Quote:
Originally Posted by PA Dweller
Yes I know, but it sounds like your suggesting that everytime someone buys a new vehicle they will downgrade to a smaller and smaller vehicle. I just don't see it happening, people love large vehicles. I don't know about station wagons either, when was the last time anyone made a station wagon? About 12 years ago? What I would like to see is another Buick Roadmaster.
Maybe traditional suv's will largely disappear, but people will continue to buy crossovers like the Saturn Vue and Buick Enclave since they like the fuel economy these vehicles offer while keeping the traits everyone loves of suv's. I said it a million times, if they added a 2-Mode system to these vehicles they would get close if not 30 MPG combined. I don't know what crossover GM has thats body on frame, but most of GM's crossovers are uni-body. Which is the future for most owners.
If your point is that only a few people will own BOF SUV's in the future I agree, if you believe that crossovers will disappear and people will go back to buying station wagons and cars I disagree.
Do you see how bad the economy currently is? Of course less people are going to buy CUV's. When the economy picks up again people will buy them again.
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CUV sales aren't as dependent on the economy as they are on gas prices. The only thing that will create demand for CUV's is cheaper gas. Most people buy on emotion, not on logic; buying what they feel they need rather than what they actually works best for their situation (this is something that confounds me, but I've learned to accept). In the same way people bought SUVs en masse because they were perceived to be safer, people are going to shun vehicles they perceive to be inefficient, such as SUV's and CUV's.
I think it would be wildly optimistic to see (relatively) cheap gas anytime soon, and therefore not a good use of limited financial resources to develop vehicles that are in a market this is going to continue to shrink.