Small cars to rise in sales?

While most prospects are carefully referring to some growth in car sales, George Pipas, who spoke to the Automotive Press Association in Detroit, said a variety of factors will contribute to the continued growth of cars, especially smaller models. So we can be quite sure, in his opinion, that cars sales will rise next year for compacts.

What are the factors that could, systematically, contribute to car sales growth? First of all price volatility, then we surely need some government policies that encourage consumers to buy more efficient models — such as this summer’s cash-for-clunkers program — and changing demographics.

Pipas said sales of compact and subcompact cars accounted for 15% of industry sales in the United States in 2000 but said small car sales have “grown every year without interruption since 2004.” Small cars are no joke or busy city centre solutions only, because small cars accounted for 21% of all U.S. vehicle sales. However, By 2013, Pipas predicted that compact cars, subcompact cars and crossover vehicles built off small-car platforms will account for 36% of total new-vehicle sales in the United States.

But let’s talk a bit about Ford and compacts. Right now, Ford’s only compact car is the Ford Focus. Ford is giving birth to optimistic attitudes and has won back a lot of it’s fans these past months. So how about going a bit mini dear Ford people? Well they thought of it too, and if slow they are still on the move. Starting at the beginning of next year and through 2012, Ford intends to offer 10 compact or  crossover vehicles based, more or less, on the Focus platform. So far, Ford has announced that it plans to introduce the Ford Fiesta subcompact, a new version of the Ford Focus next year, and a small minivan called the Ford Grand C-Max by 2012.

George Pipas, Motor Co.’s top sales analyst:

“If you want to grow in this market, if you want to be on a path towards sustainable growth … The next battleground is … in the small-car market,“