size does matter but not how you’d think
February 8th, 2007Yesterday the nice old lady at the Maytag store grumbled under her breath “They just keep making refrigerators bigger and bigger. They have to to compete because that’s what people look at even if its not usuable space or the thing’s too big to go in their current kitchen. It’s like with cars – my garage hasn’t gotten any wider over the past 30 years but my car sure has!”
(Yes, she really did).
We’ve had the same complaint with cars for some time now – each generation has to be bigger than the last – it makes for an easier sales pitch.
The problem: cars that were perfectly sized for their intended purpose have gotten too big (e.g. BMW 3 and 5 series) and cars that were small and economical are now larger and less economical than they could be given technological advancements (e.g. Honda Civic).
The compact class has recently divided into two, with the Civic and Jetta moving upward to compete with their own big brothers, while the Cobalt and Focus remain more affordable and compact, with less emphasis on technology (The rest of the world gets the 2nd gen. Focus that the Volvo S40 and the Mazda 3 are based upon but Americans don’t. Ford’s rationale: the average small car buyer is more led by price than safety and refinement).
What that does is create a hole in the market, and with today’s structural engineering its now possible to combine small and safe like never before.
The MINI showed the world that buyers who can afford larger cars prefer small if they can get premium features like Xenons, naviation, stability control, leather, and more.
Perhaps its getting a new car for the same price as a used (albeit safer and more refined) one, or maybe it’s the soaring gas prices but it says a lot that Chevrolet is offering the Daewoo engineered and manufactured Aveo. It says even more that car magazine staffers don’t dismiss it).
No matter how ou slice it, it seems obvious Americans are more open to small cars that marketers were originally willing to admit. (They were wrong about hatches and cars like the WRX and EVO too). And here’s the thing: this time when gas prices go down I’m willing to bet we’ll stick with smaller cars.