Perhaps. Except that the gains in sales of AUDI A4 in U.S. Sales don't match the drop in BMW 3-Series sales here. I rarely ask leading, rhetorical questions, but I did this time. I'm rather certain that the continued drop in Sales for the 3-Series overall is roughly equivalent to demonstrated interest in the Tesla Model ☰. A 25.5% drop in sales of 3-Series in 2016 relative to 2015 (per GCBC) was necessary for the Mercedes-Benz C-Class to take first place in the segment -- with total sales that were ~10% lower in 2016 than in 2015. The greatly depressed sales of 3-Series were still only about 4,000 units shy of doubling A4 Sales, despite being below 90,000 units for the first time in fifteen years straight.
Some may point to the launch of a new 3-Series platform for 2017 as a reason for lame duck sales of 2016 models -- and that may be a contributor as well. Perhaps. But so far in 2017, 3-Series sales in the U.S. are already 6.6% behind 2015 through the first two months of the year. About halfway through 2015 BMW decided to decouple 3-Series sales from those of the 4-Series -- but 4-Series sales have declined precipitously as well in the past few years.
I think that people tend to buy what they want, what they need, what they can afford. In tough economic times Americans in particular gravitate toward the 'bigger is better' philosophy with their purchases. That applies to just about anything from double rolls of toilet paper to thick-soled shoes. So yeah, even those who commute to work alone might prefer a five-, six-, or seven-passenger SUV to a 2+2 Coupe when spending their own dough. I think that there are those who are beginning to think the U.S. is dangerously underpopulated, and still believe that there is some viable strategic significance to having a large standing army, and thus would be very happy if more people would get married and have multiple children. I know very few people that actually need a people mover SUV or minivan due to rapidly expanding families. I think of owning those types of vehicles as I do household chores like washing clothes, doing the dishes, or mowing the lawn. No one actually wants to do it, but once you surrender to necessity and are into the thick of it, it ain't so bad after all.
Well...First off I'd say take off the US lens for a second. The trend to SUVs is a world wide fashion trend. It only correlates to 1 thing, cheap gas. However, even then Compact SUVs are the segment crushing it.
Compact SUVs surge past cars in sales growth- Business News
I believe if you ask BMW drivers what they switched to many would say some sort of SUV. That said, fashion trends are just that, trends. SUVs are like station wagons and mini vans. Damn useful. Overall all though you can't take car trends out of context of overall vehicle sales. Cars are but 1 segment, add in SUV and truck sales and you'll see where people are buying.
