Ask The Best And Brightest: What's The Next Big Niche?
Niche vehicles are possibly the toughest task for automotive product planners, offering huge risks and often modest rewards. Many, like the Acura ZDX and Chevy SSR fall flat on their faces, often for very different reasons. A few, like the Lexus RX300 launch entire segments from which future niches will eventually grow. Others, like the Nissan Juke, simply sell in reasonable numbers to the people who like them while turning off most everyone else. But one thing is for certain: in an era when mass-market sedans and crossovers look increasingly alike, a good niche product is one of the few real brand differentiators, a rolling symbol of a brand’s identity and values. And with common platforms and components, certain kinds of niche vehicles are even becoming easier to build. But there’s one very small, very postmodern problem: it’s all been done. When you’ve tried convertible crossovers, four-door-coupe-crossovers, five-door-coupe-wagons, pickup roadsters and minivan coupes, where’s an industry to go next? Time to break out your thick-rimmed designer glasses and explain just what form of nonsense the industry should try now.
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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Oh yeah, that Mercedes in the pic is certainly carving a niche, the niche of STATION WAGONS that have been replaced by CUV and other inept junk.
The return of the "mini" minivan. Like Ford's new C-Max.
I'm thinking of something radical in a full size car - like, longer, lower, wider. It has a big greenhouse with near-vertical side glass and a rear window that will actually allow you to see the grille of the car behind you. It also has a curved windshield so you can see around the A-pillars, and an engine compartment so big, you can see the ground under the car. The ignition key goes into the dashboard, and the shifting mechanism is some kind of lever attached to the steering column, and there's a one piece seat that allows three people to sit in the front. I wonder if something like that would sell?
I figure that the first non-German small to medium turbodiesel hatchback or wagon will pick up all the buyers who would buy a VW tdi but are afraid of their reliability. I say this as a former Golf tdi and Audi A4 owner. I think Subaru's customers in particular would love a diesel Forester or Outback. The diesel engine would help make up for Subaru's poor fuel economy due to the AWD system's weight and drag.