North American Baby Boomers have long been acknowledged as the most overwhelming force in the history of consumerism, rolling through one segment of the economy after another and forcing the rest of society to live with the results.
It should come as no surprise, then, that the Boomers powerful attraction to what is commonly called the sport-utility vehicle appears to be on the verge of changing the car business in a significant way.
For years, people talked about the SUV "craze" or "fad" and other words that echoed the commonly held feeling that the popularity of such relatively awkward and ill-conceived vehicles would one day fade, that better handling, safer and more economical sedans would regain their prominence in the natural order of things.
That doesn't look like it's going to happen any time soon. Consider that Ford continued to sell its ungainly old Explorer model in huge numbers despite that vehicle's apparent tendency to roll over and kill its occupants.
More than anything else, what is apparently going on in the North American car market is a switch in packaging shape. That is to say, North Americans – led yet again by those self-indulgent Boomers – want a larger and more accommodating vehicle than they used to demand.
SUVs based on pickup trucks have been the only recourse to that new package for some time, but now the car companies are designing vehicles that are better suited to more than just the space issue.