Hyundai Genesis Coupe

Japanese automakers have been quietly building the strongest design portfolio in the world, and the automotive press is only now catching up to what has been happening. This did not happen overnight. It is the result of a philosophy shift that started in Hiroshima with one mid-size brand and spread outward in ways that are still playing out...

Every few months a new obituary gets written for the sedan. Sales are down. Automakers are canceling models. The crossover has won. The four-door is finished. And every time someone writes that obituary, the Toyota Camry sells another 300,000 units, the Honda Accord moves another 200,000, and the Tesla Model 3 quietly becomes one of the best-selling vehicles on the planet. The sedan is not dead. A specific group of automakers decided it was not worth their effort, walked away, and then pointed at falling sales as proof the customer did not want it anymore...

In 1990 the ten best-selling vehicles in America included sedans, coupes, and a handful of trucks. By 2005 the list was unrecognizable. By 2015 it was almost entirely trucks and SUVs. By 2023 Ford had stopped selling passenger cars in the United States entirely except for the Mustang, which survives only because it is culturally untouchable...