[Joshinator99]

Originally Posted by Martinjlm

One thing that gets lost in this mix is the impact of fuel economy curves. In negotiating the rule making for Car CAFE and Truck CAFE the Detroit 3 were very successfully in negotiating different fuel economy curves for the Car Fleet and the Truck Fleet. The curves for both Car and Truck are based on “shadow area” which can be most easily defined as the area bordered by the tire patches. Readers Digest version is that the Detroit 3 got the regulators to agree that due to rules of physics that cannot be violated, where a Truck and a Car have the same footprint area, the Truck will require more energy to operate than the Car. And therefore, the Truck should have a less stringent fuel economy target than the Car. Remember, this is the Readers Digest version. There’s a lot more involved here. So…If you have a Malibu and an Equinox that have roughly the same “shadow area”, the Equinox will have an easier fuel economy target to hit than the Malibu. And the Equinox has a better profit margin per vehicle sold. So, if you’re GM do you ant to build and sell more Malibu or more Equinox? The choice is clear. This is part of the reason why sedans are dropping out of brand portfolios and utilities are breeding like rabbits. From th manufacturer side. From the consumer side, the utility configuration is far more usable than the sedan. Sedans ma be more stylish (and coupes even more so) but at the end of the day, consumers are purchasing more utilities because they are more useful than similar sized sedans.

Well said and good explanation. I’m perfectly happy to roast GM when needed, but it’s pretty understandable why they did it. And if we’re being fair, Ford pulled the plug on sedans much sooner than GM did. GM rode it out for a bit longer but the writing is on the wall. The government is simply putting the manufacturers in an unenviable position.