As SUVs And Pickup Trucks Surge, Which Automakers Sell An Inordinate Number Of Cars?

Barely four out of every ten new vehicles sold in the United States in the first-half of 2016 were traditional passenger cars. Toyota Camrys, Honda Civics, Ford Mustangs, Mercedes-Benz C-Classes, and dozens of alternatives remain numerous — more than 3.5 million were sold in 2016’s first six months.

But together, these cars make up a smaller chunk of the market now than they did a year ago, and a far smaller slice of the market than just five years ago. Cars were at parity with light trucks (pickups, SUVs, crossovers, vans) in 2011 and earned 52 percent of the market the year prior.

In 2016, the market is far more open to the idea of a “SUV” or “crossover” that carries only a hint of SUV or crossover-like cues or capability, from subcompact utilities such as the Honda CR-V to performance-oriented luxury utilities like the Porsche Macan. These vehicles, using the HR-V and Macan as examples, aren’t purchased in 2016 by a customer who, five years ago, would have purchased a traditional utility vehicle.

Pickup trucks, too, have made great market share gains over the last five years. In 2011, 16 pickup truck nameplates combined to produce 14.2 percent of the auto industry’s U.S. volume. So far this year, 11 truck nameplates owned 14.8 percent of the market.

Even minivans and commercial vans, which claimed 6.3 percent of the U.S. market in the first-half of 2016 and 5.9 percent in 2011, are now a moderately more prominent force.

Blame (or give credit to) CAFE, blame (or give credit to) automakers’ collective response to consumer desires, blame (or give credit to) automakers’ ability to stoke the flames of all-wheel-drive desire, ride-height hunger and body-cladding cravings. American new vehicle buyers are buying and leasing fewer conventional cars.

The last time the market was remotely as large as it is now, 2006, 8.1 million traditional passenger cars were sold in the United States. 7.1 million is the more likely figure in 2016, and that drastic reduction occurs in a larger overall market.

Automakers criticized in the past for relying too heavily upon less-efficient light trucks would perhaps not be stung as severely if fuel prices were to spike in the latter half of 2016 or in 2017. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, for example, which produced 32 percent of its 2006 sales with cars, doesn’t have at the core of its Ram P/U lineup a 14-mpg 5.7L Hemi V8 as in 2006. That’s a 17-mpg truck now. Jeep’s best seller in 2006, in V6 4×4 form, was a 17-mpg Grand Cherokee. The optional V6 engine/4×4 trim in Jeep’s current Cherokee best seller, is rated at 23 mpg.

On the other hand, a far greater percentage of FCA’s sales in 2016 are generated by light trucks than the 32-percent figure from 2006, as the accompanying chart manifests.

The chart, of course, makes no judgements. There’s no suggestion that hedging against a fuel price spike is a profitable business model now, nor is there any guarantee that it will be in the future. Without high-volume crossovers, the Volkswagen Group’s namesake Volkswagen brand was suffering from declining U.S. sales long before the TDI scandal. Subaru, meanwhile, treads the true “crossover” playing field so capably in the United States that the passenger car figures (28 percent of the brand’s sales from Imprezas/WRXs, Legacys, BRZs) isn’t the most accurate portrayal of the brand’s status.

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar and on Facebook.