Americans Finding Fuel-Efficient Compact Cars Aren't So Small

Americans Finding Fuel-Efficient Compact Cars Aren't So Small

AutoPacific projects a significant increase in sales of compact and mid-size cars, with compacts the volume leader.

By John O'Dell, Senior Editor

Automakers, most of them anyway, have been telling American consumers for years that they didn't want small cars, the bigger was better, and safer, and sexier and more fun to drive.

That, said the likes of Ford, GM, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Chrysler, is why they weren't making them - that and the problems they had making small cars that could compete in price and quality with those coming over from Japan.

After a while, even the Japanese pretty much gave up on small cars, shifting their attention to the big SUVs, pickups and luxury and quasi-luxe sedans that the American public had been persuaded were safer and brought more status to the table than compacts.

That started changing as fuel prices began soaring a few years ago, and the pace of change has accelerated as the economy has sunk into a deep recession.

Compacts have replaced mid-sized cars as the volume leader in new car sales, and many analysts believe that's not going to change even when the economy turns around.

California-based AutoPacific, for instance, is projecting that compact sales volume will grow much faster than mid-size volume through 2010 and then maintain an annual lead of 250,000 or so sales over midsized cars well into the next decade.

Edmunds.com analyst Jessica Caldwell agrees, adding that while fuel economy and lower purchase prices are a big reason for the growth in the segment, today's compacts also come loaded with standard equipment and options packages that were unheard of in the segment a few years ago.

Redefining Small

But wait!

There's a complication in the small car vs midsized car analysis, and a reason other than economy that American car buyers have begun favoring compacts.

"Today's compacts are as big as yesterday's midsized cars," says Dan Hall, AutoPacific's marketing vice president.

"While today's Honda Civic is definitely smaller than an Accord, it is about the same size as a mid-'90s Honda Accord," says Ed Kim, AutoPacific's industry analysis director.

The wheelbase of the present-generation Civic - the area in which the passenger cabin fits - is less than half-an-inch smaller than the 1997 Accord. Overall lengths of today's compacts are shorter than previous-generation mid-sized cars, but that's mainly because design changes have made engine compartments and trunk overhangs much shorter.

It's not so much that we've overcome our national preference for mid-sized cars and begun gravitation to the small car, Kim says, its just that the nomenclature has changed.

Today's small cars are the niche specialty models like BMW's Mini and entry-level economy cars - subcompacts - like the Chevrolet Aveo, the upcoming Ford Fiesta, the Honda Fit and the Toyota Yaris, says Hall.

That means that the compact of today is a more fuel-efficient replacement for the mid-size, while today's mid-sized cars have grown into a sort of small large-car format.

Consumers comparing the two - mid-size and compact - often find that the compact provides a "more fuel-efficient vehicle that doesn't feel like a compact econobox, and isn't a compromise," says Edmunds analyst Caldwell.

There. Now when you downsize you can tell the neighbors it's because you are a smart and savvy shopper, not because you're on a tighter budget than before.

And you can do a little bit to be a greener driver by buying that more fuel-efficient compact without really giving up much in the way of legroom or amenities.
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Illustrations courtesy of AutoPacific. 

John O'Dell:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.