Sedans failed to die in 2019
Sedans were supposed to be a dying breed in American showrooms, but like minivans, they just keep on keeping on.
Toyota sold well over 600,000 Camrys and Corollas (combined), GM sold over 140,000 Malibus, and Dodge sold nearly a hundred thousand Chargers—two hundred thousand of their big cars, if you throw in the 300 and Challenger. At Honda, the Civic held its own, with 325,650 sales, and the Accord, while falling behind somewhat, still beat a quarter-million sales.
Rendering: the Chrysler 300 could come back as a crossover
Smaller cars were a different story for 2019; with gasoline prices low, people didn’t seem to see any need for Minis, Fiats, Fits, and such. Big cars, though sold quite well. Now, with Peugeot coming to play in North America through its new brothers at Chrysler, it looks like sedans and coupes might be here to stay for a while. One buyer mentioned a reason why: “SUVs are for old people. Young people don’t want what old people want.” That might not be true for all young people, since they seem to be buying RAV4s (400,000 of them), Jeeps, and such, but perhaps there will always be enough contrarians to keep good cars afloat.
GM is talking about dropping the Impala and there are rumors of Chrysler ending the 300, which makes sense; neither sold over 40,000 in the last year, as big car people opt for Chargers or crossovers. But the midsize and large-compact car markets are still very competitive and don’t show any signs of leaving us.
Clark Westfield grew up fixing up and driving past-their-prime American cars, including various GM and Mopar V8s. He has ghostwritten auto news for the last few years, lives in Farmingdale, New York, and can be reached at +1.516-531-4021.