Car Segments Demystified | learning

Car segments are integral to the Industry. Without this, it is rather difficult to imagine what the scene would be. If you spend time reading car stuff, you certainly have come across terms like A-segment or B-segment or C-segment and so on. The car industry, for the sake of better understanding of competition and its own product offerings, has identified and categorized cars into different segments.  Government regulation, safety regulation, car-related taxation systems around the world are some other reasons that demand car segments to be defined.

The Americans, as usual, have their own version and prefer to use definitive terms like micro car, compact car, mid size luxury car and so on. On the other hand, the Europeans prefer to denote segments by alphabets. Hence A, B, C, D segments and so on.

Now here’s insider information. In the past 12 years or so that I have been writing about cars, more often than not, one comes across a member of the fraternity – car journo or someone from the advertising or PR agency that works on a car account, in rare cases, even someone working with an automotive brand, who has little or absolutely no idea of what the car segments are about. The only exposure to these terms is through a presentation that has been well rehearsed and therefore there is a familiarization to the segment in reference. Talk to them about any other segment and the facial expressions change.

That brings me to a question, if this is the case with people in the know, then what be it for the consumer who is out there to buy a car? How much do they understand of the car segments canvas? Having said this, whether or not, or how much these industry segmentations reflect in consumers purchase decision is a completely different issue and I refuse to get dragged into that debate at this point in time.

Here is an attempt to demystify the world of car segments – we are no Gods and if you disagree with anything in the chart below – good, talk to us and we will present our case.

American	European	Examples
Sub compact car	A-segment mini-cars	Ford Ka, VW Up
	B-segment small cars	Ford Fiesta, VW Polo, Kia Rio
Compact cars	C-segment medium cars	Ford Focus, VW Golf
Mid-size car	D-segment large cars	Ford Mondeo, Hyundai Sonata
Entry level luxury car		Audi A4, Mercedes C-Class, BMW 3-Series
Full size car	E-segment executive cars	Ford Taurus, Chevrolet Impala
Mid-size luxury car		Lexus GS, BMW 5-Series, Jaguar XF
Full size luxury car	F-segment luxury cars	Audi A8, Cadillac XTS, Lexus LS
Sports cars	S-segment sports coupes	Chevrolet Corvette, Porsche 911, Ferrari 458 Italia
Grand tourer		Jaguar XK, Maserati Gran Turismo
Super car		Bugatti Veyron, Ferrari Enzo
Convertible		BMW 6-Series, Mercedes CLK
Roadster		Audi TT, Mazda MX-5, Porsche Boxster
Mini SUV	J-segment sports utility cars	Suzuki Jimny, Jeep Wrangler
Compact SUV		Honda CR-V, Kia Sportage, Ford Escape
Mid size SUV		VW Touareg, Chevrolet Tahoe, Jeep Grand Cherokee
Full size SUV		Toyota Land Cruiser, Range Rover, Cadillac Escalade,

 

For the sake of simplicity, multi purpose vehicles and pick up trucks have been kept out of the chart above.

I hope this information will clear some clouds and come in handy.

Tags: Business_Finance, Learning