Death Of The Family Sedan: Fiesta, Taurus, Sonic, Impala All Bite The Dust

Will anyone even notice or care? I don't think so.

Those were the obvious calls to make. It gets GM and Ford mainstream cars down to one or two platforms.

The Trax or some such product is a better move than the Sonic. Etc. etc. etc.

What the hell is a Sonic?

I think they sell cheeseburgers.

a hedgehog

exactly

Currently, the Taurus also serves as the Ford Police Interceptor sedan offering along with the Explorer. I have spoken to local police who prefer the sedan as there is simply more room for the driver. I found it odd this Ford model would be canceled.

Not enough cop car sales to justify keeping the Taurus in production. The same fate killed the Crown Vic and the St Thomas Ontario plant where they were once made. The Charger seems to be a popular alternative.

It's hardly odd at all. The "Volvo" platform under the Taurus used to underpin it, the Explorer, the Flex, the MKT, and the MKS. The MKT and MKS are long dead. The Flex will go as long as the Explorer does, but will not survive once the current Explorer is gone. That would leave the Taurus with a "bespoke" platform and not enough volume to sustain it.

Think 2 door coupes will survive? I almost think the coupes will manage ok through this move from Sedans to SUVs as they are not cross shopped with SUVs as much. Only hitch in that thinking is that coupes are often derivatives of a 4 door sedan.

The Chevrolet Camaro Currently outsells the Camaro - although Only slightly - so I am guessing that they make more money on the Camaro (Although the Alpha platform is more expensive to produce) - and they both together outsell EVERY Cadillac combined in the USA. I am thinking that Chevy would be best served by producing the Malibu - and an "L" version as the Impala -to essentially combine the two into one production line.

My guess would have been that the Taurus would have been migrated to the Fusion platform - that is under the Continental. THe Continental is currently not selling as well - so IS that the next one to go?

A CD4 Taurus DOES exist. The Chinese Taurus was to be our Taurus too, but the Taurus has been a terrible seller for a long time, so they decided just the make the current one for the US market until it volume died. The ONLY thing propping it up is the Interceptor version.

A Lincoln sedan was in the cards, but dealers were angry about Max Wolff's parade of ugly MKZ/MKT or dullness MKS/MKX that when the Town Car--that sold well--got axed, dealers were screaming "do something" so what would have been a CD5 MKS became the Continental with hasty reworking.

I think the Continental WILL continue but as Lincoln's "Model S" and that it and the Fusion will move to a purposefully designed electrified chassis.

As regular grade gas is now exceeding $3 a gallon and rising steadily. Consumers will undoubtedly suffer from buyers remorse from their SUV purchase as $100 fill ups become very painful.

With the more plugin hybrid SUVs and crossovers being introduced, as well as the newer urea cleansed diesels that are showing up, customers will still be able to get the space and riding height they want but in more fuel efficient vehicles. Watch for a campaign against small sedans based on safety. The sedan market in the USA will live, but not at the levels it once knew.

People around here kept driving their big trucks even with the Obama gas spike where gas flirted with $5 a gallon.

This is what happens when an industry stagnates a platform, and spends 20 years brainwashing consumers that they need "bigger" vehicles (which may actually have cramped interiors).

Some day a new executive is going to emerge and figure out that selling 5,000 pounds of vehicle is a while lot less profitable than selling 3,500 pounds of vehicle.

this isn't a big surprise. sedan sales for everybody has been on the decline as SUV & truck sales continue to boom. there would have to be another major fuel cost increase to nudge consumers back to sedans & wagons again.

large & midsize sedans with fairly low profit margins are a risk of being discontinued. only the most popular sedans will survive - so automakers will have to make SUVs around those platforms.

The ones being cancelled are largely ones at the dreary end of their lifecycles.

The question is, will GM or Ford now be focused on building a competitive sedan or let them all go away.

So how long can the Lincoln and Buick/Cadillac models that rely on the same platforms last?
Since Ford has relied on Volvo and Mazda platforms, do they even have in-house capability to design a new car platform?

My guess is that the Ford Edge and Lincoln Nautilus will stay on the CD4 for as long as the Edge props up volume and then they would become SWB CD6.

You do know that aside from the Taurus and Explorer (both about to be pulled from production), that NONE of Fords platforms are based on one from another manufacturer, right?

The Focus has never been a "Mazda" and the Mondeo was on a Ford platform (EUCD AKA "CD3") that became the CD4 Focus/Mondeo.

Originally developed with/from Mazda, Wikipedia List of Ford platforms; B3, C1, and CD3 (Mazda 2/3/6 respectively). Sure the Ford Mazda partnership ended but original platforms are still in use or modified.

Nope. CD4 is a replacement of EUCD which underpinned the Mondeo. When the first Fusion was replaced in 2013, with it went the Mazda underpinnings.