“The compact SUV is very similar to a midsize car, only taller with more flexible cargo capacity,” said Jessica Caldwell, a senior analyst for automotive-pricing website Edmunds.com.
Safety also is a driving force in this shift. Craig, who works at the local water utility in Greenville, South Carolina, said his wife feels more secure in the RAV4 because she rides above traffic.
“People feel safer when they are up higher and have a better view of the road,” Caldwell said. “Whether it’s true or not, that doesn’t matter because that’s the perception.”
Lower Driver-Death Rate
In this case, reality does match perception: Small SUVs have a death rate of 23 driver deaths per 1 million vehicles, compared with 35 for midsize cars, according to an analysis of federal crash data by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
The SUVs have a weight advantage, “and more weight is protective in crashes,” said Russ Rader, an IIHS spokesman. “There’s also a safety advantage in sitting up higher in the vehicle because that puts a driver a little above the point of impact in crashes.
All these attributes have given compact SUVs cross- generational appeal. Baby boomers, who spurred the SUV craze a quarter-century ago, are moving down from big rigs into the smaller models as their children leave the nest. Those children, who “grew up in SUVs,” now are choosing these vehicles as they enter their baby-on-board years, said Bob Carter, Toyota Motor Corp.’s top U.S. sales executive. “The under-35 millennials are buying ’em up.”
To meet demand, Toyota began importing RAV4s from Japan last year, supplementing the Canadian factory it has going full tilt. Sales of the model jumped 18 percent in 2015, pushing it past Ford’s Escape to become America’s No. 2 best-selling compact SUV.
Carter predicts that within five years, the RAV4 will surpass Camry -- the top-selling car in the U.S. for the last 14 years.
Honda’s CR-V remains the No. 1 compact SUV, with 2015 sales totaling 345,647. It came within 10,000 of topping the Accord sedan, which finished second to the Camry in the car race.
Low gasoline prices around $2 a gallon have helped fuel the latest run on SUVs -- and are even encouraging a revival in compact pickups. But the small SUVs, with car-like fuel economy, don’t depend on cheap gas to sustain sales.
“Improvements over the last five to 10 years have been remarkable,” Schuster said. “There isn’t a big difference now between similarly sized sedans and SUVs.”
The SUVs also have shed their rough-and-ready looks for swoopy styling that borrows more from the sedans they’re replacing than the off-roaders they once aspired to be.
“We’ve moved beyond the boxy, small SUV,” said Mark Wakefield, managing director and head of the Americas automotive group at consultant AlixPartners. “It has evolved into a tall car that drives like a car and has almost no sacrifices.”