Not for everyone, but a (virtual) necessity for some
As General Motors Corp. files for bankruptcy and faces an uncertain future, it is easy to blame the company’s focus on SUVs and other large cars for alienating the American consumer. The real story behind the demise of this legendary company is, of course, far more complex, and the size of the cars it made may have surprisingly little to do with it.
After news of the bankruptcy filing broke on June 1, Reuters did some reporting from the streets of Houston, where it found many people, usually people with big, busy families, who said their SUVs served them well as they transported their children to school, soccer games and whatnot. They had no plans of downsizing.
Now, it’s fair to ask why minivans and SUVs have widely come to be seen as essential for today’s families, when a couple of generations ago, much larger families made do on sedans and station wagons. It’s also reasonable to suggest that Houston is not the typical American city (although there’s no shortage of SUVs on California’s freeways either).
But there’s a larger point in this story that is not made often enough. Car buying decisions, particularly for families, are often made on the basis of lifestyle, rather than economics and fuel efficiency. Since so many middle-class American families have two cars, it’s quite common for them to pour all of their environmental and economic concerns into one of those two cars, and buy something compact that’s perfect for running errands around town. Their second car reflects a different set of concerns, about comfort and convenience, and keeping the peace on long road trips with the help of individual video screens on all the seat backs.
This hardly means that fuel efficiency is irrelevant. After all, families of limited means struggling to maintain a middle class lifestyle are often the ones hit hardest by rising fuel prices, buying affordable homes in distant suburbs or exurbs and spending massive amounts to commute.
But as GM and other beleaguered carmakers finally get serious about making cars with better gas mileage, they’re likely to focus on technology as much as car size and continue to turn out some decent-sized family models.
