Good Monday morning to you all, and welcome to another edition of The Morning… Something. Renaming TMD is TBD but it could happen by EOW, if not sooner. Or later. Anyway, today’s roundup of auto industry headlines includes the resilience of the mighty Honda Accord, updates on Nissan and Renault’s marriage counseling, news about Toyota’s global dominance and a look at Tesla’s repair costs. Let’s dig in.
You Have To Get Up Very Early In The Morning If You Want To Kill The Honda Accord
Back at The Old Site, we used to call it the Sedanocalypse: the rapid erosion of the four-door sedan market as buyers flocked to crossovers, SUVs and trucks, and automakers couldn’t be more thrilled to accommodate them. After all, the car business is one of margins, and all of those larger vehicles command higher prices than sedans and small cars at generally the same cost of production. (How do you think all these car companies plan to finance their big battery EV plans? Through truck and SUV sales.)
While sedans have fared somewhat better in the luxury arena—stuff like the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes E-Class always do fine, especially globally, and the Tesla Model 3 is a powerhouse—they’ve all but evaporated from the more mainstream brands. Ford doesn’t even make them anymore. I had to check to make sure Chevrolet still makes the Malibu (it does!) The Japanese and Korean brands have kept the fire burning, but sales still aren’t what they once were.
But there are sedans, and then there’s the Honda Accord. (The Toyota Camry too, obviously.) It’s still a power player, even if its sales have been down in recent years, either because of demand or supply chain issues, or both. It remains a massively important car for Honda and for the market as a while. And according to Automotive News, Honda’s dealers in the U.S. are still demanding the automaker keep the sedan party going:
[…] Woelfer expects inventory to move quickly in 2023, even as the automaker builds more vehicles. Honda has said it projects its sales to increase about 25 percent this year.
Honda’s move with the Accord was to take it a little more upmarket. The new-for-2023 Accord not only looks great, but it also offers turbocharged and hybrid powertrains and a ton of new tech like built-in Google Assistant, Google Maps and Google Play. The last Accord was great; this new one will be even better. If Honda’s dealers are right about demand being there, this thing could go down a lot harder than most other sedans in the world.
[Editor’s Note: I actually think sedans aren’t going anywhere. Sure, sure, crossover SUVs are absurdly popular — far more so than sedans — but as the world electrifies and consumers begin placing more and more importance on range figures, keeping Vehicle Demand Energy Down will be key. That term, by the way, refers to the amount of energy needed to move a car down the road; if that’s high, then to get the same range as a vehicle with a significantly lower VDE, you need a bigger battery pack (or a much more efficient powertrain, which is hard to do with an EV), and a bigger battery means more cost. So, it’s better to keep VDE down so a small battery can get you farther, and you know where sedans defeat SUVs quite handily? VDE. They’re lower and sleeker. Granted, SUVs have really gained ground through aerodynamic improvements, among other things, but every mile counts when infrastructure sucks and charge times are slow. -DT].
Nissan And Renault Are Working On It
When my sister got married a few years ago, the toast I offered at her wedding implored her and her new husband not to try to have a perfect marriage. That’s because there’s no such thing; it doesn’t exist. Marriages are made of people, and people aren’t perfect. It only holds up when the parties involved work at being better and growing together over time.
It seems like those crazy kids Nissan and Renault might actually make it, and for that, we’re extremely happy for them. After years of infighting—including the humiliating Carlos Ghosn scandal—the two partners in this alliance are restructuring their deal to be more on equal footing.
This is a complicated story that involves a lot of moving parts, including the aforementioned Ghosn thing, the heavy involvement of the French government in partly-nationalized Renault, their different strengths in different markets, and the Japanese executives at Nissan never really loving the fact that some shots were called by foreigners part of a technically smaller company. (I don’t know where Mitsubishi nets out in this marriage analogy; maybe they have a girlfriend? Maybe it’s an open-ish thing? Hey, whatever works as long as nobody’s getting hurt.) Here’s Reuters on the latest update in terms:
The deal, still subject to board approvals, will see Renault reduce its stake in Nissan to 15% from around 43%, it said. That will see Renault put around 28% of the Japanese automaker in a French trust, crucially making the two more equal partners.
Their unequal relationship had long been a source of friction among Nissan executives. While Renault bailed out Nissan two decades ago, it is the smaller automaker by sales.
The future shape of the Franco-Japanese alliance has implications for both companies as well as the global auto industry. It also highlights how the immense technological upheaval in the auto industry is forcing companies to both partner and compete with a dizzying number of newcomers and tech firms.
Why does any of this matter beyond complicated deals around shares? It’s starting to more and more as both of these global automotive giants figure out the future-technology-mobility stuff, which involves yet more complicated deals and tie-ups:
Renault, for instance, has said it will partner with companies from China’s Geely Automobile Holdings to semiconductor giant Qualcomm Inc.
The French company is separately working to finalise a deal with Geely and to bring Saudi Arabian state oil producer Aramco in as an investor and partner to develop gasoline engines and hybrid technologies, Reuters has reported.
Anyway, I wish them all the best. Including Mitsubishi. I hope she doesn’t get hurt in this whole thing. She’s been through enough already.
I Told You Toyota’s Back, Baby
Say this about Akio Toyoda: He’s hardly leaving the place in a state of chaos and disrepair after he bounces from the CEO’s office for good, presumably to spend his time at track days. At least, that’s what I hope for him. But Toyota’s sales numbers for 2022 are in, and the Japanese automaker is once again the biggest car company in the world.
Reuters reports Toyota moved 10.5 million cars globally in 2022, marking its third straight year in a row as the world’s best-seller. That’s incredibly impressive, given the chip shortage, supply and production issues, skyrocketing prices and an uncertain global economy.
Meanwhile, the Volkswagen Group—the top spot is usually occupied by one of those two companies—had its lowest sales in over a decade, Reuters reports, at 8.3 million cars, implying VW couldn’t navigate those issues (and the war in Ukraine) as well as Toyota did.
Tesla Wants To Cut Repair Costs
EVs are generally cheaper to own and fix than their ICE counterparts. You have a battery, the body, the interior, some motors, brakes, suspension parts, electronics and… well, you get the idea. Fewer moving parts here, literally.
But the costs to repair a Tesla are high, leading to high insurance costs, Reuters reports. There are apparently tons of written-off Model Ys out there with fewer than 10,000 miles on the odometer that insurers just didn’t want to deal with. (Side note: That means more Tesla batteries and motors for EV swaps, so hit up Copart if you want to electrify a vintage 911 or something.)
Insurance carriers, meanwhile, are writing off low-mileage Tesla Model Ys that have been in crashes, and sending them to salvage auctions after deeming many too expensive to repair.
During Tesla’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, Musk said premiums from third-party insurance companies “in some cases were unreasonably high” and that the EV maker’s insurance arm was putting pressure on those carriers by offering lower rates to Tesla owners.
Musk also said “we want to minimize the cost of repairing a Tesla if it’s in a collision,” citing changes to vehicle design and software.
“It’s remarkable how small changes in the design of the bumper (and) providing spare parts needed for collision repair have an enormous effect on the repair cost,” he said. “Most accidents are actually small — a broken fender or scratched side of the car.”
This is part of why Tesla launched its own insurance arm, and it’s a rapidly growing business. But it may also be why Tesla’s supposedly working on an updated Model 3: to bring down costs and, I’d assume, repair costs as well.
You know, another thing Tesla could do to fix this problem is to make a version of Autopilot that won’t crash into a fucking Arby’s after just three months of ownership. Just sayin’.
The Flush
Sedans: Do you own one? Will you only buy them? What are they good for when trucks, SUVs and crossovers do provide more utility in a lot of cases?
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Own a sedan- a 2017 accord EXL V6. I’ve had a few before this- svt contour, 2.4 accord, grand prix with the full bar front light, ltd crown victoria… I like them. Nobody knows what’s in the trunk. For the crown vic, how many bodies are in the trunk(it sat 6 legally, and 5 more college sophmores). Sedans fits 4 comfortably, and 5 fine. Gas mileage has always broken epaulets estimates. My current accord, on snow tires, got 35mpg driving to Boston last week. I haven’t put on eco-rated tires, but if it’s anything like my old v6 coupe it will pull 37mpg with those. My sister has a crv, similarly equipped (fwd model). Knock off 7 or 8 mph, less comfortable rode, smaller backseat. Why would I want that over a sedan? But MJ, compare the bigger SUV! It’s a big sedan! We’ll then, knock off 10-15mpg. It’s not worth it. If I want 20mpg, I’ll drive my finances gladiator, not a soccer mobile with 19 cup holders and an overzealous upshift.
You will pry the steering wheel of whatever sedan I am driving at the time from my cold, dead hands. Fuck karen-mobiles and the causes of karen-mobiles
We still have a sedan, but it’s a 2008 STS and my son has it at college. We have a 3-row crossover, a 1/2 ton truck, and the MGB. We’ll likely be getting another car later this year to replace Acadia (which is going to another kid at college), but it’s probably going to be electric or PHEV. I’m leaning toward a Bolt EUV, which I guess is technically considered a crossover, but to me it’s a hatchback car.
My wife and I have never owned an SUV in our 28 years of marriage. We were strictly sedan buyers for the first 8 year preferring the handling, ride, and performance of sedans. Hobbies, acreage to maintain, and things to haul led me to move to a 1/2 ton truck which we are now on our 2nd one. With 2 kids, we road tripped extensively in mid-size sedans and never felt we were missing out on anything by not have a then-popular minivan or an SUV.
“Sedans: Do you own one? Will you only buy them? What are they good for when trucks, SUVs and crossovers do provide more utility in a lot of cases?”
Yes – we have a 2014 Cruze Diesel (sedan-only) and then my 2017 Volt which is a four-door, but has a hatch.
While trucks, SUVs and CUV’s have more space…how often am I needing the extra space? Practically never. And now I own something larger, harder to park, that cost more and uses more fuel. Doesn’t seem real useful to me.
Plus, you can fit an alarming amount of shit in my Volt (and even more in my brother’s 2018 Regal GS, which is a sportback – he’s fit an entire T56 Magnum swap in the car for his Mustang). And if I really need more space, I have friends with trucks – or can go rent one for dirt cheap.
As XKCD says, every day ~10,000 people learn a new fact! Sometimes is something glorious, something numinous, more often it is something mundane and kind of boring. Often, unfortunately, its something that you should have known prior to having to learn about it.
And sometimes, sometimes its something that makes everyone around you go “No shit, Sherlock” and has everyone around you looking at you like you’re an idiot.
Apparently, Musk stumbled onto the last one with this:
“It’s remarkable how small changes in the design of the bumper (and) providing spare parts needed for collision repair have an enormous effect on the repair cost,” he said. “Most accidents are actually small — a broken fender or scratched side of the car.”
:Letterkenny-f’ing-idiot-montage.gif:
Glad I saw this, you said it better than I was about to.
The lack of spare parts for Teslas has baffled me. My understanding was that automakers were required to maintain an anticipated 7 years of parts for their vehicles, but stories abound of people waiting *months* for relatively simple/common parts for their Teslas.
The bit about Tesla offering cheaper insurance because they don’t think it should be that expensive also amazes me. Insurance companies all compete on price, and they know a great deal about how much it costs to repair a vehicle after an incident. The insurance cost isn’t necessarily just parts and labor, but can include towing to an out-of-state Tesla repair center because they don’t have a local authorized shop, paying for a rental car for the duration of the repair that takes 9 months due to lack of parts, and other such shenanigans. So Tesla is either doing some funny bookkeeping, accepting a loss on their insurance arm, or prioritizing cars they insure for parts & repair.
The number of times this clown “discovers” some inherent dynamic of automotive design, testing, manufacturing, support, etc and spouts off about how he’s resolving a problem that’s been efficiently solved for decades makes me laugh hysterically (if only to keep from crying). That people take his announcements and “discoveries” at face value keeps me up some nights.
“Fewer moving parts here, literally.”
Yeah, but how many fewer moving parts? Gearbox will be missing a shaft, selector forks and 6 gear pairs maybe. The motor will be missing the con-rods, pistons, cams, valves and some bits of FEAD. Call it 9 parts per cylinder and another 20 parts per engine/gearbox.
Most of those parts last the life of the car, and aren’t service items (just the clutch and the cam drive need routine servicing, plus the oil).
Of the many ruinous costs my old BMW has hit me with none of them have had anything to do with the moving parts in the powertrain.
If your BMW is actually old (pre-2000), its engine is likely from before they started to make the cooling system out of plastic and the main bearings out of tinfoil. You were probably still lucky if you didn’t have issues with the valve seals and valve cover gasket made out of hopes and dreams.
I just sold my Tundra to one of my sons, and now we’ve just got the Fiat 500e and the Polestar 2, which is definitely sedan-ish. I know they’re both technically hatchbacks, but most importantly they are “not SUVs”. I prefer the sedan style over the crossover or SUV. Both of my cars have higher hip points due to the battery back, and it makes entry and exit much more comfortable for older folks like me.
I still have mental scars from sitting in my 2-door coupe, thinking “How come everything is suddenly a sedan now?”
Hang in there, sedans. Hang in there.
I recall the same feeling. “Why are these fire-breathing rally cars all 4-doors and not coupes?!”
Currently have a sedan, a 3 door hatch, and a minivan. It is not a hill I would die on, but I won’t buy a crossover. Sedans and coupes for me, van for the wife.
Today is the 103rd anniversary of the founding of Toyo Kogyo, better known as Mazda so light a candle in front of your Miata or assemble a shrine of apex seals to honor the day
The things one learns here – thank you! I was watching the Rolex 24 yesterday, and couldn’t help but be a little sad no more Mazda in the constantly-changed alphabet soup GTP class.
I have a sedan and would gladly purchase another one. I’m not in the market for a car for hopefully another 8 years but the Elantra Hybrid is something I have window shopped recently.
I had a CUV and it got worse MPG while providing almost zero extra utility. There was nothing my Tucson did that my Elantra can’t do. Especially if you’re talking about useful trunk space. A sedan usually has more space than a similarly sized CUV/SUV. My sister’s NX300 has less trunk space than my Elantra and they’re almost the same length and width. I can fit a mountain bike (front tire removed) into my car with the rear seats folded down. I couldn’t even imagine doing that in her car. When family comes to visit my car is the pickup vehicle because the luggage fits in the trunk unlike her car with the sloping rear roofline.
The Accord and Camry are the go-to recommendations if you just want a good car. For that reason, they will stick around.
Mistubishi should import cheap Renaults/Dacias and rebadge them.
Mitsubishi Kwid
Mitsubishi Sandero (to replace the Mirage)
Mitsubishi Duster
Mitsubishi Lancer (could be a rebadged Megane), and the RS could be an Evo XI, while the GT could be a Ralliart
Nissan should also captive import some Renaults, especially their commercial vans
Nissan Kangoo
Nissan Trafic
Nissan Master (could also be called NVx500 if Chrysler complains it’s too clsoe to Promaster)
Nissan Logan (to replace the Versa)
’10 Ford Focus sedan owner. With a manual. Love it as much as my Mustang, just for different reasons.
For urban types like myself a big sedan benefit is being able to carry the mobile version of your auto repair garage in your trunk without anyone knowing. Esp. if you keep the interior of the car clean and empty.
Underrated point here. A locking trunk is a huge deal for the many who park on the street.
I loved my Focus and also had a manual. It wasn’t thrilling or exotic, but I’ll be damned if it didn’t do 99% of what I needed in a vehicle without drinking my wallet dry at the pump. I had it for almost 15 years before trading it in.
I’d rather get a sedan than a Hatchback, but the last sedan I really liked was the AMC Eagle Sedan variant. Where I am now I’m getting ground clearance issues with all the snow in my 1994 Toyota pickup with 4WD and snow tires. So it’s currently not practical for me to buy any new sedan, nor is it practical for me to buy any new hatchback.
That being said I want a Fiat 500e. I want a small electric car I can get snow tires for and it would be the smallest electric car sold in the US and I can get snow tires for it. However ground clearance will still be an issue.
If I could get an X package for it with a 2″ lift so it had 7″ of ground clearance I’d be a lot more comfortable with getting one.
*it will be the smallest electric car currently sold in the US…
I live in Colorado and run Vredestein Quatrac all-seasons (severe snow-service rated) on my 2017 500e and it does just fine on snow and ice. The clearance hasn’t been a problem so far and with those tires it just cruises confidently over and through moderate snowpack on the roads. If you put dedicated snow tires on it, you’ll have no problems at all unless you try to take it off-road :-). I highly recommend getting one.
I live next to the Sierra Nevada mountain range and as much as I love the 500e I think it would have a hard time pushing through 1ft+ of snow, we’ve been getting tons of snow this year.
Also I should have clarified I’m referring to the new 500e that’ll apparently be coming to the US in 2024, so we’ll see how that thing does in the snow compared to the “old” 500e. My guess is the new one will have more nannies you cannot easily turn off.
Also the extra ground clearance would help with driving in the summer as well as the ramps you drive on when you go from public roads to parking lots are very inconsistent in my neck of the woods along with the speedbumps so with cars that have >7 inches of ground clearance it is usually pretty easy to scrape the underside of your car unless you’re going less than 5 mph. Ik someone with a 928 who turned it into an unintentional teeter totter on a speed bump here. I don’t ever want to do that to any car of mine.
I currently own a crossover…but the Kona N was a compromise with my wife. I wanted the Elantra N but she told me if I was going to switch cars prematurely in a shit market she’d rather I get the crossover than the sedan because it was “more practical”….to which I said fair enough. I’m honestly not even mad about it because the Elantra N is much more stylistically challenged, the extra ground clearance is handy on our dystopian DC roads, the Kona’s seats are way comfier, and hatchback best back.
However I still love sedans, damn it…and there’s a good chance that my next car is going to be an RS3, M340i, IS500, CT4V BW, etc. Sedans have inherently better driving characteristics than crossovers and the practicality difference is a wash in a lot of applications. I also think they look better…crossovers are really blobby and blend together after a while.
Hell I’d be interested in an Accord Type R if they were to ever make one so long as they gave it an automatic that doesn’t suck out loud. I even like the TLX Type S but it’s expensive, heavy, and its fuel economy is wretched compared to its competition. 22 MPG combined is hard to swallow when the B58 in the M340i gets you 27.5 and much faster acceleration for roughly the same money. But I digress.
Long live the sedan. There are dozens of us! DOZENS! That being said if the hatchback or wagon versions of any of the German sports sedans were sold here I’d probably go that route.
“Sedans: Do you own one? Will you only buy them? What are they good for when trucks, SUVs and crossovers do provide more utility in a lot of cases?”
Sedans provide one important benefit that makes for a nice ride: the wheel wells are not in the passenger compartment. Crossovers, hatches, SUVs, and wagons all give extra road noise from the unseparated cargo area.
That said, I do not own one currently, though I have owned sedans.
The ’23 Accord is visually more bland than a late model VW Jetta and that’s saying a lot.
I like it. Styled by adults for adults is increasingly rare. Although, from some angles the proportions are a bit odd. Not too much an issue for me.
My first car, a ’96 E36 328i was a sedan, ever since then I’ve only owned 2 door vehicles. As someone who rarely has a usage for back seats, I’m more upset by the death of the coupe than the death of the sedan. No one ever talks about the death of the coupe.
I mean MOST people rarely use their back seats, and even fewer of them actually put people back there and not just use them for storage of jackets, bags, or emotional support water bottles. Yet, everyone convinces themselves that they’ll need the back seat for their weekend grand off-roading camping trips with their friends and so we end up with a marketplace dominated by crewcab 4×4 pickup trucks with 4.5 ft beds.
As the owner of an emotional support water bottle, I feel SEEN.
To your main point: my partner drives a small/midsize crossover SUV and I drive a sedan. Our vehicles can take the same number of people and the same amount of stuff to the same (sometimes unpaved) places, but the SUV does a great job of consuming 15% more gas to get it done.
That’s why I drive an extended cab pickup with an 8′ bed. I have the coverd gear space and an occasional seat plus room to haul large objects.
The death of the sedan is the new death of the coupe. Over the 2000s/2010s coupes died off as manufacturers put more dev money to utility variants instead of coupes. Chrysler made the PT Cruiser instead of a 2nd gen Neon coupe, Toyota made the Venza instead of another Camry Solara, etc. Honda was the last real holdout for a non-premium, non-“sports” coupe.
All except my first car have been 4 doors, but not necessarily by choice – just availability. I would have probably gotten a 2-door GTI instead of 4 but it was dropped by 2018. That said, I’ve found I use the back seat as a cargo area more than I do the hatch, though I think if I did have the 2-door I’d have used the rear footwell just as much to slip in things behind the driver’s seat with the extra door length.
Well put. Isn’t it funny how the advertising back in the day of the sport coupe (the everyday real world version of the sports car) focused on the driving experience itself, whereas now, truck-of-most-sorts ads all focus on the destination or activity.
The philosopher Epicurus might say that ads tend to promise us something else other than the thing that’s actually being sold. It’s interesting how with SUV/crossover/truck ads have seemingly taken that to its logical conclusion.
Or maybe put another way, washing machine ads seldom emphasize the operation of the machine; rather, they show happy people with their clean clothes.
As a parent of two small humans, I use the backseat nearly every time I drive anywhere. I suspect most parents have similar constraints.
I have never really thought much about it but I just did a quick count and realized that the only 4 door vehicles I have owned were an XJ Cherokee and my current WRX (which is a company car so I don’t really own it). The rest of my cars/trucks have all been 2 door. My TJ’s rear seat spends 99% of its time in my garage because there is no cargo space with it installed.
Coupes aren’t dead, they just sprouted two extra doors and/or got lifted and plastic cladded. I call them the Omicron variant. 😉
Love me a coupe even if it’s not an outright sports coupe – it’s an opportunity to arrive at your destination in unmatched style. The body style can elevate something mundane and commonplace into rarified space.
Totally. It’s always been a fair signal that you’re not just into vehicles as an appliance, but rather someone who’s willing to forgo some utility for other more visceral things automotive.
In the twelve years I owned my Focus coupe, the back seat was used for the transport of human beings a grand total of three times.
I’ve said it before, eight of the nine cars I’ve owned have been two doors, and the only reason the ninth isn’t as well is I didn’t have the luxury of waiting for something I wanted. Of course I have vowed to one day own a car with zero doors to bring my lifetime doors per car average back down to where it should be.
I buy sedans because they generally have more useful room than SUVs. I have to put my seat all the way back, and on many mid-sized SUVs, that does not leave much legroom.
My wife has the mini (hah!) van covered with her Sienna, and that thing has a ton of space. So why buy an SUV to spend more on gas and have less usable room?
I’ve owned sedans before and I have no problem with them (despite preferring wagons, all other things equal). In fact, I’d be willing to own one again; I nearly pulled the trigger on an Accord Hybrid a few years ago. They fill a purpose as basic, no-frills transportation and are a perfectly cromulent solution to the question of getting around and doing stuff. But with all the hip replacements going on, though, I think the only way for sedans to claw back market share is a bona-fide recession where people really have to make a choice between what they NEED and what they WANT. Even still, there’s Kia Souls for the 50+ age group.
I’m just not a sedan person. After my WRX hatch got totaled I sat on the insurance check for over a year. Subaru didn’t make the hatch anymore and I just couldn’t get excited enough about the WRX sedan to spend that much money on one. So the insurance money sat in the bank and I drove the world’s most boring vehicle, a used Toyota Highlander. Eventually I spent that insurance money on a BRZ but not a day goes by that I don’t complain to anyone who will listen about how much I miss my WRX hatch.
Glad to hear the Accord will be around for awhile longer, while a truck or SUV provide utility when you need it, 99% of the time a sedan is all you need. Love my Accord on my 5th one (2018) and will probably be my next car too! Plenty of friends with a truck or SUV that I can borrow if I need one.
When the Accord and Camry pack it in and retire the nameplate, then you know it’s game over. Take your ball and go home.
I still own a sedan and have another one on order. I don’t own an SUV apart from my ’72 Blazer.
There’s nothing special to me about the form factor, GM (or anyone else for that matter) just won’t sell a V8/6 speed combo in anything else that fits child seats. If and when that changes, I won’t be nostalgic for a trunk, I’ll just buy an SUV.
This. I really wish Ford/GM would offer a V8 (hell I’d even settle for a boosted 6) and manual or a well calibrated version of their 10 speed in something that you could actually fit 4 people and/or child seats into. While I like both the current Mustang and Camaro platforms they’re just so compromised space wise. There’s really no excuse for cars that have roughly the same footprint as a full sized SUV to only be able to fit two people and only enough luggage for a weekend getaway.
Thus why the CT4-V BW is so appealing to me…it’s that same stellar platform but in a package that’s actually usable. I’m honestly surprised neither company ever tried to develop a Charger competitor. Doge sells those damn things in bunches and it’s not like they’re amazing cars…that platform is prehistoric at this point.
This is one of the reasons why I’m not as pissed about the rumors of a Camaro sedan as everyone else is. If there’s an LT1 or a detuned version of the BW’s supercharged 6 in it I’d be interested…so long as I can actually see out of it.
GM did develop a Charger competitor though, just not in North America. That’s the sedan I own. 3 kids across the backseat is no problem at all.
But didn’t we though in the form of the Chevy SS? Or do you have a Caprice?
I have an SS. It was sold here, just not developed here; my original post wasn’t very clear I guess.
Ah, my misreading of “did develop”….sorry.
And props to you for owning an SS. When they came out (To like zero fanfare. Wasn’t even GM’s NASCAR body for while, prior to the Camaro?), I was excited that we were seeing a new, cooler GM. We were…for like an automotive minute.
I have a sedan as a family long hauler. I do not by them exclusively, it is all about needs. I do plan to have one in the fleet.
Compared to SUVs and the like I have lockable trunk, lower to ground, better fuel economy, and ride.
I also have a Crosstrek for light dump runs and daily commutes. I am also looking a used work truck to for the heavy hauling/possible damage to do so.
Again, it all about your needs and what you can get. If you can get 2 vehicles then a sedan and SUV/Truck works. If only one, then the SUV is the compromise for 90% of needs.