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Hugh Foran shows a Mercury Mariner SUV to Tanya Carmack, her son Brenden, 3, and her mom, Gail Heino. Mercury and others are shifting resources to light trucks and crossovers.Land yachts go the way of tailfins
Sales of big sedans fall 25 percent in '04 as SUVs, and now crossovers, take over.
Large cars like the Lincoln Town Car are fading fast from the automotive scene.; Davidson
Full-size cars fading
U.S. demand for big sedans has dropped from 1 million units as recently as 1990 to 379,000 by 2004. If you are a former full-size car owner, when and why did you switch to a different kind of vehicle?
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Before the minivan or SUV, big, roomy, powerful sedans and wagons plied the nation's roads by the millions, hauling families with room inside to spare and a trunk big enough to carry, well, a trunk.
With names like Buick Roadmaster, Chevrolet Caprice, Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser, and Lincoln Continental, they were proof-positive of the nation's newfound post-World War II wealth. The fuse was lit on the baby boom as young, growing families needed big cars to drive to grandma's house, on a vacation or to the drive-in movie.
But the large car -- often a rear-wheel drive sedan powered by a V-8 engine -- is fading fast from the automotive scene, a victim of changing family needs, demographic shifts and even tougher fuel economy requirements.
Demand for big cars routinely topped 1 million units annually, even as recently as 1990, but sales have steadily dropped, falling 25 percent in 2004 to 379,000, even with breakout success of the new Chrysler 300 sedan.
"The six-passenger car is dead," said Gordon Wangers, chief executive of AMCI, a Marina del Ray, Calif., firm that provides consumer clinics for automakers.
"The days of the front-bench seat are officially over as automakers find clever new ways to package the same amount of space in a smaller vehicle."
Even with the success of the Chrysler 300C, the introduction of the Ford Five Hundred, and the resurgence of Cadillac, the sun has set on the full-size sedan's days as America's favorite family hauler.
The large car lineup at General Motors Corp., the industry's leading purveyor of boat-size coupes, sedans and wagons will shrink again when the Buick Lucerne goes on sale this fall and replaces two large cars in Buick's stable -- the LeSabre and Park Avenue. GM also is killing the Pontiac Bonneville.
Last summer, the Marauder, a high-performance version of the Grand Marquis, was dropped by Mercury.
And when Toyota Motor Co.p. redesigned the 2006 Avalon -- its largest passenger car -- it dropped the optional front bench seat that allowed room for six passengers.
"There just isn't enough investment and not enough players penetrating that market," said Joe Barker, a product analyst with Farmington Hills consultants CSM Worldwide Inc.
Buick, Mercury and Cadillac -- once synonymous with large cars -- are shifting their resources to light trucks and crossovers. And in addition to dropping large cars, GM is reducing its investments in new models.
The full-size Lucerne and redesigned Cadillac DTS, introduced by GM at the Chicago Auto Show this week, are evolutions of an existing vehicle platform -- a less expensive alternative to engineering a new platform.
"I don't think (the large car market) will grow beyond where it is today," said Gary Cowger, president of GM North America.
For now, automakers are relying on loyal full-size car customers like Bob Meigs, a 52-year-old Costa Mesa, Calif., executive. He only drives big cars and refuses to commute in his wife's Toyota Sequoia SUV. His current ride is a 2004 Volkswagen Phaeton.
"I prefer to drive closer to the ground," Meigs said. "Look at the fit and finish of that car -- you're in a different world. SUVs should go the way of the dodo."
Analysts say the customer base for full-size cars will fade long before the SUV shrinks from the scene.
"The older demographic that wants a larger car with a lot of power that's really smooth is a shrinking market now with the advent of crossover vehicles, etcetera, with so much more utility," said Mike Chung, pricing and marketing analyst with Internet vehicle research and buying guide Edmunds.com.
Automakers aren't blind to the shift away from large cars and are incorporating some of their utilitarian features, namely space, on other models.
"We're taking the functionality you get in those bigger vehicles and bringing them into cars," said Elena Ford, director of product marketing for Ford, Lincoln and Mercury.
The Five Hundred's rear seats are slightly higher than the front row, giving backseat passengers added visibility, an attractive attribute of SUVs and minivans.
While the added utility may help attract new customers, those features are packaged in passenger cars, rather than taller SUVs or crossovers, to help retain the core full-size car customer.
"We don't always age as gracefully as we should," said Peter Horbury, executive director of North American design for Ford. "To be able to walk in and out is a great feature that a lot of our customers appreciate."
Joe Eberhardt, executive vice president of global sales and marketing for Chrysler, discounts predictions that consumers have largely abandoned full-size cars. Indeed, Chrysler has the hottest large car on the market today with the bulky 300C.
"We have proven if you have a product that is competitive, they will come back to you," Eberhardt said, adding 300C customers are well distributed among every age group.
Even as the traditional large car is fading, automakers are redefining the segment. Cars like the Ford Five Hundred, Chrysler 300C, and Toyota Avalon, which are really large mid-size cars, are being marketed as full-size. They also offer the best hope for automakers looking to attract younger buyers.
"The 300C, internally, has as much room as any of those cars in width and front and rear seat room," said Trevor Creed, senior vice president of design at DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group. "Therefore, why would you want to make a car that's even bigger?"
J.D. Power and Associates analyst Jeff Brodoski said the market for so-called large premium mid-size vehicles is about 1.5 million units. It's been growing recently by a little over 2 percent a year and is expected to grow 4 percent to 5 percent this year.
"Consumers are getting tired of some of the traditional SUVs, but not tired of the crossovers," Brodoski said.
Then there's Cecil Davidson, a 71-year-old retired electronics engineer from Houston. He drives the full-size 2005 Mercedes-Benz E320 CDI because of its comfort, style and performance, and because it's a luxury he feels he earned.
"I don't live to pass on a large sum of money to my kid or somebody else," Davidson said. "I wanted a Mercedes, and that's what I bought."
Detroit News Staff Writers Brett Clanton and Eric Mayne contributed to this report. You can reach Ed Garsten at (313) 223-3217 or egarsten@detnews.com.
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The Detroit News.
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