Let's get one thing out of the way. I loathe SUVs. I loathe how perfectly cool 2 door 4x4s were transformed into luxury station wagons with all weel drive for soccer moms. I loathe how huge and useless to their original purpose they've gotten. And I especially loathe how they've become a lame status symbol for people who have nothing else to brag about.
But anyway...
I was thinking about the SUV sales decline and I'm really not in agreement with the op-ed people who are babbling about how car companies sold consumers cars that they "Didn't want". I've been hearing this refrain for so long and seeing people take it so seriously that it's begun to be insulting. Don't these dimwits realize that people wanted these behemots and that even when gas prices rose most of these middle class jagoffs could afford the gas?
Personally, I think the reason SUV sales are down have more to do with the fact that the people who buy them are feeling the current economic pinch the highest and subsequently are curtainling their spending, than for any other reason. Also, it's possible that the SUV fad has simply winded down and that the current economic downturn was simply as good a reason as any not to buy the things.
Automotively speaking, there have been plenty of fads and car companies have capitalized on them every time. It would be ridiculous for them not to. VW made it's fortunes with the Beetle and Microbus fad of the 60s. Ford killed with it's first two generation of Mustangs. Companies pray to be on the forefront of the next fad so they can get filthy rich.
Back in the eighties it was all about minivans, and the reason that people bought minivans was because the baby boomers of the era didn't want to drive their parent's station wagons and wanted to relive their youth through some fuzzy rose tinted glasses. VW lost so much money back then by not offering a new minivan that was comparable in price and equipment to the Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager.
Then in the nineties, minivans began to be seen as mommymobiles and nobody wanted them. What didn't help was that they'd gotten so carlike and soft that they'd lost all their charming rough edges. So people looked around for something else that would do the job and saw that the Jeep Cherokee and Ford Explorer still felt like rough and tumble offroaders while being soft enough for every day use. Thus the SUV craze was born.
But look at SUVs now. I dare you to find a genuine offroader in the bunch. (Jeep Wrangler excepted) They're basically modern station wagons masquarading as trucks and they've been getting softer and softer every year. I think that basically they've become uncool and that the craze would have died off wether or not gas would have gone up.
Hell, look at full size trucks. They're still popular. Why? Because trucks still have balls. Little tiny ones, for sure. But little baby balls are better than no balls at all sometimes.
The SUV market has just gotten to large to be honest. In the 80's you had the Blazer, Jimmy, Bronco, & that was pretty much it. It has now grown that each auto company offers a minimum of at 3 to 4 offerings. LOOK at Hyundai.. Sante Fe, Tuscon, and Veracruz... ? Jeep with Patriot & Compass.. Hell.. I don't even want to start listing all of GM & Ford's offerings.
THERE lies the problem in the Market.. Over saturating it.
*On another Note, I feel that SOME companies are still offering great off road options. The Cherokee still handles off road action well, as does the wrangler, TB, ect.
My Cav
I give up...
i'm buying a VW those people love trees, so they should love eachother too... "Andy"
The SUV "craze" was a microcosm for American lust for extravagance and overindulgence/unnecessary excess. I blame rap.
I have no signiture
Whalesac wrote:The SUV "craze" was a microcosm for American lust for extravagance and overindulgence/unnecessary excess. I blame rap.
Yup, you're right. All the Soccer moms out there who drive a Yukon XL, Ford Excursion, Dodge Durango etc. with 1-2 kids and mostly by themselves, yup. They ALL WATCHED RAP VIDEOS AND DECIDED to buy The Biggest BOX that won't fit into their Suburbanized Garage in the first place. DAMN RAPPERS!
Good call.
I am sure there are people out there that buy and drive and SUV or pick-up that don't need it. But, they do have that right.
Also, what about those that do need it? My driveway is practically impassible to anything short of a full size 4x4 more days then not in the winter. Why would I not own one?
Even soccer moms, they just want something safe, reliable and practical for all the running around they do. If you can afford it, and SUV bests a car in that every time.
**there is only one true love in my life... and my girlfriend has learned to live with it**
This thread makes me laugh. Chill out dude. Tell a truck owner his truck has no balls, go ahead.
Gutty96 wrote:I am sure there are people out there that buy and drive and SUV or pick-up that don't need it. But, they do have that right.
Also, what about those that do need it? My driveway is practically impassible to anything short of a full size 4x4 more days then not in the winter. Why would I not own one?
Even soccer moms, they just want something safe, reliable and practical for all the running around they do. If you can afford it, and SUV bests a car in that every time.
Wow your driveway must suck
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2898349
slick02eco wrote:Gutty96 wrote:I am sure there are people out there that buy and drive and SUV or pick-up that don't need it. But, they do have that right.
Also, what about those that do need it? My driveway is practically impassible to anything short of a full size 4x4 more days then not in the winter. Why would I not own one?
Even soccer moms, they just want something safe, reliable and practical for all the running around they do. If you can afford it, and SUV bests a car in that every time.
Wow your driveway must suck
I does all winter, and spring run off.
**there is only one true love in my life... and my girlfriend has learned to live with it**
you seriously need to look into getting a life.
Every fad eventually dies off, no one is arguing that. Times change, people change, needs change, etc.
There Is no problem with SUVs, the problem is when a company (GM) puts all their eggs in one basket and puts all their focus on one segment. Now that the fad is over they are left with crap offerings for everything else.
