Chevrolet, Honda, Toyota ditch models
There might have been real love there, nevertheless it wasn’t sufficient to maintain the connection in the long term.
Americans who fell for small automobiles just like the Honda Fit, Chevrolet Sonic and Toyota Yaris had one thing actual for some time. Yet passenger automobiles have fallen out of favor amongst most individuals, resulting in an unsightly breakup. The Fit, Sonic and Yaris are amongst a slew of automobiles that had been discontinued by automakers in 2020.
While some will likely be nonetheless obtainable on dealership tons effectively into 2021, each car on this yr’s discontinued checklist both ended manufacturing in 2020 or had its demise introduced in 2020.
With only a few exceptions, they’re all passenger automobiles – an indication of the occasions, as about 3 in 4 automobiles offered at the moment are SUVs or pickups.
“Cars are – surprise, surprise – slowly but surely fading away from our new car automotive marketplace,” stated Karl Brauer, government analyst at vehicle-shopping web site iSeeCars. “If you are a car fan or you’re nostalgic for cars, then it’s a little depressing, but there’s just no denying the reality in terms of market demand.”
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Vehicles discontinued in 2020 posted gross sales of practically 559,000 items in 2019, representing fewer than 1 in 20 models offered within the U.S., in accordance with car-research web site Edmunds. That was down from 1.02 million in 2013.
“These were actually important vehicles at some point,” Edmunds senior supervisor of insights Ivan Drury stated.
Here are among the main automobiles discontinued in 2020:
Chevrolet Sonic
When it got here out practically a decade in the past, the Chevy Sonic was billed as an example of Detroit’s ability to make small and youthful cars.
GM featured the subcompact automotive in a 2012 Super Bowl industrial in a skydiving stunt to the tune of the band Fun’s track “We Are Young.”
Bolstered by the youth-oriented advertising and marketing effort, the Sonic attracted a base of millennial consumers at a time when gasoline costs had been nonetheless excessive sufficient that Americans had been all in favour of smaller automobiles.
But like most subcompact automobiles, its physique fashion merely grew out of step with the common new-car purchaser’s preferences. It hasn’t helped that gasoline costs have plunged from their excessive of greater than $4 when the Sonic was flying excessive.
Toyota Yaris
Both the hatchback and sedan variations of the Toyota Yaris are going away after the 2020 model year.
Toyota stays dedicated to more-popular passenger automobiles just like the midsize Camry and compact Corolla. But Toyota has been paring down its lineup of small automobiles for a number of years. The firm discontinued its Scion model in 2016 and not too long ago discontinued the Prius C, a smaller model of the primary Prius hybrid.
Sales of the Yaris had been carefully correlated with gasoline costs, Drury stated. When gasoline costs declined, so did the Yaris.
Honda Fit
Talk about fading away within the evening. The Honda Fit was usually hailed as symbolic of Honda’s capacity to enchantment to youthful consumers. But the automotive was discontinued quietly in 2020, inserting it in the identical boat because the Yaris and Sonic.
They are merely the newest in a sequence of subcompact automobiles which have been eradicated lately, together with the Ford Fiesta and Fiat 500.
Honda is attempting to transition Fit consumers into the HR-V, a compact crossover. But some followers had been disillusioned.
“It does have a quasi-cult following,” Drury stated.
Cadillac CT6
Small automobiles aren’t the one physique fashion that’s fading away. Large automobiles are struggling, too.
Luxury consumers are flocking to SUVs, and that was unhealthy information for the Cadillac CT6, which by no means gained traction regardless of robust critiques. The CT6 was “super well executed,” Brauer stated.
General Motors was so pleased with the CT6 that it chosen the car for the primary use of its semi-automated freeway driving system Super Cruise. That system will outlive the CT6.
Lincoln Continental
The Continental, a direct competitor of the CT6, is assembly an similar destiny.
When Ford, which makes the Lincoln model, determined to revive the Continental, followers of the legacy nameplate had been hoping it might regain a foothold within the luxurious market.
“That was the backbone of their car line,” Brauer stated.
But a special version with so-called “suicide doors” was the one variant of this huge automotive that had a lot success, Drury stated.
Chevrolet Impala
GM announced the demise of the Impala, together with the discontinuation of different automobiles just like the Chevy Volt and Chevy Cruze, again in 2018. But Impala manufacturing continued into early 2020.
This giant sedan as soon as occupied prime actual property within the American automotive panorama. Despite a critically acclaimed redesign earlier this decade, it couldn’t overcome the full-size automotive section’s demise.
One of its solely rivals, the Ford Taurus, was additionally not too long ago discontinued.
Dodge Grand Caravan
The minivan isn’t dead. But it’s shedding territory to SUVs.
That means there’s not as a lot room left for stragglers just like the Grand Caravan, which hadn’t been redesigned in ages. Fiat Chrysler, which made the mannequin, made a strategic choice a number of years in the past to show its consideration to the brand new Chrysler Pacifica.
It stored the Grand Caravan available on the market for a couple of extra years as a discount play. But its days have lastly come to an finish.
Dodge Journey
The days of Dodge providing one thing for virtually anybody – starting from small automobiles to household SUVs just like the Journey – are lengthy gone. Fiat Chrysler has pivoted the model to concentrate on efficiency models just like the Challenger.
That left little room for the extra family-oriented Journey, Brauer stated.
Ford Fusion
The Ford Fusion’s demise was announced years ago, nevertheless it wasn’t formally phased out till 2020.
The Fusion loved a profitable run in competitors with different midsize automobiles just like the Camry, Honda Accord and Nissan Altima. But its gross sales declined lately because the passenger automotive market dried up and Ford turned its consideration to SUVs and pickups.
“It was a great seller for quite some time,” Drury stated. “They’re axing it when they need to.”
BMW i8
This automotive serves as a cautionary story for automakers: Being a luxurious model isn’t sufficient to succeed at electrical automobiles.
The BMW i8 has its followers, in part due to its quirky styling. But quirky may not be what BMW consumers are in search of. And Tesla, no less than to date, has largely cornered the marketplace for luxurious electrical automobiles.
BMW “hoped to make a bigger splash” with the i8, Drury stated.
Other main models discontinued in 2020 embody:
- Acura RLX
- Ford Mustang Shelby GT350/GT350R
- Honda Civic Coupe
- Jaguar XE
- Lexus GS
- Lincoln MKZ
Follow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey.