US carmakers face recession as buyers dump traditional sedans for SUVs

Sales of the passenger-car body style that's dominated the industry since the Model T will sink to 21.5 per cent of the US market by 2025, according to researchers

These should be boom times for Detroit. Unemployment is at a half-century low, gasoline is cheap and auto sales in the US were near record levels last year. Yet US carmakers are  closing factories, cutting shifts and laying off thousands of workers. The industry is behaving like a recession has arrived. In one segment of the market, it has.

Detroit is in the grips of a car recession marked by the collapse of demand for traditional sedans, which accounted for half the market just six years ago. Buyers have made a mass exodus out of classic family cars and into sport