinking about it, to keep on buying them. Only recently have they noticed that a sedan has very limited uses.
The last sedan that I owned was a ’66 Valiant, purchased around ’79 or ’80. This $200 car had so much potential that I spent time and energy to restore it. The only reason I kept it was because I had so much effort vested in it.
But after a year or so I couldn’t find any reason to keep on keeping it. Its only function was to carry other people around. Period.
So, prior to that, and ever since, I have been a happy truck or van owner. Currently, a sub-mini van, a minivan and two camper trucks. (Only the ’96 minivan is in daily use).
We did not leave the sedan; it left us. Take a look at the interior of a mid 1900s “C” body GM car and the room in it. Even a ’55 Chevy 4 door sedan. We used to go to the drive in theaters in these cars. Now they have seats 10 inches from the floor (I am looking at you mid 1980s Cadillac). The 2004 Scion Xb, as awkward as it looked, had, I read, more room inside than a 7 Series BMW. The crossovers just take a sedan and move everything up to make the think livable. I would like to see a car packaged like, say a ’53 Buick Super sedan, with whatever modern styling. One thing though: a three row car should have, in my opinion, the back row as the main back seat, with the extra seats being jump type seats. Think Checker, one of the best packaged cars ever made.
The fact that the efficient packaging of the Checker was lost on the rest of the American auto industry is one of life’s great mysteries.
Not hard to figure out — Americans wanted style and flash and didn’t want their new 196x car to look like something from 1954.
Or a Soviet limousine. While yellow Checker taxis in NYC are as iconically American as you get, paint one black and put a couple of hammer-and-sickle flags on the fenders and – instant ZIL (which was frequently done for TV shows and movies where a real Russian car was not available). Ironically enough, Checker’s founder Morris Markin was born in Russia…while Soviet stylists aped Detroit trends (albeit one or two five-year-plans out of date) for Chaika and ZIL limousines, which looked like Packards into the ’60s and pre-Fuselage Imperials well into the ’70s…and the picture below shows a Checker that was sent to the USSR for use by the US Embassy in Moscow…it fits perfectly, doesn’t it?
SUVs have a little more room and better visibility. Cars are lighter, leading to increased fuel economy, better acceleration and reduced stopping distances. They also have a lower center of gravity for more stability and better handling. I’ve just come home this afternoon with a new Mazda6 sedan. I tried the CX-5 SUV but there was really no comparison. I bought the better vehicle.
FWIW, comparison tests and reviews here often prefer a wagon to a SUV/CUV, within the same segment, of course. Same practicality and interior room, yet the wagon drives better and uses less fuel.
The wagon is still very much alive and kicking, especially in the C- and D-segment (your Mazda 6 sedan is a prime example of a D-segment car).
Agreed. That’s why I did not trade in my ’06 Mazda6 Wagon. Keeping it for road-tripping and lumber runs. I believe this was the last Japanese wagon in the U.S. not beaten with the Outback Ugly Stick.
Exactly. The better handling and lower center of gravity is the reason why I prefer cars. The only times I’ve ever driven SUVs is when I temporarily need to drive a relative’s car, so I’m really not used to them. This is why I really wish the industry would think again before killing off sedans. Seeing Ford and Chevy kill them off feels like a bad sign seeing as how those brands have always been the bread and butter of basic transportation. Hopefully the Accords, Camrys, and Altimas arent going to die any time soon.
I know the traction control is supposed to compensate for the higher center of gravity, but I wonder what happens when you push past the limits of the microchips, as the hotter vesions tempt us to do. Physics are (is?) physics, after all, no matter what technology tries to do to change that
Okay, I’ll go against the grain of current sentiment and state that my wife and I have been perfectly happy with passenger cars over the course of our 40+ year marriage and have no intention of buying a SUV or CUV. We’ve owned cars of all body styles except convertibles and 4-door hardtops, and they’ve all suited our needs just fine. The primary vehicle when our 2 sons were young was a 1980 Volvo 240 2-door sedan! Both kids were in car seats (forward-facing by the time we got the car, and later in boosters), and the trunk was large enough that we never had trouble fitting in everything necessary for long road trips. I realize that back then such things as strollers were much more compact and foldable.
The only vehicle other than a car we have ever owned is a 1998 Nissan Frontier regular cab (still have it today, but it sees little use now). We are beyond the normal US retirement age, but I still work, and the primary vehicle for me is a sedan and for her is a hatchback, both made by a well-known Asian manufacturer. We don’t have trouble getting into or out of our cars, and both have sufficiently sized side and rear windows (no gunslits). I don’t really care about a commanding view of the road, preferring superior handling and fuel economy.
We haven’t owned a product of the Detroit 3 since our 1990 Mercury Sable. It was a great car at first (purchased new), but became a reliability nightmare past the 65K mile mark, despite careful maintenance. In fact the Sable was sold in 2000, a full 3 years before the old Volvo was sold — a testament to the latter’s durability.
I will note that our older son recently purchased a Chevy Volt. It’s an impressive car in many respects, but I DO have to duck while getting into or our of the front seat to avoid bumping my head against the steeply sloped A-pillar.
When we started family vehicle shopping a few months ago, a sedan was never under consideration, we went straight to the larger utility vehicles: minivans and 3 row SUVs (the big BOF kind). Our biggest motivator to jump right up to the big leagues despite this only being our first child is our two larger dogs. And I think a lot of other people our age that are starting families are in the same boat, there’s a family pet before the first child. Been loving our Town and Country so far, I could give a hoot less about the minivan “stigma,” I got myself a strong V6, super comfy heated leather seats and even a heated steering wheel, and room to haul the family and our things and various 8 foot DIY materials, for a steal of a price relative to what midsize crossovers sell for, or even an equally well equipped sedan of the same year.
No different when the station wagon was lost to RVs. Consumer taste will shift.
The next being challenge for Detroit (GM, FCA, & Ford) is to develop a decent EV. Looks like Telsa and Rivian have a handle on the situation. Detroit is flat footed because it still has an inherent bias for gasoline and refuses to let go.
If these three don’t do something, they’ll end up like Sears because they are out of touch. I don’t thing Joe Taxpayer is in the mood to bail them out the 3rd time.
I think it’s deplorable — and has less to do with buyer preferences in any traditional sense than with the way corporations chase quarterly profits and seek to enrich their stockholder officers at the expense of literally everyone else. But then, I also am increasingly coming to the conclusion that “Mad Men” is the worst thing that’s happened to television in many years, so this is clearly a minority opinion.