“Are we doomed to a life of CUVs then?” Maybe not: Cue Toyota.
The Sedan market is Toyota’s (and Honda’s) bread and butter, they love this segment. They have good recognition in this segment from the Accord and Camry (don’t forget the Corolla and Civic). They have good brand loyalty (somewhat blindly at that) and had very good sales in this segment. Compact and Mid-size is where Toyota and Honda shine because it’s basically their segment (like the Minivan is for Chrysler). To watch the segment die out slowly isn’t what they want.
Yes, the Accord (and equivalent vehicles for Toyota) do bring people in only to buy their CUV or Crossover offerings. While not terrible, they still want people to buy the cars they can’t help but practically drool over when it comes to making them. This is why Toyota is marketing the new Camry as a far more sporty model compared to the Camry’s of yore (to go along with their more driver-focused chassis setup as well). This is also why Honda is being more daring with the new Accord’s design. They’re trying to get people interested in Sedans again to bump up their sales. If any two automakers could bring up the sales in the sedan market its Toyota and Honda.
With this being said, we need to discuss the elephant in the room.