The shockingly-small number of traditional car models still produced by America's big three manufacturers - as Ford CEO fears they may have gone too far with SUV and truck lineups READ MORE: Mechanic shares the six 'bulletproof' secondhand cars to buy By James Cirrone For Dailymail.Com Published: 15:58, 22 July 2024 | Updated: 16:10, 22 July 2024 e-mail View comments They were once the bastion of classic cars like the Corvette, the Mustang and the Chrysler 300. But today the 'Big Three' American automakers - General Motors, Ford and Chrysler - make few car models other than SUVs and giant pickup trucks.
A recent report by the Boston Globe claimed the three manufacturers only make eight actual cars. However, analysis by DailyMail.com found there were 13.
Across the dozens of vehicles they make, sedans make up a tiny percentage. And most of those sedans are high performance muscle cars that aren't practical for the average person or family. Ford's only sedan in production is the Mustang, while Chrysler discontinued production of the Chrysler 300, its only remaining large sedan, in 2023.
GM, which owns Chevrolet, Buick and Cadillac, manufactures 11 small cars, but again, most of them are built with horsepower or luxury in mind, not practicality. The Chevy Camaro, the Corvette and the Cadillac CT4 dominate GM's car lineup. Pictured: A 1969 yellow classic Ford Mustang American car Pictured: A 2023 Ford Mach-E Mustang.
This is the first electric SUV version of the Mustang that first went on sale in December 2020. Regular gas-powered Mustangs are a key part of Ford's lineup Read More Why nearly half of EV owners want to switch back to gas vehicles Out of the big three, it appears the only remaining non-luxury, non-sports car that's still churning out new models every year is the Chevy Malibu. Ford CEO Jim Farley acknowledges the problem - the fact that American car makers like his own have essentially ceded sedan sales over to Asian manufacturers like Toyota and Honda.
The Toyota Camry is the best-selling sedan in the US by far this year, with the Honda Civic close behind, according to Kelley Blue Book data . There simply is no American-made sedan that comes anywhere near that level of dominance. 'We have to start to get back in love with smaller vehicles.
It's super important for our society and for EV adoption,' Farley told the Globe. Of course, there's a reason why American automakers have spent the last ten years or so ditching small cars for 'monster vehicles,' as Farley puts it. Ford's F-Series pickup trucks have been America's best-selling vehicle for decades and remains the most popular even to this day.
A modified white Ford F-250 pictured in January 2020. This truck is among the best selling vehicle lineup in the US The Chevy Silverado 1500, pictured, is the second most popular car in the US The Jeep Grand Cherokee is one of the most successful American-made SUVs with US consumers Similarly, a 2024 analysis by iSeeCars found that SUVs - or Sport Utility Vehicles - are the dominant mode of transportation in 48 out of 50 states, with California and Hawaii being the only places where drivers prefer smaller cars. That's likely because California and Hawaii have some of the highest gas prices in the country, and traditionally, the most fuel efficient cars are sedans.
Bigger vehicles didn't always have a stranglehold on the market like this. In 2012, GM, Ford and Chrysler brought in a roughly equal amount of cash from cars and trucks, according to industry watcher AutoPacific. By around 2014 or 2015, the writing was on the wall that governments around the world would eventually impose stricter caps on emissions to deal with climate change.
Nearly every nation on Earth committed to the Paris Climate Agreement in 2016. The car industry's response to this was to sell as many vehicles with internal combustion engines as they could before the crackdown began. Then the pandemic struck in 2020, bringing supply chains to a screeching halt.
This was a problem for car makers because as vehicles get more sophisticated and computerized, they need semiconductor chips, which were in radically short supply at the time. The Chevy Malibu is the only remaining non-luxury, non-sports car made by any one of the big three US auto manufacturer The Toyota Camry, pictured, is the best-selling sedan in the US by far this year, dominating the market over the shrinking number of American-made sedans Ed Kim from AutoPacific told the Globe that car companies focused even more heavily on the big vehicles in their lineup because it made them the most money. 'If you are an automaker and you’ve got a limited supply of chips and parts, if you are only going to make so many vehicles, you are going to prioritize the most profitable models,' he said.
However, with the advent of Tesla becoming one of the most highly valued companies in the world during the 2021 electric vehicle craze, some American car makers attempted a pivot. GM was one, announcing in January 2021 that it would electrify its entire lineup by 2035. It even aired a Super Bowl ad that year featuring Will Ferrell that challenged Norway's EV dominance.
But when it became clear in late 2023 that the market wasn't quite ready to completely shift over to EVs , GM abandoned its goal of producing 400,000 electric cars by mid-2024, The Wall Street Journal reported. So, the company ran back into the arms of its cash cow, the gas-powered light truck. This paid off, with the Chevy Silverado and the GMC Sierra remaining some of the best-selling cars in the US.
A 2024 Chevrolet Silverado electric pick-up truck at the 2023 Chicago Auto Show Although the shift from compact cars to trucks has been profitable, its had a huge impact on the environment and infrastructure. The Environmental Protection Agency said the transportation sector - which includes all types of cars - accounted for largest percentage of human-contributed green house gas emissions in 2022. Passenger cars and light duty vehicles like SUVs and light trucks made up 57 percent of emissions, while medium and heavy-duty trucks alone represented 23 percent.
Heavier duty trucks emit more planet-warming gases than trains, ships, and planes combined. And SUVs were found to be the second largest contributor to increases in emissions over the years of 2010 to 2018 , the exact years this type of vehicle began to dominate the roads. Beyond the environmental impact of larger cars, the country's roads, bridges and parking lots haven't been able to keep up with growing vehicle sizes.
Transport & Environment, a European advocacy group, estimates that vehicles are getting wider by roughly four-tenths of an inch every year . A modified Chevy Silverado barely fitting in a parking lot and dwarfing the sedans next to it This regular Ford F-150 still struggles to fit inside a parking space in an underground garage This is wreaking havoc in Europe where half of vehicles sold are now wider than the government-set parking space, something agreed upon in the 1990s when the average car was much smaller. But even the US, whose citizens have long had a penchant for big vehicles, it is common to see a pickup truck failing to fit within the white lines of a parking spot.
Plus, heavy trucks contribute to the wear and tear of roads and bridges. The average pickup is 5,000 to 7,000 pounds, whereas the average car is just 4,300 pounds, according to the EPA. 'We are just in love with these monster vehicles, and I love them, too, but it’s a major issue with weight,' Farley said.
Despite the myriad problems with SUVs and trucks, there is no indication that demand is slowing down even a little bit. SUVs are perceived as safer than sedans, with plenty of studies to back that up . Plus, many drivers like the greater storage space they afford along with the higher view of the road.
And the numbers don't lie: pickup trucks and SUVs are four of the five best-selling vehicles in the US. Share or comment on this article: The shockingly-small number of traditional car models still produced by America's big three manufacturers - as Ford CEO fears they may have gone too far with SUV and truck lineups e-mail Add comment.
