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CR-V Passes the Once-Dominant Explorer
July 23, 2007
Deb Nison is a data warehouse developer in Portland, Ore., who likes to go snowboarding on nearby Mt. Hood. Once upon a time, she drove a Chevy TrailBlazer, and later a Subaru Forester. Today, she owns a 2007 Honda CR-V.
"I like the way it handles," she says. She appreciates feeling "ridiculously safe" in a vehicle with standard head protecting airbags. And for an SUV, she says, it gets "decent mileage" -- about 23 miles per gallon so far around town.
Ms. Nison is just one reason why the Honda CR-V is, as of June 30, America's best-selling sport-utility vehicle. The CR-V's rise, and the parallel collapse in demand for "real" SUVs like the TrailBlazer and the one-time King of SUVs, the Ford Explorer, reveal a lot about why the American auto industry is in the shape it's in right now.
Just 10 years ago -- a mere two product generations in auto industry terms -- America was SUV Nation. SUV meant a tough looking box perched on a heavy steel ladder frame borrowed from a pickup truck. No vehicle did a better job capturing the appeal of this formula than the Ford Explorer.
In 1997, Ford Motor Co. sold more than 383,000 Explorers. Three years later, Ford sold more than 445,000 Explorers. It's not a coincidence that Ford earned record profits during this period. The Explorer was a perfect automotive money-making machine: A high volume model that sold at premium prices. If Henry Ford or Alfred P. Sloan, the architect of General Motors Corp.'s rise to power, had been alive in 1997, they would have understood the Explorer's business model immediately -- and approved.
Of course, it helped -- a lot -- that the late 1990s were an era of ultra cheap gas. Today's V-6-powered Explorer is rated at 15 miles per gallon in the city, and 20 mpg highway. Not bad for a truck that weighs more than 4,600 pounds, perhaps, but not good in any absolute way. But at $1 or so a gallon during the heady days of the dot-com boom, a lot of American families could afford to take a "What Me Worry?" attitude toward gasoline prices. The Explorer's combination of a tall-in-the-saddle ride, "go anywhere" four-wheel-drive capability and rugged looks became a suburban status symbol.
But even as the Explorer was enjoying its peak years, Honda Motor Co. began offering something new. The Honda CR-V, launched in 1997, looked like an SUV that had taken a wrong turn on to the set of "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids." It had the boxy profile of an SUV, and the rear cargo space, and all wheel drive. But it was more than 1,000 pounds lighter than an Explorer, and smaller in every dimension. Underneath, the CR-V was built like a compact, front-wheel drive Honda Civic. There was no heavy duty ladder frame, which among other things meant it couldn't tow very much.
The industry struggled with what to call vehicles like the CR-V -- cute utes, car-truck hybrids -- before settling on "crossover."
In the late 1990s, the CR-V sold modestly compared to the mighty Explorer. In 1997, Honda sold just shy of 67,000. By 2000, sales had risen to just over 118,000. In other words, barely half of one Explorer assembly plant's annual
CR-V Passes the Once-Dominant Explorer
July 23, 2007
Deb Nison is a data warehouse developer in Portland, Ore., who likes to go snowboarding on nearby Mt. Hood. Once upon a time, she drove a Chevy TrailBlazer, and later a Subaru Forester. Today, she owns a 2007 Honda CR-V.
"I like the way it handles," she says. She appreciates feeling "ridiculously safe" in a vehicle with standard head protecting airbags. And for an SUV, she says, it gets "decent mileage" -- about 23 miles per gallon so far around town.
Ms. Nison is just one reason why the Honda CR-V is, as of June 30, America's best-selling sport-utility vehicle. The CR-V's rise, and the parallel collapse in demand for "real" SUVs like the TrailBlazer and the one-time King of SUVs, the Ford Explorer, reveal a lot about why the American auto industry is in the shape it's in right now.
Just 10 years ago -- a mere two product generations in auto industry terms -- America was SUV Nation. SUV meant a tough looking box perched on a heavy steel ladder frame borrowed from a pickup truck. No vehicle did a better job capturing the appeal of this formula than the Ford Explorer.
In 1997, Ford Motor Co. sold more than 383,000 Explorers. Three years later, Ford sold more than 445,000 Explorers. It's not a coincidence that Ford earned record profits during this period. The Explorer was a perfect automotive money-making machine: A high volume model that sold at premium prices. If Henry Ford or Alfred P. Sloan, the architect of General Motors Corp.'s rise to power, had been alive in 1997, they would have understood the Explorer's business model immediately -- and approved.
Of course, it helped -- a lot -- that the late 1990s were an era of ultra cheap gas. Today's V-6-powered Explorer is rated at 15 miles per gallon in the city, and 20 mpg highway. Not bad for a truck that weighs more than 4,600 pounds, perhaps, but not good in any absolute way. But at $1 or so a gallon during the heady days of the dot-com boom, a lot of American families could afford to take a "What Me Worry?" attitude toward gasoline prices. The Explorer's combination of a tall-in-the-saddle ride, "go anywhere" four-wheel-drive capability and rugged looks became a suburban status symbol.
But even as the Explorer was enjoying its peak years, Honda Motor Co. began offering something new. The Honda CR-V, launched in 1997, looked like an SUV that had taken a wrong turn on to the set of "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids." It had the boxy profile of an SUV, and the rear cargo space, and all wheel drive. But it was more than 1,000 pounds lighter than an Explorer, and smaller in every dimension. Underneath, the CR-V was built like a compact, front-wheel drive Honda Civic. There was no heavy duty ladder frame, which among other things meant it couldn't tow very much.
The industry struggled with what to call vehicles like the CR-V -- cute utes, car-truck hybrids -- before settling on "crossover."
In the late 1990s, the CR-V sold modestly compared to the mighty Explorer. In 1997, Honda sold just shy of 67,000. By 2000, sales had risen to just over 118,000. In other words, barely half of one Explorer assembly plant's annual
