The landscape of the automotive aftermarket and tire industry promises to change in the coming two decades, thanks to decisions that two of the Big Three domestic auto makers made in 2018.
With the unprecedented surge in sales of light trucks, SUVs and CUVs, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. both announced they were discontinuing production of most of their sedans in 2019.
By 2020, almost 90 percent of Ford's North American model lineup will consist of trucks, SUVs, CUVs and commercial vehicles.
Ford will discontinue five key models: the Fiesta, C-MAX, Focus, Fusion and Taurus. By 2020, the auto maker will sell just two sedans in North America: the Mustang, a high-performance pony car, and the forthcoming Focus Active, which has a higher ground clearance than the current Ford Focus, similar to a crossover.
GM, meanwhile, will cut production of the Chevrolet Volt, the auto maker's first plug-in EV hybrid; the Cadillac CT6; the Cadillac XTS and Buick LaCrosse luxury sedans; the Chevrolet Cruze; and the Chevrolet Impala.
The auto maker also announced it was reducing 15 percent of its 54,000 North American salaried jobs, including a quarter of its global executives, and close two unidentified plants in the world by the end of next year.
GM did not say definitively it would close three North American plants — in Oshawa, Ontario; Lordstown, Ohio; and Hamtramck, Mich. — but rather that it would end production there and not designate them any new vehicles to build.
Meanwhile, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V., which announced in late 2016 that it no longer would make the Chrysler 200 and Dodge Dart, said its U.S. plants will be focusing entirely on pickups and SUVs for the Ram and Jeep brands.
Other sedans will be made abroad.
While the aftermarket figures to continue to produce parts for those discontinued models for the foreseeable future, it stands to reason that the percentage of trucks, SUVs and CUVs needing service will continue to increase.