Blaming CAFE is a very weak argument compared to the vastly more influential reason of changing consumer trends; what's selling and what's not. The dude said it himself before talking about how CAFE may play a part. Also, CAFE applies to light trucks too, just differently. To blame CAFE for killing off unpopular, low-selling sedans in CUV, SUV, and truck-obsessed America is just dumb. If this was the case, ALL companies would ditch small sedans and hatches. Instead, GM is simply doing what it's historically always done; copy Ford.redmed wrote:Once again CAFE standards influencing what vehicles are available to us.
Another reason everybody seems to forget is that companies charge more for CUVs hence they are more profitable for what is essentially a lifted version of a car. Go look at any CUV based on a particular sedan platform. They can have the same engine, transmission, and drivetrain yet the CUV will be thousands more than the sedan variant. Case in point: The base Subaru Impreza 5 door starts at roughly $19K meanwhile the base Subaru Crosstrek starts at roughly $22K. They are mechanically very similar and there is really not much difference other than styling for the $3000 difference. You can apply this to just about any sedan to CUV ranging from the Mazda2/Toyota iA vs. Mazda CX-3, Honda Fit vs. Honda HR-V, and many other CUVs ported from sedans. CUVs aren't only more popular, they start at a considerably higher price point despite a nominal difference in production costs which makes them more profitable.
The only vehicle I'm sad to see go is the Volt but I've wondered (even wrote about it here in the past) why GM didn't put the Voltec technology in a CUV instead of limiting it to a small sedan, especially in the second gen. I get it that it was an eco-car offering but small cars are already relatively fuel efficient. It would have been wiser to put it in a segment that sold more to boost fuel economy to make it even more attractive. I was expecting the new Equinox to have Voltec as an option yet when it was released, it was a diesel engine option that was offered... despite the VW dieselgate scandal preceding it. Meanwhile, Toyota is rolling in banknotes with the RAV4 and the hybrid version is selling well given it's actually the fastest and nicest version of the CUV, costing only $800 more than the gas version of the same trim.