Cars are generally created to fit a specific demographic that’s been carefully analyzed by a whole team of professionals. When you hear someone say that “there’s a butt for every seat,” that’s because somebody somewhere calculated the exact income level, age range, number of kids, tortilla preference, hat size, and other factors for prospective buyers’ butts destined for that seat.
Surprisingly, there are times when even the biggest car makers concoct a vehicle or signature feature for buyers who simply don’t exist, or exist only in painfully small numbers. It can really make you scratch your head, wondering how no one asked even a few simple questions before green-lighting these ultra-niche products.
For example, how often do you need to carry a giant armoire cabinet? Or maybe a grandfather clock, or I dunno, a full-size replica of the Venus De Milo. Not that frequently, right? So, paying a premium for an SUV that could allow you to transport such tall products probably wouldn’t be big on your list. I would guess not, but for some reason, GMC thought it was worth a shot making an Envoy XUV with an electrically sliding roof over the cargo area. It’s not surprising that they could only move 16,000 for the first year it was available. When sales dropped to 11,000 units the following year, GM pulled the plug.
What’s funny is that Studebaker tried this idea and failed miserably. Did General Motors think more people wanted to haul refrigerators upright forty years later?
Ford has made similar mistakes. Have any Mustang buyers seemed like they really longed for a more Euro-style ponycar with a “biplane” rear spoiler and a turbo four-cylinder engine? I would say no. The vast majority wouldn’t want it any more than those who preferred lithe and athletic coupes imported from places known for pasta and pretzels hankered for an American two-door that shared its underpinnings with the Ford Granada.
Worse, there was competition within Ford for these unicorn customers, who could also choose a T-Bird Turbo Coupe or maybe a Merkur XR4Ti from one of FoMoCo’s own dealerships.
Somehow, “Are we sure anyone will even want these?” went unasked (or was answered “Yes!”), and Ford went on to create the Mustang SVO. In truth, it was a deceptively appealing car and arguably one of the best Fox bodies ever made, but it was just too “Mustang” for import buyers and too foreign for Mustang people. It’s no wonder that only 9,840 were sold over a two-year run. (I always got the feeling that it was held back by not being available with the 302 V8.)
You readers can think of far more examples, right? Hell, there’s a lot of you out there – far more people than could fit into a Cadillac Cimarron or Catera, which can also go on the “who asked for this?” list.
Merkur comes to mind. Nobody at Ford really knew what to do with it. The Scorpio looked enough like the Taurus/Sable that the price premium wasn’t easily justifiable. The XR4Ti, although cool, was awkward looking at best.
Saturn for sure. The resources dumped into developing Saturn between 1982 and 1991 would have built GM some spectacular small cars for existing GM divisions going into the 90s. Nope! We need an entirely new company. One that GM would control completely from raw materials to sales.
I’d say we need more specific directions. Several examples projected might have worked if not for bean counting and poor build quality. To qualify I say we need the car to be well built for the purpose but selling poorly due to low demand. So no Deloreans, HHRs, or Prowlers that had a market but ended up being not fitting the requirements. So maybe a single cab pickup? We say we want them but we are a small group and we won’t all buy them so no demand
Pontiac Aztec
Chevy SSR
Cadillac ELR & XLR
Plymouth Prowler
Mercedes-Benz R, A, B, and CLC Class
Rolls-Royce Camargue
BMW 5 & 6 Series GT
BMW 3 Series hatchback
Volkswagen Phaeton
Audi A2
Mercury Capri (the FWD Mazda 323-based convertible)
Mazda Sentia/929 (the one which looked like a Jaguar)
1999-2002 Mercury Cougar
1986-1993 GM E Body Coupes (Riviera, Reatta, Toronado and Eldorado)
1986-1991 GM K Body Seville
1985-1993 GM C Bodies (Buick Electra/Park Avenue, Olds 98, Cadillac DeVille/Fleetwood)
Aston Martin V8
We need a thumbs down button
The Chevy SSR is one that comes to mind. Convertible pickups is just an odd choice.
One that there seems to be a market for but I wish there wasn’t is the CUV coupe trend. It not only kills cargo capacity, and therefore utility, but the CUV height makes the proportions strange and the whole thing unpleasant on the eyes.
Cadillac XLR.They based it off a Corvette chassis and used a Northstar motor.It rode too rough for the typical Caddy buyer and the sports car buyer never took a liking to it.It was pretty expensive and had too many problems to ever take off.It couldn’t have lasted for more than a few years if I remember correctly.General Motors had to eat their lunch on that one.If you’re brave enough they are pretty cheap to buy but good luck with one of those Turds.
Growing up in Memphis in the late 80’s, early 90’s you wouldn’t have know the world wasn’t over run by this subclass. I had an XR4Ti, I had a buddy with a turbo 4 mustang and don’t forget the 3rd in this family the Escort turbo GT, which another friend had. All 3 were faster than a stock 5.0 pony with the right driver, as we loved to prove any chance we got.
Only if the turbo 4 Mustang was the SVO. The other two, only if the Mustang GT had the parking brake engaged.
Every crew-cab pickup with a tiny bed. Oh wait, that market does exist for some GD reason.
It’s a really logical market for a lot of people. I have one and it is one of the most useful vehicles I’ve had. It tows my boat effortlessly, it’s safe for my kids, it hold my kids and dog with room to spare, with a spray in bedliner and locking, folding top it can do everything from carrying luggage and coolers to carrying sod to hauling garbage to the dump, it will have strong resale if I ever sell it, it eats roadtrip miles with the same wheelbase as an extended wheelbase Phantom, it fits in a standard parking space, and it cost $38,000 new.
A regular cab long bed pickup is way less useful and sales reflect that reality. I generally see them being used by fleets but not carrying things, often sales reps or PMs, something a sedan could do if that was still a thing. Sheetrock and plywood get delivered to sites by flatbeds and I could easily carry some of either with straps.
If anything a lot of full size SUV buyers would be better off with full size, short bed crew cab pickups, but the buyers don’t want the pickup image. I was going to get a Suburban or Tahoe until I realized I could get the sedan version for $15,000 to $20,000 less and still have a live axle (which the full size SUVs lost) for towing.
I guess they would make sense for gooseneck or 5th wheel towing.
We used to have cars which did all those things.
They were called Impalas, Galaxies and Furies…
The SVO is still my favorite Mustang
The Panther chassis Mercury Marauder. Making a full size muscle sedan using a twenty year old chassis and putting it under a brand where the main focus was that it by default came with 30% more features than the Ford it was based on for 20% more of the price. It also came after Japanese cars like the Accord or the Maxima 4DSC changed the buying public’s desires and when there were a bunch of more visually attractive, more spacious, and faster cars in the compact and mid-size segments that were cheaper. It also didn’t help that the thing looked like an undercover cop car and the Lincoln Town Car that old people drove, which gave it a bad association.
The Marauder’s sales numbers only hit 11,000 if you want hard data on how few people wanted one. The Ford Focus SVT, a specialty model that had a 75% price increase over a base Focus, sold 12,000 examples. Both were only sold for two years, and during the same two years from 2002-2004. The Grand Marquis the Marauder was base on was selling about 70,000 cars a year during that same timeframe.
This is a hard question because to me this is not crap cars, it is good cars without a market.
To me the SVO was redeemed when, in 2015, it effectively became the base Mustang and remains in that position. It was never going to succeed selling at a 50% premium to a GT.
I think a repeated failure has been second cars for people that can only afford one car.
Historically that has been a lot of the cheap mid-engine cars (which makes me sad because I like cheap mid-engine cars). I and don’t think that it was that upper-middle class and wealthy people would not buy those cars, many don’t require or actively avoid fancy brands, I think that the enthusiast niche in those groups just could not support the necessary volume.
Now it is the cheap EVs. The Leaf seems like a fine car. But if one can’t afford better than a Leaf one likely street parks and does not have a second reliable car for road trips. I fear a similar fate may face the Slate, but it may be iconic enough that the upper-middle class and wealthy buy it, especially if it proves out on its safety claims.
Sorry I agree with you 100%
The Slate pickup. Technically not made yet, but the market isn’t there.
It may well be vaporware, given their targeted price point that factored in the $7,500 subsidy.
Oh, they are selling SLATE merch though including a kids’ picture book. I’m tempted to buy some merch to have historical artifacts.
Can I throw a challenge at you. What is the least viable car possible that gets to 90mph as a top speed, fits all the regulations including crash tests, yet looks only slightly ugly.
Plymouth Horizon?
Do you really think a 2200 LB horizon can match at 2200 LB Miata? They were both overengineered for this challenge and and only one of them sucks. Lets find out what could be worse than a Miata but I’d still like to buy it.
A horizon won’t hit 90 mph in fact if you drive it off a cliff you are likely to survive because even gravity wont get it up to a dangerous speed.
The Camaro Berlinetta and the Firebird Esprit.
They even put the Esprit on a major TV show (The Rockford Files) and still people weren’t lining up in droves to buy them.
My second car was an Esprit.The model was good in a way, as it had both the 400 Quadrajet and some very comfortable velour seats. By the time it came to me, the 8-track had been replaced by a cassette unit. Too bad it had a bad case of the oxides, and had an effective combined total of two fenders and a door and a half by the time I had driven it for two years.
James Garner had the producers order up a Formula – but rear spoiler removed, modified with the hood and badges from an Esprit, and custom painted “Rockford Gold” which was not a factory color.
He liked the handling of the Formula – but thought the Esprit fit the character’s financial situation and less flashy persona better.
Honda Accord Crosstour. Bigger than a Pilot outside, no bigger than a CR-V inside, no real saving in efficiency or MSRP over either. Wasn’t wagony enough to be an Outback competitor, not really upright or tall enough to be a real Edge or Murano competitor.
Also, it looked funny.
Yeah, that car was an absolute dog – apologies to the canines.
So poorly built and designed not a missed market?