SUV Boom is Due to Buyer Demand for Traditional Car Flexibility
11 February 1998
SUV Boom is Due to Buyer Demand for Traditional Car FlexibilitySANTA ANA, Calif., Feb. 11 / PRNewswire/ -- Joint analysis by two of the auto industry's most prestigious consulting and research firms Strategic Vision and AutoPacific, Inc. concludes that America's growing fascination with light trucks is primarily a return to traditional vehicle values - good visibility, chairlike seating, easy entry and exit, lots of interior room, and ample ground clearance. Today's SUV Boom, and the growing percentage of truck market share, is due to the demand of buyers for characteristics provided by cars in the past but not available today - flexibility, interior size and ease of use. Both consulting houses find little evidence that the 90's light truck boom is a result of fashion. "It's a sad fact of human nature that we tend to dismiss movements we don't understand as fads," lamented Strategic Vision vice president Dan Gorrell. "Today's SUVs offer functionality that most cars have forgotten how to deliver, and that's why buyers have switched," adds AutoPacific president George Peterson. "Consumers don't care about truck versus car labels, they care about the ease of use and versatility that comes from good packaging." To back his claim, Peterson cites recent analysis by his firm revealing that today's light trucks have more in common with cars of old than do current cars. "Applied to a car today, the traditional package of a '55 Chevy would likely produce a vehicle more appealing than most current cars." Strategic Vision examines the issue from a psychological viewpoint and arrives at a similar conclusion. "Rather than being a fashion statement, light trucks are offering something far beyond image to their buyers, they're meeting fundamental emotional needs that cars used to do a better job of meeting," states Gorrell, "and those needs surface in good research." Indeed, both firms base their conclusions on extensive surveys of buyers from every vehicle model sold in America. Results of combined analysis from the firms' research is set to be released in a series of conferences held in Los Angeles and Detroit on February 23rd and 27th respectively. There, analysts from both companies will detail product and psychological information gleaned from more than 85,000 1997 vehicle buyers. In a capstone to the conference, the companies will detail the design and emotional attributes needed to rekindle buyers' love affair with cars. These attributes will be demonstrated through eight "SuperCar" concepts designed for conference attendees to take away from the meeting. "Without data, it's just opinion," states Peterson. And about light trucks adds Gorrell, "There's been more than enough of that already." SOURCE AutoPacific, Inc.