Detroit auto-show points to enduring market for sedans

The global automotive market for 2016 ended with signs of a promising future in the years to come, which was indeed a record year in the books, thanks largely to consumers’ rapacious appetite for light trucks. These included crossovers of all varieties and pickups in medium, large and supersize packages. Even minivan sales jumped.

Their volumes may be declining, but sedans along with their coupe and hatchback cousins, still sell by the millions each year and will continue to do so for years. The mix in 2016 was roughly 60-40 in favour of light trucks. When automakers look to reinvent or reinforce what their brands stand for, it is a car they use to send the message, not SUVs.

Among the brands that have some fun in Detroit were Toyota with its next-generation Camry, Kia with its Stinger hatchback, Lexus with a revamped LS flagship and Nissan with its Vmotion 2.0 concept, a teaser to the next generation of its sedan line-up, starting with the forthcoming Altima.

Of that class, Toyota’s Camry packs the biggest market punch. In the United States alone, the Japanese car maker sold 388,618 of the model in 2016, a 9.5 percent drop from a year earlier. Despite that drop, the sedan has been very good to Toyota.

And here come the new ones: The Camry is just the opening act in a new generation of midsize sedans that will include Honda’s redesigned Accord and a thorough makeover of the Hyundai Sonata. Nissan’s next Altima is due next.

Fresh product will mean fresh attention to the midsize sedans of the world, and a likely bump in sales. Even after that increase wears off, market followers are confident the flight of consumers to crossovers will eventually plateau.

Within some markets, Sedans, especially the midsize family variety also enjoy some of the highest loyalty rates in the industry; the main audience that Honda and Toyota target with their sedans is the people who already own one.

Lexus’ debut of its fifth-generation LS flagship was another Detroit highlight this year. The 2018 LS 500 puts an exclamation point on the styling turnaround Lexus started in 2011. “It’s still a very important segment to us because of its prestige nature,” Jeff Bracken, Lexus’ general manager noted. With the entire segment last year put at almost 100,000, it would be a mistake to walk away from a segment that is that large.

Kia and its stable mate Genesis will also hopes to peg their initial thrust into the luxury space with cars. Kia’s Stinger five-door set the tone in Detroit, promising new levels of performance and dynamics. This year Genesis will show off its G70 sedan, which rides on the same platform as the Stinger.

Other brands pegging their turnaround to sedans include Acura and Cadillac. Acura has a pair of well-received crossovers in the RDX and MDX, while its sedans (ILX, TLX and RLX) often struggle to find their footing.

In 2015, the auto manufacturer made it clear to use sedans as the linchpin of Acura’s turnaround. Those efforts it believes will begin to bear fruit this year, likely starting with a mid-cycle freshening of the midsize TLX.

Cadillac also has a roster full of slow-selling sedans and big plans for new crossovers, yet the automaker chose to tease its future plans with the Escala concept debut at last year’s Pebble Beach car festivities in California.

MIKE OCHONMA