FWD V6 automatic 4 door

[mjoekingz28]

Is this what the US has become and since when? Did the Taurus start this movement and what is so great about this mostly 4 door?

Is it the most practical car for some reason, or cost effective or just because they're popular?

I've owned a FWD V6 5spd Sunbird is the closest I've had, but I drive for a living and while I'm sure not accurate I'd guess that at least 75% of the cars I see are FWD V6 automatic 4 doors, probably more like 90-95% if you count out trucks.


Moreover, they seem to be beginning to all look the same as well.

 

[simple_gifts]

I don't even have a family, and even I find a 2 door DD useless.

 

[Vizzy]

I hate sedans...

In my 54 years I have ALWAYS owned small hatchbacks and will likely own nothing else! I mean seriously a sedan is less practical and usually they look more formal as well. I hate that look, sporty and practical is what gets my dollar every time.

 

[Colt45ws]

How is a sedan less practical?

 

[saberz]

While i loved my hatchback tC it was annoying getting things in and out of the back seat, especially people. My 01 Impala was a nice looking sedan, bought it new at 21 with my parents help. tC came after, and the g6 sedan is both sporty and functional.

 

[cchase]

I almost never like the way 4-door vehicles look.

 

[CROWNVIC4LIFE]

Originally Posted By: Colt45ws
How is a sedan less practical?

+1

 

[ls1mike]

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
I don't even have a family, and even I find a 2 door DD useless.

I am glad you said "I find", because the Trans Am has served me well.

 

[dishdude]

You can squeeze a lot of bulky and large objects in a hatchback that you otherwise couldn't with a 4 door sedan. Problem is, the selection of hatchbacks in this country is pretty limited.

 

[scurvy]

Originally Posted By: Colt45ws
How is a sedan less practical?
Hatchbacks can fit more cargo in a physically smaller vehicle. The passenger compartment is generally the same size. Compare the mk4 Jetta & Golf. The latter is 19 cm shorter (Golf: 4,188 mm OAL / Jetta: 4,380 mm OAL) and has more cargo capacity, even moreso with the rear seats folded.

 

[Colt45ws]

Okay, I can see that. Though, if I was carrying a lot of cargo with any regularity, I would buy a pickup or suv.

 

[sciphi]

Hatches are practical and fun. Sedans give up some practicality.

Having sedans, wagons, hatches, and minivans in the family, the most useful vehicles are the ones with a giant rear opening.

Having owned a small wagon and now a large sedan, they are roughly about as useful. The sedan can haul just as much. I have to be far more creative in packing the sedan, though.

 

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted By: sciphi
Hatches are practical and fun. Sedans give up some practicality.

Having sedans, wagons, hatches, and minivans in the family, the most useful vehicles are the ones with a giant rear opening.

Having owned a small wagon and now a large sedan, they are roughly about as useful. The sedan can haul just as much. I have to be far more creative in packing the sedan, though.

It's abit hard to creatively pack a big item like a dishwasher, or even an office chair in some sedans, plus many sedans have tiny slots for truck openings... Like a recycling box is hard or impossible to put in...
More cars should be 4 door full length hatch backs or wagons IMO, not like a golf(trunkless jetta).
The old Elantra GT was a good example of what I'd like at the minimum. Or more cars like the Mazda5, it could seat 6 or 7 or could haul a lot of big items, or could go for a spirited drive down a windy road.

 

[scurvy]

Originally Posted By: Colt45ws
Though, if I was carrying a lot of cargo with any regularity, I would buy a pickup or suv.


The joy of a hatchback is being able to carry people 99% of the time and a huge amount of cargo 1% of the time, without the fuel economy or difficulty in parking or handling with a truck or SUV.

 

[eljefino]

You can't even have one kid anymore with a two-door car, they have to be in car seats until middle school and the passenger airbag does them no favors.

Irks me at the waste of space in the name of "safety". At least the dog can ride shotgun. (For now)

They have to be helped with their carseat harnesses, which are deliberately designed to be too stiff for them to get in and out of on their own, in the backs of coupes, even if they can scramble into the seat ok on their own.

Taurus does a lot of stuff right, as far as packaging, and bringing decent handling to the everyman's car. The wagon was a good deal too. Taurus "MT5", some cutlass cieras, and chrysler k-cars came with inline 4s and even rare stick shifts.

 

[97tbird]

I have to have a 2-door coupe - can't stand 4 door cars - they lack the "personal"/"driver's car" feeling so much.

This limits my choices in new/used segments drastically, as I need a car with a bit of "oomph" than a regular grocery getter, but at the same time looks "adult"

 

[PandaBear]

The birth of child seat basically kills the 2 door market years ago, especially the mid size 2 door market.

 

[97tbird]

Yeah, that's annoying - especially when we know for sure that's something we will never need.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Sedans generally come with fewer engineering compromises compared with hatches. A hatch generally has to have a very compact rear suspension (to accomodate the low load floor), which often comes with compromises to ride/handling. All else being equal, there's also a chassis stiffness penalty from not having cross braces behind the rear seat. In addition, road noise can be more of an issue in hatches because you get a lot of the rear tire noise that the trunk otherwise mutes. In an old issue of Motor Trend, where they went through the 2003 COTY candidates, they actually preferred the new 2003 Corolla to the new 2003 Matrix, even though the Matrix was billed and marketed as the "sporty" version, because the Corolla had better chassis stiffness and better dynamics compared with the Matrix.

On the other hand, there's no getting around a hatch's utility. If you can only have, or prefer to have, only one vehicle, a hatch is a good choice. I really like station wagons, and miss the "full" station wagon (not like the mini-wagons, like the Matrix, Imprezza, etc). All a hatchback is is a short station wagon.

Coupes become almost irrelevant to folks with families. And while that doesn't directly affect those withOUT kids, it indirectly affects them because the vast majority of the new car market is those with families, meaning that folks actively looking for coupes can be measured in the fractions of a percentage point. A very small audience = a very small product selection.

 

[saberz]

Granted my tC had a big storage area with seats folded down(brought my TV home in it) but there are limitations personally on patience with them.

My Impala had a mafia trunk, I could fit anything in that, I carried loads of 2x4 with the seats down, piping etc because there was so much room back there.

The G6 has about 1/3 the storage my Impala did which is a shame, I like to transport people to places they've never been....