Crossovers Will Take Over the World, And Here's Proof
Once they’re behind the wheel of an SUV or crossover, it seems drivers stop wanting anything else.
That’s the gist of a report by IHS Automotive, which found that SUVs and crossovers have the highest owner loyalty rates of any body style in the industry.
Once you go big (and boxy), you never go back.
The study, released today by the business information provider, shows that 63 percent of SUV/CUV owners who bought a new vehicle in the first quarter of 2016 purchased another SUV or CUV. The data was squeezed from 1.9 million consumer interactions.
IHS looked at 32 market segments, and the top three with the greatest increase in body loyalty were CUVs. The eight segments where likelihood of purchasing the same bodystyle were highest were, again, SUVs or CUVs.
Luxury full-size SUVs topped them all, with 70.3 percent of owners deciding to purchase another luxo barge.
Unless something bizarre occurs, growth of the already red-hot market segment will continue for the foreseeable future. The results will light an even bigger fire under automakers and their marketing teams to lure ever more customers into utility vehicles.
Should trunks just go away now, or is there still hope for conventional cars? Well, the IHS data shows some love for the three-boxer, but not much.
Conventional car owners had a loyalty rate of 53 percent, less than one percentage point above the industry average.
In the past five years, SUV/CUV registrations have gone from 35.2 percent of new vehicle registrations to 41.8 percent in the past quarter. Meanwhile, cars took a dive, going from 48.7 percent of new registrations to just 40.9 percent.
Will rebounding oil prices stop the flood of cargo haulers on our roadways? Don’t bet on it.
“The high loyalty rates for SUVs and CUVs lend credence to the current shift from passenger cars to utility vehicles,” said Christopher Hopson, manager of North America light vehicle sales forecast at IHS Automotive. “We expect this shift to be sustained, even when fuel prices are expected to rise back above USD $3.00/gallon by 2020.”
Looks like the federal government was wrong — the crossover is now the strongest drug on our streets.
[Image: Honda Motor Company]
More by Steph Willems
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If the manufacturers would put an additional ten inches of trunk behind the rear glass of their four door sedans, so that the had a larger, more useful trunk, many people would begin making the shift back to sedans. Most of the short bobbed tail ends of sedans and coupes today have such a narrow trunk opening (front to back) that large suitcases, boxes holding anything of even moderate size will not fit through the opening. I've lost count of the number of times I seen people outside of stores trying to figure out how they could fit newly purchased items into their trunk/ back seat to get it home. I've even seen people opening the carton and taking the new product out of the box and all of the protective packaging to try to somehow fit it into their car! Car today have lost their proportion, front to back. They all look nose heavy. People buy SUVs and CUVs out of frustration over not being able to fit anything into the trunks of their cars. It's not just about the cubic feet of space in the trunk; the dimension of the opening is what is wrong with virtually all cars. Sadly, it's the only styling model today's designers know. If you look at all of the classic cars of yesteryear, much of their beauty was in their proportion and balance from bumper to bumper. This is obvious if you attend a Concours event like Pebble Beach, Amelia Island, Pinehurst, etc. The practicality of cars has disappeared. Not usable trunk, no practical bumpers. Body color plastic bumpers that involve expensive body and paint shop repairs for even the most minor scrapes don't make sense. I guess I'm just an old foggy, but until and unless car designers change their ideas of what a "car" should look like, SUVs and CuVs will inevitably continue to take over the world!
I’ve driven two crossovers, a 2015 Hyundai Tucson and a 2016 Lexus NX and only have utter contempt for the breed. These things are just too compromised in every way. The Lexus in particular was cramped and the suspension was schizophrenic (raised up high, but sports-car hard, no compliance). I have really liked full-size SUVs like the Tahoe and Expedition; they seem more honest in their purpose and function. For me, bring back the station wagon.