Heading For Extinction: Family Sedan Sales Plummet By 27% In August

The family sedan is dying, and the usual cure-all prescription -- cash on the hood -- isn't working.

In one of the U.S. auto industry's best years ever, with sales through August 0.5 percent ahead of last year's record pace, demand for midsize cars is at a five-year low.

The segment is fading faster with each passing month. Midsize car sales fell 3.4 percent in the first quarter, 13 percent in the second quarter and 21 percent so far in the third, compared with last year.

cidflekken - 9/6/2016 2:45:34 PM

+3 Boost

Sedans will always have a place in the industry. In many cases a sedan is sitting in the driveway right next to a crossover/SUV/minivan. Instead of having two sedans in a household, there is only one now.

MDarringer - 9/6/2016 10:11:03 PM

+1 Boost

Bingo and the market research bears that out. People want station wagons, but they call them crossovers. I'm an anachronism in that I'd rather have a sedan than a crossover.