Solaras dont break 50K (previously ran about 30K per year).
http://www.toyota.com/about/operatio...tion/tmmk.html

Hondas (maddingly) don't separate Accord coupe and sedan sales, but Acura RSX runs just 20K cars annually.
http://corporate.honda.com/press/art...=2006010454040

Mitsubishi Eclipse run in the 30K per year range if I remember.


Makes the 52K Monte Carlo look fantastic, and the 190K of the Mustang look like a miracle.

 

I wonder if the 4dr Imports possibly stole sales from Coupes given they are so small??? Possible...

 

guion,

FYI, in '97 Camaro sales didn't rebound at all...they dropped further to approximately 50k...at least that's what the Camaro White Book tells me

 

guion,

FYI, in '97 Camaro sales didn't rebound at all...they dropped further to approximately 50k...at least that's what the Camaro White Book tells me

 

4-doors are just more practical. I love my Camaro, but if I have any number of people riding with me, or have something of decent size to take along, the Regal is just less of a headache. Once car companies offered coupe like power and handling in their 4-door models the result is a no brainer.

 

The Coupe market did tank, it seems to be coming back but it will never be what it once was. It seems that trucks took over the coupe market for personal trendy transportation.

Really strange, I've been thinking about making a thread on this very subject after looking through a book that with some production number. Never had a chance to get it started.

Like a post said above, there use to be a coupe of everything, Anybody remember Caprice Coupes, Celebrity Euro Coupe, Berettas, Malibu coupe.

Here are some random coupe production #s from the late 70s

1977 Caprice Coupe: 130,365
1977 Chrysler Cordoba: 183,146
1977 Ford Thunderbird: 318,140
1977 Olds Cutlass Supreme Coupe: 242,874

1978 Monte Carlo: 358,191
1978 Pontiac Grand Prix: 228,444
1978 Ford Thunderbird: 352,751

1979 Cadillac Eldorado: 67,436
1979 Olds Toronado: 50,000
1979 Lincoln Mark V: 75,939
1979 Ford Mustang: 369,936
1979 Chevy Camaro: 282,571

The 1978 Caprice/Impala was the best selling car in the country that year with 612,397 units, the full-size car segment was huge back then.

 

I believe the '96 model year had a short run, to start production of the 30th Anniversary cars before Aug. 2006 for the debut at the Brickyard 400 that year. Same goes for 2001 model year and the 2002 model year.

 

Could it be from;
coupes shrinking in size...?
larger families...?(3 kids or more vs 1 or 2)
safety issues...perceived or real...?
INSURANCE costs...?(Cobalt SS @ $500 or more/year for 30something's here.)
?????
Maybe some of all the above....

 

I think larger families are on a decline, mostly because most people can't afford to raise a large family in today's world. On the other hand you do have the welfare people that keep punching out babies to get more checks from the govt.

 

I dunno. Seems pretty straightforward to me. That's about the time that they started putting airbags in cars and you could no longer put child seats in the front. Suddenly, owning a coupe becomes a major pain in the *** for 70% of car buyers - people with children.

It doesn't help that coupe manufacturers never put the front seatbelts into the seats and continue to anchor them to the B-pillars, leaving a maze of belts to entangle one's self in while getting in and out of the back or trying to load a baby seat back there. Honestly, if they'd anchor them in the seats, it'd be a lot easier to deal with coupes and a forward facing child seat wouldn't be so bad.

I'd wager that the Monte continues to sell because it has - unlike most other coupes left on the market - a real back seat. Hell, I'd be pretty happy if someone came out with an RX-8 type "4" door car with decent power and fuel economy (i.e. not a slow gas sucking rotary).

 

Or they can't afford to do anything except the oldest form of entertainment...besides they can't buy new coupes or cars.
But I'd wager it has more to do with fast rising insurance premiums.

 

Intresting. My figures are production and not sales, plus my computer crash last year wiped out (among other things) my sales stats, so maybe we have a production/sales descrepency here.

The figures I have are:

1995=122,844
1996=66,827
1997=95,812
1998=77,198
1999=42,098

We're going to need to get the referees in here on this one.

 

Ya know, that is perhaps the most amazing explaination I've heard yet... and it makes 100% sense too.

That's also about the same time states started making laws about not having child seats up front too.

The child seat point I think nails it, but as far as the belts hindering rear entry for everyone else, I doubt it. We've had those belts since the mid 70s, and managed to sell record numbers of coupes quite a few years since then.

 

I too think it was the car seat that did the coupe market in. And for the record as a child of the 70s, my parents never used car-seats (they were perfectly happy letting us jump around in the back of the LTD - Country Squire S/W).

Here some dates for you:

1970 - First protective infant car seat
1978 - First state mandatory child restraint use law passed
1981 - First car seat crash test standard
1985 - Child restraint use laws in all 50 states
1990 - Child restraint use estimated at 40 percents
So 60% of America was still pulling a Britney
1999 - Introduction of universal child restraint systems standard

BTW, there is still a coupe market in CA. I counted no less than 10 Scion-tCs during a 20 mi drive. I found it interesting that no 2 of them were identical, they all had some "custom" features (wheels/spoilers/paint/ground effects). Give people options and they will buy.

 

Try putting a baby in a baby seat through those belts....