A glut of SUVs
nytimes.com
Last month, big S.U.V.'s and pickup trucks were among the vehicles that had the sharpest sales drops. The Ford Explorer was down 42 percent compared with April 2005. Sales of the Jeep Grand Cherokee declined 41 percent. Sales of Ford's top-selling F-Series pickup fell about 9 percent last month, as did sales of the Nissan Titan. The Chevrolet Colorado pickup was down almost 30 percent.
Gas prices aside, the decrease in sales of big S.U.V.'s may signal a realignment of the entire S.U.V. segment. Analysts said that with more auto companies building S.U.V.'s of all sizes and consumer tastes shifting toward smaller vehicles, the heyday of the big truck is over.
"I think all truck-based S.U.V.'s are on a downward path," George Pipas, Ford's chief sales analyst, said Tuesday. Noting the unabated decline of Ford's large S.U.V.'s, he said, "It's pretty eye-popping."
Since 2004, when the number of light truck sales, which include pickup trucks and S.U.V.'s, peaked at 55.7 percent of vehicle sales in the United States, the American love affair with large vehicles has cooled. Last year, light truck sales fell to 54.9 percent of the market, according to Autodata. For the first three months of this year, light truck sales were down even more, to 53.8 percent.
That complicates the fortunes of G.M. and Ford. Both companies have begun sweeping overhaul plans, which will eliminate a combined 60,000 jobs and close all or part of more than two dozen factories in North America. |
