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If you take a look at the inventory at the majority of car dealerships these days, you’ll be greeted by a sea of soft crossovers. For those who remember when the sedan was king, this can be a shocking realization. But for those of us who love hardcore off-road SUVs, the dominance of these crossovers ranges from hilarious to downright depressing.
This New Zealand off-road trail looks amazing.
There are good reasons for the dominance of crossovers. But first, so you understand when we say these are “soft” vehicles, we’re referring to a few things. First, the fact these are of unibody construction. In contrast, with few exceptions, most off-road vehicles are body-on-frame trucks, usually with at least one solid axle.
Also, the design of these vehicles is soft. Nothing about then would be jarring to the senses, even in a positive sense. They’re blandly safe, taking no risks aesthetically.
Plus, most aren’t performance monsters but instead provide numb steering, tepid acceleration, and mushy brakes. Yet consumers love them, gobbling them up by the hundreds of thousands a year.
One of the big things driving this market trend is the ease of getting in and out of crossovers. They’re not so high up that the average person has to hoist themselves into the seat, like what’s necessary with an off-road rig or full-size truck.
At the same time, the seats aren’t so low that one has to be a yoga practitioner to comfortably enter and exit. This is a big consideration for our aging population, thanks to Boomers, as well as so many who practice a sedentary lifestyle and thus lack balance and core strength.
Another huge driver of demand for crossovers is women’s hatred of wagons and minivans. While feelings about the former have cooled somewhat, if you were to ask just about any woman what they think of the latter, you better be ready for a sharp emotional response.
The reasons for this vary, but one that’s often cited is that women don’t want to drive the same kind of vehicle their mother did while taking them to school and to activities. For many, that was a minivan.
But for many women, minivans are signs of domestic slavery, of sacrificing everything for one’s children. And that isn’t a popular notion these days.
While we strongly disagree, quite a few women view soft crossovers as sexy, dominant, and sporty. Yes, it’s ironic and yet also true. When you factor in that women themselves purchase about 62 percent of all cars but are a party in about 80 percent of all purchasing decisions, it’s not hard to understand why crossovers absolutely dominate the market.
The big question we have is when will the reign of soft crossovers end? And what will come next?
Image via Toyota
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