Filed under: Car Buying, Budget, SUV, Crossover

Finally, after years and years of stagnation and painfully slow sales, small cars are starting to take a foothold in the United States. Or are they? While conventional wisdom makes us believe that Americans are ready to take the downsizing plunge in the face of – or at least the threat of – high fuel prices and environmental concerns (we’re all still watching the Gulf Coast, right?), it seems that reality may once again set us straight.

Automotive sales watchdog Autodata has found that the gas-swilling large SUV segment is growing at a faster pace than the America’s small car segment. Like statistics? Here we go: With a 19-percent jump over the first six months of 2010, large SUV sales have outpaced small cars (14 percent). Critically, they’ve also outpaced the overall market (17 percent).

Now, before we get our feathers riled up too much, realize that sales of large SUVs still lag way behind small cars – 974,000 to 121,000 through the first half of the year. Further, large crossovers like the Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse, Ford Flex, GMC Acadia and Lincoln MKT are included in those figures right alongside traditional behemoths like the Chevy Tahoe, Ford Expedition, Infiniti QX56 and Toyota Sequoia.

We also expect that small car sales will continue to climb with new models coming to market, such as the upcoming Ford Fiesta, Mazda2 and Hyundai’s Accent and Elantra. That said, there’s always going to be a demand for large and powerful SUVs that can haul people and stuff while towing a boat or camper in cool, air-conditioned comfort, and automakers will be only too happy to provide the thick-margined vehicles for their consumption. For better or for worse.

[Source: USA Today via Kicking Tires]

Report: Large SUV segment outpacing small car sales growth in America originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Large SUV segment outpacing small car sales growth in America

Filed under: SUV, Truck, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GM, GMC

Listen to enough of the bloviation, and you’ll start to believe that full-size, traditional SUVs are the root of all evil. While the hue and cry has gone up far and wide branding these truck-based vehicles as four-wheeled carcinogens, there are enough legitimate reasons to purchase a Chevrolet Suburban or Cadillac Escalade that General Motors is going ahead with the next generation.

SUVs have traditionally been healthy profit-earners for General Motors. Though sales dropped by 25 percent in 2009, sales are picking up once again and exports remain strong, all making a good case for the revamping and keeping the truck chassis. Work had been idled on the GMT900 architecture’s replacement while GM went through its bout with Chapter 11 and fuel prices spiked. Moving the Tahoe, Escalade, Yukon, and Suburban to a version of the unibody Lambda platform had also reportedly been considered. In the end, buyers opting for the big SUVs really want and need what they do; from three rows of seats to truck-strong towing and heavy-duty four-wheel-drive systems, so General Motors is apparently keeping the basic formula, confirming to Automotive News that all current versions of GMT900 have a future. The fact that GM SUVs are practically ubiquitous as congressional transporters probably doesn’t hurt the case for revamping the full-size SUV line, either. After all, Capitol Hill has a massive stake in GM, and they might as well get some new armored Escalades for politicians publicly stumping for small, fuel-efficient cars, right?

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req.]

No Surprise: GM’s next-generation of large SUVs reportedly due by 2013 originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No Surprise: GM’s next-generation of large SUVs reportedly due by 2013