ARE SEDANS DYING????

June 13, 2021

ARE SEDANS DYING????

I have a task for you,

Take a piece of paper and a pen

I will give you 5 seconds

Draw a car.....

I am sure that 99% of you would have drawn a sedan in the paper you have.

Have you wondered why haven't you gone for a hatchback, a coupe or an SUV instead of sedan??

Well I have the answer for that.

Its the most basic and distinguished shape of a car for most people. With a long bonet 4 door and a long boot, and over 4 m long, Sedans would be our default idea about how a car should be.

MOST DISTINGUISHABLE SHAPE FOR A CAR

But today the most recognisable shape of a car is getting rare and dying a slow death. Today more and more sedans are getting discontinued and Crossover SUVs are gaining popularity day after day.

It is that subject we discuss today in this blog.

The inspiration to this blog came from the launch of Skoda Octavia in India which took place few days ago. Octavia was always loved by Indians from the moment it was launched in early 2000s. Since then we saw 3 generation of Octavia being sold in pretty big number and the car gaining a reputation for its affordable thrills and dynamics. Driver's car which was well priced and more practical than some other expensive cars made it sell in pretty decent numbers all these year.

If regular octavia wasn't for you, you could always get an RS version of the same which was bit more focused on performance side.

And Its engines were really tuner's delight and could be bumped to 250-300Bhp without breaking a sweat, making it wet dreams of Indian auto enthusiasts.

THE NEW OCTAVIA

After almost 20 years, Now Skoda has launched the 4th gen of octavia in India. And as usual I started watching the videos read articles to analyse the car and where it stands, But then it struck me.

There aren't many competition to this car in the market. A premium sedan( well not exactly) for 30 Lakh price bracket doesn't have competition? Really??

Normally this trend where there isn't any competition to a car was witnessed when a brand new category of product is brought into existence. But here since we have been observing this segment since early 2000s and brands like VW, Honda, Toyota, and Hyundai competing each other for supremacy, it was a bit odd to see octavia being the only car in this segment other than Elantra which as of now never manage to make an impression in the market.

The reason for other manufacturers leaving this particular segment of entry level premium sedan is obviously because of low sales. Why low sales you ask???

3 letters for you

S... U... V...

Yes Suvs are gaining popularity everywhere. 10-12 years back SUVs were big and bulky people carriers with huge ground clearance and terrible ride quality.

These mainly did the task of carrying 7-10 people from A-B, Thats it. These were not exactly what you call "car like".

Then came Duster which brought in a positive change in my perspective . They came in with an SUV with car like character while keeping the focussed SUV bits alive. Even when it wasn't exactly luxurious or feature loaded, people loved its incredible ride quality and practical bits. It simply brought Indian's love towards big cars into spotlight.

Back then people realising a car is a necessity bought the cheap hatchbacks and manufacturers catered the demand. Even In those days Sedans never sold phenomenally well but had a lot of potential customers in the future as those were considered as the most practical upgrade from a hatchback. Duster's entry to this market surely did attracted some of the sedan buyers but not a lot.

Then Ford came in with Ecosport, a sub 4 meter compact SUV. It was a SUV in size of a hatchback making it much more usable in daily conditions and affordable. This started a pandemic, with different mutations from different manufacturers, the compact SUV virus spreads from one home to another.

Then it started to evolve to a larger size and took over the sales of midsize SUV market.

This trend boomed and all manufacturers wanted a piece of the action

Thus the compact SUVs sets up a new market alongside sedans and simply diverted the hatchback and small car owners who were potential sedan buyers to SUV buyers leading to decline of sedan sales.

Now almost every manufacturers have over 2 SUVs but less than 2 sedan in its fleet of cars.

PRACTICALITY OF SUV OR GRANDEUR OF SEDAN???

Why do people love SUV?

Main reason why people love SUVs are because of its size, a bigger car would give you bigger pride.

also the seating ergonomics, You sat straight and unlike sedans you doesn't have to go down a storey to enter into an SUV. This made ingress and egress much easier and comfortable.

Then there is the driving position which is much more commanding than a sedan, giving drivers a feel of superiority, security and confidence.

The sense of space inside the cabin because of the size.

The ground clearance played a big advantage in our horrible roads as most SUVs doesn't even asks you to slow down extremely and could glide through rough sections comfortably without scraping the underbody or damaging your spine were all advantages which sold this category of cars to public.

That being said the ride quality on normal roads isn't as good as a sedan or isn't exactly fun to drive because of the roll experienced and softly sprung suspension.

But worst part is that none of these SUVs were exactly SUVs but a pseudo SUV, as none could go off-road as they have a FWD layout.

So enthusiasts never really preferred these category of vehicles but an average practical Indian find no issues and absolutely loved this new set of vehicles and started to buy like crazy.

Thus compact SUV grown to mid size crossover SUV and then to 7 seater version of these mid size SUVs and

A CROSSOVER SUV BY HONDA

DEATH OF SEDANS

As more and more people started to get SUVs, sedans started to struggle. The finesse of a sedan could have no match to the liveability of a crossover SUV. This started to spread from mid size sedan like Rapid, Verna etc to the class of octavia, civic and Elantra tooo. The lack of options and features offered by manufacturers in their sedans too dug up its grave and slowly manufacturers discontinued their products slowly. Crossover SUVs on other hand offers more than what you needed in it and kept an aggressive price compared to most sedan and they simply sold like Black Friday sales

So the sedans have to compete against the Bigger crossover SUVs at the same price bracket giving the latter an upper hand.Even octavia has came back and it now has to deal with all the crossover SUVs like Hyundai Tucson, VW Tiguan, Troc and a Jeep Compass as its Rivals more than Elantra which is its direct rival.

All these factors contributes to death of Sedans....or is it really dying?? Does Octavia have a future???

Even when we say sedans are dying, if you observe the premium car segment it tells a different story.

Even when most cars sold today are luxury SUVs, Individual sales of sedans of Manufacturers like Mercedes Benz, BMW and Audi are out selling individual SUV models.

Why is this so???

The reason lies with the mentality of buyers. The buyers at these market are those who really need luxury and the finesse over the practicality. The back seat is what matter to them and luxury sedans delivers it bit better. Also luxury sedan provides a more prestigious status than SUV makes more sense to buyers. Nevertheless SUV trend still has worked its way to even this segment of vehicles is a fact we can't deny.

Even in case of Skoda, Superb was selling in higher number than Kodiaq and its cousin Tiguan All space throughout 2020.So Skoda octavia being a entry level premium sedan could sell in good numbers because the buyers who looks for a sedan wants a sedan, there is no second thoughts about it. Especially the enthusiasts.

But to get an average practical buyer to an Octavia instead of an SUV isn't an easy job.

I do think Skoda tried to play it intelligent by making the Octavia a bit biased to comfort, thus offering a better ride ride quality to market it to the potential crossover SUV customer (Source :Dude trust me).

Will it work?? I am not sure but its worth the try especially when its the sole surviver in its segment.

That been said, there is no denying that the price is a bit on higher side, With Rs 35lakh on road one could argue its better to spend 3l extra and go for larger Superb or a Jeep Compass 4X4 which is a really fun to drive SUV with 4X4 for the same price. Also the real enthusiast might be forced to look at the different options in 2nd hand market because of the higher price.

SKODA SUPERB MIGHT CANIBALISE THE OCTAVIA SALES

So if you are getting an Octavia be prepared to listen to questions he like "Why don't you consider a crossover SUV with your budget instead of a car?", which has a huge relevance not just for anyone planning to get an octavia but a sedan in general.

That being said, will the Sedans die soon???

Simple answer...

NO,

Automobile trends do change to time to time. We see different body type gaining and losing popularity all over the world as markets evolves. From small fuel efficient easy hatchbacks to mini vans to SUVs to crossovers the trend keeps shifting, But all through these times the potential Sedan buyers though were low, always remains steady is what numbers say.

Sedans won't lead or revolutionise in sales, but I am sure it won't die out any time soon.