Quote:
Originally Posted by 69Firebird400
It's a dying market. I owned a Pathfinder until last week, and it just did not offer the space inside of a full size SUV or a large crossover, yet got similar fuel economy (a 2008 Pathfinder V6's fuel economy ratings are identical to a 2008 Suburban's!). I've said this before, but the high cost of fuel has separated the people who actually need SUVs (those who buy full sizers) from the people who don't (who then buy crossovers or minivans).
Also, Explorer sales are in the crapper for the past two years (it's now outsold by the CR-V, and YTD sales are down 23.5%) and the Pathfinder is likely to be replaced by a crossover for its next generation (and sales are down 13.3% YTD). XTerra sales are down 16.0% year to date. 4Runner sales are down 14.8% year to date.
Put it this way, in the Acadia's first year, it is already outselling the Envoy; the Murano in its last year of the current generation is outselling the Pathfinder; the Highlander is outselling the 4Runner.
GM, Ford, Nissan, and Toyota would be foolish to invest much more, if any, money into this dying market segment.
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I have an Xterra, I wanted something I could actually take off road. You're right, if you're buying an SUV to haul a bunch of kids around in, then a Suburban makes more sense. But if you acually do off roading like I do, I don't want to try and drive some big Suburban down a trail, which it probably wouldn't even fit on anyways.
I guess GM has the Hummer H3, which is the closest competetion to the Xterra, Wrangler, FJ Cruiser, etc. Come to think of it, people who bought GMT 360's never took them off road anyways, and they weren't especially capable off road vehicles, so I guess it does make sense to kill them off.