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The American car-buying boom is a story about resurgent blue-collar industries. But it is also about another demographic: hipsters. Overall, June auto sales were up 11 per cent, with pick-up trucks getting the bulk of the credit. At Ford and GM, truck sales were up 20 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively, each exceeding overall sales growth. Pickups fit the narrative about broad shouldered industries such as construction and energy powering a macho US economy. This rising tide has lifted GM and Ford shares more than 70 per cent in the past year. Yet Ford has managed to increase its market share over the past year, from 15.7 per cent to 16.5 per cent, by figuring out the needs of effete urban car buyers on the east and west coasts – hipsters, if you will.
The "Super segment" is what Ford calls its smaller cars – Fiesta, Focus, Fusion and C-Max, and the light utility, Escape. The nearly 90,000 units sold of these models exceeded the 85,000 trucks Ford sold in June. Limited space and high petrol costs make compact cars attractive in dense coastal cities. And Ford's revamped designs have enabled it to compete against Japanese stalwarts. And while trucks are more profitable, smaller car sales may have a steadier trajectory. Small and midsize cars account for more than half of U.S. sales, up from a third a decade ago. Baby boomers are swapping their hulking SUVs for something more modest as their kids leave the nest.
Annualised auto sales of nearly 16 million, while the best since the financial crisis, remain lower than a decade ago. Millenials are thought to be more obsessed with tricked-out smartphones than tricked-out cars, and 2012's vehicle miles travelled per capita of 9,400 are the lowest since 1996, according to the Federal Highway Administration. It may be, though, that the weak economy delayed important life decisions for young adults. As the economy rebounds, kids will marry, start families and buy cars. Small cars seem un-American but the U.S. car industry may come to love them.