One of the resounding themes of the past year, and especially of the recently concluded Auto Expo, was the sudden interest in SUV’s by manufacturers – correction, compact SUV’s. A segment that was unheard of till a couple of years ago, suddenly has virtually every manufacturer displaying a concept or design study of some kind that’s trying very hard to look butch and SUV-esque – which, in most cases, just ends up looking more like a wagon on stilts.
The Ford EcoSport seemed to hit the market at just the right time to capitalize on this trend, and really set the market alight – so-much-so that, even a year after its launch, there are massive waiting lists for the car.
If you look at it objectively, the only two things I can find going for these pseudo-utility vehicles is the increased ground clearance to help on our dilapidated roads – which is a plus, I have to admit – and the ego massaging factor of sitting higher up than most other personal vehicles. Otherwise, in mostly every other way, I find these vehicles more compromised than a regular sedan – or even hatchback. Based on the small set of examples that we’ve seen thus far, these compact SUV’s are not too big on interior room and have driving dynamics that are compromised compared with their sedan cousins. The biggest drawback, though, is that they mostly all have terrible blind spots – in which you can even lose a full sized car in city traffic. And its not as if, in return, they offer superior off road ability – since most of them are basically jacked up versions of their hatchback / sedan cousins.
Why is it, then, that every manufacturer is making a beeline to launch their own version of a compact SUV? Well, very clearly, it’s because this is one of the few segments that has proven to be recession proof this past year. With the success of the likes of the EcoSport, it was only SUV’s – compact SUV’s specifically – that were able to show robust growth in a market with negative growth in almost every other segment. And the truth of the matter is, well, I’m forced to nitpick when driving a vehicle (call it an occupational hazard) rather than just enjoying it. Customers, on the other hand, are lapping up these vehicles for their increased road presence and the statement they make.
So, let’s face it, the fact of the matter is that the customer today is king. So, if he or she wants to pay top dollar to buy a compromised hatch, and is even willing to wait months to get their hands on one, then manufacturers will run, nay sprint, to build as many of them as they can. As they say, money talks and you know who – in this case, me, as a broke hack – walks!
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