Who says the "three box", four door sedan is dead and buried? Well, the Big Three do considering they've all but abandoned the market. You'll see a smattering of sedans still available for sale in 2020 in domestic showrooms but if you've got a hankering for four doors and a trunk, best to go to your import store as they continue to push out a full range of them. Nissan's 2020 Maxima here is the cake topping Nissan four door sedan that also includes the Altima, Sentra and Versa.
If the imports are still selling sedans, why aren't GM, Ford and Chrysler? Because sedans don't sell well enough here to warrant their continuing to make them. There is, however, a significant market over seas. Oddly enough, GM does so well in China that they will continue to sell the Cadillac CT-6 and Buick Lacrosse there even though they've stopped production of them here for 2020. Giving up on a market segment is a bold move for Detroit and we'll get a bell weather very soon as to how that'll go but I'll go out on a limb now and say that folks ain't gonna miss the Taurus and the Impala here in the U.S. Thank goodness they're still making muscle cars otherwise, what would I lust after? However, seeing how cars with four doors can tear up a track these days, is the demise of the muscle car as we once knew it not far off?
I still have a hard time getting my head around sedans being a niche segment having grown up in a world where their demise was unfathomable if not inconceivable. Don't get me wrong, I hate the damn things but the problem is we're going to be stuck with cross overs that are even more appliance like than the sedans they've pushed into oblivion. Be careful what you wish for, right?
In the interest of making sedans appealing, manufacturers have resorted to making them more sports car like. For instance, this Maxima (and others) can perform at a level that shames most sports cars from ten years ago. Alright, bit of an exaggeration but I say that to illustrate a point. Thing is, where the Maxima and other sedans, "sports sedans" or otherwise, fall down on their soft bumpers is in the visceral appeal department. I think most of them are boring at best and ugly, like this Maxima, at worst. Be honest, is there a single four door sedan on the market today, practicality aside, that you'd spring for in lieu of something with two doors? If you say yes, you've probably grown up in this age that's devoid of interesting looking, mass appeal vehicles that have only two doors and a sedan market full of cars that are remarkably good; note I didn't say good looking. What's more, you might look at sporty two door cars today like the Mustang, Camaro and Challenger and dismiss them as being for "old people".
Maybe it's just me but at the end of the day, no matter how strong a performer a sedan today may be, claiming that one is sporty is like saying diners on Long Island are classy. However, to a generation coming up that's generally ambivalent towards cars, with the lines blurred between what sports cars and sports sedans are, it's the two door muscle car that's really in dire peril. After all, if sedans continue to be made that are the track equivalent of something with two less doors, what's the point of the impracticality of the two door car? Have you sat in the back of a late model Camaro, Mustang or Challenger? It's a joke. For the most part they've always been, subjective, yeah, better looking and had more je ne sais quoi than something with four doors, but if it's just a fashion statement, again, the muscle car is in jeopardy. Dire jeopardy.
Trust me, the younger generation just doesn't give a damn about such things and if they find cars like this Maxima, which, again, I think is hideous, as sporty looking as my generation thought a GTO or Chevelle was, in ten years, maybe less, showrooms will have two types of vehicles; two passenger ultra high performance models and more practical ones that coddle and swaddle passengers out back in supreme, triple digit speed comfort.
Welcome to the future. As bright as it is, it's just not as interesting as we thought it was going to be.
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