ressive companies may simply add the more expensive alternative of fully independent suspensions (McElroy 156).
The driving tastes of the American middle and upper classes have changed substantially in the last decade. The truck-based sport-utility vehicles, including Chevrolet Blazers and Ford Broncos as well as Toyota 4Runners and Nissan Pathfinders, are replacing luxury cars as the transportation of choice for many upper-income individuals and families. However, industry analysts agree that only about five percent of these vehicles actually ever go off road (Koland 22).
The trend to SUVs is apparently unrelated to the occupations of the vehicles' drivers, nor is it restricted to a particular geographic region. Buying habits do not differ much in San Diego, Seattle, Miami or New England, although New York City seems to have escaped the trend (Koland 22).
While it is generally accepted that the luxury car segment has stagnated at approximately 10 percent of the overall automotive market, the demand for sport utility vehicles is growing ever stronger. Sport utilities made up 7.3 percent of the market in 1991, 8.8 percent in 1992 and 9.9 percent in 1993. The future looks even stronger for sales, particularly after some of the severe winters that have paralyzed major sections of the East Coast (Koland 22).
A combination of economic, social and family forces find expression in the sport-utility market, with the result that this market segment can be expected to expand in the coming years. Some of the factors that attract buyers are value, durability, adequate interior room, and car-like handling and comfort. These factors have driven up prices, but these prices are somewhat offset by vehicle contents that meet buyer needs.
For the newest generation of car buyers (of both sexes), sport utility vehicles have the same attraction that European sports cars did in the 1950s and muscle cars had in the 1960s: the vehicle...