Though last year’s high gas prices may have pushed some consumers into more fuel efficient rides, with 2015’s low rates, it seems shoppers are making a compromise.

Though not swinging back to full SUVs, TrueCar projects compact utilities will become the top-selling U.S. vehicle segment this year, for the first time.

Backing up this assertion, TrueCar shared that for Q1, market share for compact utilities — with Honda's top-selling CR-V, the Ford Escape, Chevrolet Equinox and Toyota's RAV4 leading the pack — grew to 15.6 percent to beat out compact cars at 15.1 percent and midsize cars at 14.7 percent.

"Car-buyers' shift in preference to utilities from sedans is a clear secular trend we see in TrueCar demand data, transaction price data and sales results," said John Krafcik, president of TrueCar. "Given how well compact utilities meet consumer functionality and fuel-economy needs, smart automakers have leaned into the segment and benefitted from significantly higher revenue and margins."

And predicting full-year results, TrueCar analysts estimate the segment will make up 15.9 percent of total new light vehicles sales. This is compared to compact cars, which is expected to hold 15.1 percent share at the end of the year.

Compact utilities have been gaining steam since 2000. According to TrueCar data, the segment has seen a 12.4-percent spike in market share since the turn of the century. Back in 2000, they only represented 3.2 percent of light vehicle sales.

Two factors have recently combined to ramp that interest in these vehicles even more: low fuel prices and more segment capacity, TrueCar reported.  

And interestingly, compact utilities are the only segment to have seen double-digit discount growth in the past year.

“There is also a relationship between incentives and gasoline prices. When gasoline experiences a notable price drop, compact utility incentives rise,” TrueCar analysts reported. “Since the segment is a large revenue generator with strong margins, automakers prioritize retail incentives over fleet sales to drive volume.”

Honda is performing particularly well in the segment. In fact, the the CR-V was the automaker’s top revenue source in Q1.

According to TrueCar, CR-V generated $2.0 billion, or 26 percent of Honda's $7.7 billion first-quarter revenue. Compare this to the popular Civic, which contributed only $1.3 billion to total Q1 revenue.

"Honda has embraced the secular shift to utility vehicles and made appropriate adjustments in their product and capacity plans," said Krafcik. "CR-V was their best-selling vehicle in April, it's been their highest revenue product this year, and likely drives more total profit to American Honda's bottom-line than any other model."