There’s quite a few gas powered sedans remaining in the US market , but none from American manufacturers. Why is this the case? How do companies like Toyota, Honda, and Mazda continue to offer-up gasoline powered sedans in the US market and (presumably) make a healthy profit, but the American companies can’t do it?
Such BS. As long as there is the big 3, there will always be ICE’s
Dropping sedans, IMHO, is short sighted. If the demand shifts from SUVs back to sedans, Ford and GM will be caught with nothing to sell for 4 to 5 years. The rest of the industry that still builds sedans will ramp up production and take sales away from GM and Ford.
The EV issue is a seperate one as SUVs or sedans can be electric. As Ford points out, you can’t force buyers to choose EVs.
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Mustangman is correct, only American sedan left are those offered by Cadillac.
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A friend just bought a Caddy CT4 Blackwing. Really nice sedan.
His wife has an VW Tiguan small SUV, the first I remember them having. My wife has never had anything but coupes and sedans and doesn’t want an SUV.
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They’ve been trying unsuccessfully for decades. US companies put next quarter profits above everything else. Their short sightedness has been their downfall. The profit margin for sedans is far lower then SUV’s or trucks. And when you have reliability issues on those vehicles become a loss. SUV’s and trucks can have the same reliability problems. But since the profit margin is higher they can absorb some of it and still make decent profit.
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It they can’t make money, why bother?
The increasing EPA fuel economy penalty has made the traditional American sedan unprofitable. To reach the EPA fuel economy goal it is necessary for vehicle manufactures to sell a significant number of hybrid or electric cars.
Non-hybrid sedans are being phased out, in a few months all Toyota Camry production will have hybrid powertrains.
The Mazda 3 is the only remaining sedan, the midsized offering was discontinued 3 years ago. Mazda has no hybrid sedans, they plan to offer a compression-ignition engine in the 2025 Mazda 3.
A gasoline compression ignition engine?
Yes, they’ve been working on it for years, I’ll believe it when I see it.
As for the Malibu, it’s #74 on the list of vehicles ranked by domestic content, not especially “American”:
2023 Cars.com American-Made Index: Which Cars Are the Most American? | Cars.com
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The point is - they CAN. But they’ll have to take a loss for a few quarters or even years. They are unwilling to do that.
I’m skeptical. The latest generation started in 2016 and sales have dropped throughout the ensuing years despite good reviews from testers. If they can’t sell them, why not spend development money on vehicles that people want to buy?
| Year | Sales |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 97,061 |
| 2022 | 115,468 |
| 2021 | 39,376 |
| 2020 | 102,651 |
| 2019 | 131,917 |
| 2018 | 144,542 |
| 2017 | 185,857 |
| 2016 | 227,881 |
| 2015 | 194,854 |
| 2014 | 188,519 |
| 2013 | 200,594 |
| 2012 | 230,938 |
| 2011 | 204,808 |
| 2010 | 198,800 |
| 2009 | 161,574 |
| 2008 | 178,964 |
| 2007 | 144,096 |
| 2006 | 197,966 |
| 2005 | 237,065 |
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Which is exactly what they did. They spent it on SUVs and pickups.
Considering the Malibu is actually a decent car, GM could have just left it alone. With essentially no R&D costs, the break-even point would reduce quite a bit. Maybe even as low as 80K cars a year.
Of course they may need to transition to GMs new Global B electrical architecture so that R&D cost might have been the cause of the axe.
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It’s a chicken and the egg. Reliability problems with the car is one of the major factors of lower sales. So you either just give up (which GM is doing)…OR…you spend the time and money into making a more reliable vehicle that people will want to buy.
Consumer Reports rates the Malibu as average reliability. Based on the last explanation I saw, that means the expected failure rate is 2%-3%. That’s still not bad. Good enough that maintenance costs will likely be far higher than repair costs. Anyway, they aren’t in the business of meeting everyone’s needs anymore. It looks like Chevrolet will be an SUV and truck division.
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They’ve had some MAJOR engine issues that keep cropping up.
And their ergonomics is horrible. I rented one once. In order for me to be comfortable I had to have the seat all the way back. But in that seat position the pillar between the front and back interfered with me exiting the vehicle. I guess if you’re under 5’10 it might be comfortable. But not at 6’3.
A friend had one as a rental during the current generation. I rode shotgun and it was comfortable, although we didn’t ride very far. Certainly comfort is paramount. Your problem with the Malibu dirver’s seat is like mine with the Camry and Avalon. They can’t please everyone. Anyway, you’re going to buy a Lexus when your wife wants another car. From what you say she is well pleased with the ES she has now.
Don’t know what we’re going to buy when she wants to get a new car. Her 07 ES is running PERFECT. She loves the car. She did ride in a co-workers new Crown and really loved it. We’ll see.
I think many people are like us that want hatchback vehicles rather than traditional sedans . A friend just bought a new sedan and has already found out that he can’t take all the stuff he used to take on his trips to Florida.
The way that I like to think of it, a hatchback/crossover/suv can do everything that a sedan can do, but a sedan can’t do many of the things that those other vehicles can do.
I’m always fascinated by the sight of people trying to fit a large TV (or other large object) into the trunk of a sedan, and failing miserably. Just a minute or so of measuring–prior to purchase–could have prevented that situation.