When all is said and done, crossovers willcontinue to change as "designers go crazy" and make some of them lookless
like traditional SUVs, he added. But, truck-based SUVs will notdisappear and therefore will remain an important vehicle segment,though like minivans, not as large of a segment as they once were.
RegardingCUV styling Pipas added, "More or less, the top selling vehicles inthis category look like sport utility vehicles. The early forays intothis segment were to take a car platform and put sheet metal on it tomake it look like a sport utility vehicle... today, two-thirds to 70percent of the volume in the CUV segment looks like an SUV then about20 percent of the vehicles look like... station wagons. The marketingpeople don't like it when I say that word, but that's what they looklike."
No matter what they look like now or will in the nearfuture, it not only looks as if the CUV is here to stay butthat it will become one of the most dominant automotive segments. Lookno further than next month's North American International Auto Showhere in Detroit, where an unprecedented number of new crossovers andprototypes of upcoming models will debut.
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| Truck-based SUVs will not disappear and therefore will remain an important vehicle segment, though like minivans, not as large of a segment as they once were. (Photo: Ford Motor Company of Canada) |
RegardingCUV styling Pipas added, "More or less, the top selling vehicles inthis category look like sport utility vehicles. The early forays intothis segment were to take a car platform and put sheet metal on it tomake it look like a sport utility vehicle... today, two-thirds to 70percent of the volume in the CUV segment looks like an SUV then about20 percent of the vehicles look like... station wagons. The marketingpeople don't like it when I say that word, but that's what they looklike."
No matter what they look like now or will in the nearfuture, it not only looks as if the CUV is here to stay butthat it will become one of the most dominant automotive segments. Lookno further than next month's North American International Auto Showhere in Detroit, where an unprecedented number of new crossovers andprototypes of upcoming models will debut.
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