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Minivans Join SUVs in Slump

By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.com

June 25, 2006

• Hispanic-Americans Pay More For Used Car Loans • GM Offers Employee Prices to Spur Slow Sales • U.S. Consumers Favor Japanese and German Automakers • Automakers Report Huge Drop in Sales • GM Cuts Prices for February • Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM • New GM Sale May Challenge Bargain Hunters • GM Hangs on as World's No. 1 Automaker • Saturn Outlook Gets High Marks from Consumer Reports • Summer Car Sales Start to Sizzle • Consumer Reports Lists Best New Car Deals • Chrysler Dumps Remaining 2006 Inventory on Used Car Market --- • More about Auto Sales ...

Detroit automakers are facing a bad one-two as minivans join the slump plaguing the profitable mid-sized SUV segment. Over the last several years, minivan sales have accounted for almost 12 percent of all light-truck sales.

Consumers are looking more and more at crossovers as a fuel-efficient vehicle that has a lot of cargo space. Crossovers look like SUVs or tall wagons but are more fuel-efficient and handle more like cars.

Consumers sticking with minivans are often forsaking U.S. models and choosing import brands like the Toyota Sienna. The Sienna, Kia Sedona and Honda Odyssey are all posting big gains in the minivan category.

Across the auto industry, minivan sales are down 9.6 percent for the year. General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. are hit hardest but even the Chrysler Group which has led the segment since it invented it in the mid-1980s is under increasing pressure.

Sales of GM minivans are down 35.8 percent this year. At Ford, sales of minivans like the Freestar are down 30.3 percent.

The Dodge Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country minivans built by the Chrysler Group are still leading the industry in sales volumes. They typically have lower sticker prices than the Toyota and Honda minivans and carry larger incentives.

In fact, minivans are the top-selling product at DaimlerChrysler. Chrysler sold more than 407,000 minivans last year. Minivans even outsold the Dodge Ram pickup and so far this year, Chrysler has sold 39.8% of all the minivans bought in the U.S.

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