SUVs losing ground to crossover vehicles
Stability, mileage, size lure buyers
After years of dominance, the SUV is about to be bumped as America's hottest vehicle.
The change can be attributed to millions of consumers like Derek and Melissa Gaultier. When the Easton couple recently decided to replace their minivan, they bought a ''crossover" instead of a sport-utility vehicle. Their 2006 Ford Freestyle combines features from several vehicle types: The all-wheel-drive capability of an SUV, the three rows of seats first made popular in minivans, and the stability of a car. It also offers better gas mileage.
Sales of such crossover models this year will for the first time surpass SUVs, say analysts inside and outside the automotive industry. George Pipas, US sales analysis manager for
Despite poor fuel economy, SUVs rode to popularity in the 1990s because of their ample seating, all-wheel drive, and a high -- if unstable -- ride. Tall vehicles improved visibility, but critics said they also gave drivers false security that led to more accidents.
But the love affair between consumers and SUVs is cooling. Sales, which climbed from 900,000 in 1990 and peaked at almost 3 million annually in 2000, will soon drop to 2 million, Pipas said. Meanwhile, sales of crossovers have risen dramatically from a half million in 2000 to 2.2 million last year and will reach 3 million before the end of the decade. There were 14 models of crossovers on the market five years ago, he said. By the end of this year there will be as many as 50.
The traditional SUV was built on a truck platform with a rigid ladder frame, and it rode like a truck. Some are still manufactured that way.
Crossovers are built on car platforms. They offer easy access because they are built low to the ground, which appeals to an aging Baby Boomer generation, but the seats themselves are often mounted high. They have plenty of room, and most come with all-wheel drive. And their fuel economy is far better than what is found in a traditional SUV, which often includes heavy and expensive off-road gear that most drivers never use, but pay for -- at the dealership and at the gas pump.
SUVs can get as few as 12 miles per gallon of gasoline, and top off at around 16 to 18 miles per gallon. Crossovers range from 18 to about 25 miles per gallon.
All of that adds up to a type of vehicle with many SUV qualities, but without the drawbacks.
Erich Merkle, director of forecasting for the automotive consulting firm IRN Inc., in Grand Rapids, Mich., said consumers no longer have a strong allegiance to SUVs, ''unless they have a specific purpose in mind" such as heavy towing or off-roading. Most buyers of traditional SUVs were not doing any of that -- just ''city driving, hauling kids," Merkle said.
Acura spokesman Scott Crail said those who insisted on sticking with traditional SUVs ''were really paying the price" for unused potential. The Honda/Acura brands have been leaders in developing crossovers and will soon launch a crossover called the RDX.
But saying goodbye to a traditional SUV does not mean giving up on capability because ''crossovers perform every bit as well as traditional SUVs in bad weather," Crail said.
Still, no one is predicting the imminent death of the SUV. Analysts said sales will likely level off at somewhere around 2 million annually.
Defining the crossover segment of the market can be tricky since many of the vehicles are still popularly regarded as SUVs. A
Priced from about $15,000 for a Chrysler PT Cruiser to $66,000 for a Mercedes-Benz R500, crossover models are being offered by virtually every automaker. The lineup runs from the retro styling of the PT Cruiser and Chevrolet HHR, to a middle range of wagon-like vehicles such as the Ford Freestyle, to futuristic-looking Mercedes-Benz R-class cars.
In all of their incarnations, the crossovers share ''functionality, ride, and handling," said Paul Ballew,
That, along with fuel economy, is what convinced the Gaultiers to buy their Ford Freestyle. ''It's unbelievable how much room it has," said Derek Gaultier.
Such rave reviews have put crossovers on the verge of becoming ''the biggest category in the industry for consumers," said General Motors' Ballew.
And, increasingly, hardcore SUV owners are part of a thinning crowd. That's why most people remain seated when Ford's Pipas asks an audience: ''Will the person who really needs a truck-based SUV please stand up?"
Royal Ford can be reached at ford@globe.com. 
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
