Cheap Gas Boosts SUV Sales

Three bucks a gallon is cheap gas?

Long, long ago, back in 2006, $2/gal was considered a normal 'winter price,' with the cost going up to the 'annoying' $3/gal for the summer driving season.

And looking further back, to 2005, $2/gal would have been called 'expensive' for gas.

This is a nation of idiots with three-second goldfish memories.

Yeah, my thoughts exactly. Cheap, relative to what? I still drive to conserve and I wouldn't buy an SUV unless I needed the capability. I bought a 2002 'Burb back when we had four up and coming teenagers and a camper trailer to pull. Use the car and motorcycle whenever possible and not drive the pig.

I always felt it was a ploy on the consumers short term memory (about 15 minutes).

I have notice gas prices would continue to rise through a period of months?... $0.50-$0.75/gallon, And then take a sudden $0.07-$0.10/gallon drop. and the buzz was how cheap gas was and feel good about it...... if the consumer had more than a short term memory they had realized that the gas is actually up $0.65 more a gallon just a few months or even weeks past.

Like I said, just a ploy.

But it wasn't that long ago it was under $2.00/gallon...... I think but can't remember.

Yeah, too bad there isn't someplace you can look at gas prices in a proper historical reference, even if it only started recording a decade ago....

Oh wait, there is such a place!

http://www.chicagogasprices.com/Retail_Price_Chart.aspx

There are so many parts of this story that are misleading or set with poor examples.

While it is true that gas prices started dropping six months ago, the drop was short lived, after gas prices dropped for approximately one month, gas prices rose back to where they were in the previous month. As for the decline, since it was a short term decline, that negates any cost savings for the average consumer. Americans don't buy SUV's and trucks because of some mentality of a love affair or a fashion, Americans buy large cars because they have a need for them. The 25.1 mpg figure quoted here has little to do with bigger cars as mentioned in the text, the 25.1 mpg figure is the fleet average, in other words, that is the average number calculated by all of the cars in a manufacturers fleet, not just the bigger cars but the smaller ones as well.

Here's another area: First the writer says " which made SUV's and trucks a little more affordable " , then says " are not hesitant to spend a couple thousand dollars more on a bigger vehicle" , Let's check the accuracy of those statements, currently a 2015 Nissan Versa can be purchased for about $ 10 k u.s. whereas a Ford F150 pickup will set back a buyer about 27 k u.s. , not exactly anywhere near a couple thousand or a little more affordable, is it ?

As for quoting a current american president who incidentally hasn't drove a car or paid for a drop of gasoline in almost 10 years is almost hilariously stupid.

Next there is the statement " if the economy keeps growing at this pace ( there is no mention in the story of what that pace is (%) ) reducing the unemployment rate further ( labor statistics show that the biggest gains in employment have been in the lowest wage service industries, not in higher wage professional technical and white collar industries)

I think Steve Martin said it best when he said " Americans have such a short memory, Does anybody remember when the earth blew up ? ".

Those that do not know history keep making the same mistakes.

What I know is most of the people I know who who drive larger vehicles all have the same concepts in mind.

Bigger vehicles and their occupants survive crashes far better than the little vehicles they crashed into. Also for us larger framed people like those of us who come from the generic lines where 6'+ 240+ #'s is just an average build bigger vehicles are so much more comfortable and easier to get in and out of.

Where I live the vast majority of people drive larger pickups and SUV's and everyone has seen accidents where smaller econo vehicles went up against a larger SUV or pickup and no matter how good of crash rating the smaller vehicle had it was pretty clear in a real world collision the larger vehicle and its occupants still came out better.

I don't know about you but I do know that for those who walked away from a crash with a few black and blue marks VS the people who had the small vehicle that spent months in the hospital and in rehab or were simply dead that extra fuel spent to drive the larger vehicle was well worth it.

I am in the auto industry and the story is correct.

A year ago, people were extremely concerned about gas mileage. What were the hot sellers (in the order of hottest categories)? For commuter cars, it was the Prius, Corolla and Civic. For SUV's, it was the CR-V, RAV-4 and Highlander. For midsize family cars, it was the Accord, Camry and Altima. For entry level luxury, it was the 320i, 328i, C250, CLA 250, IS 250, ES 350, ES 300h, CTS and A4. For large vehicles, it was the Silverado, Sienna, Odyssey, F150, Tacoma and Tundra. And for luxury vehicles, it was the 528i and E350.

What's selling now (in order of hottest categories)? For SUV's (the new hot car), it's the Highlander, Explorer, Pilot, RX 350, Grand Cherokee, Toureg, Escalade/Yukon/Tahoe, Range Rover, Q5, MDX, XC60, QX60 and X5. For entry level luxury cars, it's the 328i, C300, ES 350, Q40, Q50 and M3. For midsize family cars, it's the Accord, Altima and Camry. For large vehicles, it's the Sienna, Odyssey, Silverado, Tacoma and Tundra. For commuter cars, it's the Prius plug in, Corolla, Civic and Versa. And for luxury vehicles, it's the S550, 535, A8 and Panamera.

My clients are now buying bigger, more expensive and less fuel efficient cars. In fact, most are leasing vs buying, which typically happens as you move up the food chain. There are a few buyers looking for a Corolla or Civic, but the ones who were forced to buy a small commuter have now moved up and the market for those cars is back to what it was in the early to mid 00's

What I do I conclude? That we Americans love to drive larger, more comfortable cars. I guess I'm guilty too, because we just bought an Odyssey about 4 months ago and this month a Pilot - both cars get stinky gas mileage.