[strider3700]

Both ford and GM stocks tanked about a month ago based off weak sales expectations and most market analysts looked at their line up and figure they won't recover anytime soon.
There may still be crazies buying SUV's but lots of people don't want to or aren't able to anymore.

[jimmydean]

I hope the trend continues.

Unfortunately for most it's a pump pain threshold thing rather than a personel choice to waste/pollute less. If current trends hold and summer demand is high it wouldn't be unrealistic to think of $65+ bbl oil this summer which should increase pump pain.

I for one wouldn't mind seeing an increase in tax on gas to further deter large SUV purchases iff that money was invested back into either tax breaks for fuel efficient vehicles or better public transporation infrastructure.

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RiverRat', 'M')y cousin is a sales manager..... He said he is breaking all sorts of records for sales. He said a lot are upside down owners who are over extending themselves.....

[KiddieKorral]

Upside down car owners= owing more than the car is worth.

[RiverRat]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KiddieKorral', 'U')pside down car owners= owing more than the car is worth.

[thorn]

Except for the Prius :

[URL=http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw115386_20050505.htm]
Even used, some Prius hybrid cars selling for above sticker price [/URL]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'L')OS ANGELES (AP) -- Sheila Catoira wanted a fuel-efficient Toyota Prius hybrid so badly, she found a used model online and paid $1,000 more than the car would have cost new.

With the demand for a gas-electric Prius far outstripping supply, some buyers are plunking down a premium for cars that are thousands of miles old. The trade-off: They don't have to wait for months on dealers' waiting lists.

[bruin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RiverRat', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KiddieKorral', 'U')pside down car owners= owing more than the car is worth.

[cube]

I didn't know 10 year loans for cars existed. I thought 7 was the max. Maybe I should get a part time job as a repo-man. I'm quite sure there's no shortage of dead beats out there who are late on their car payments.

[Backtosteam]

I think fuel prices are playing the biggest role, but there seems to have been quite a big backlash against SUV's and their drivers by a significant percentage of the American public. When there were just a few on the road most didn't notice, but now that every other car is a truck or SUV it's seems to be a different story. I'd say about 30% of the people I work with complain constantly how they hate SUV's --- how they almost got smashed by one, cutoff by one or whatever. I don't work with tree huggers either...these are your typical suburban Americans. So I'm thinking some people don't want to be that jerk in the SUV...what do you think? Maybe I'm dreaming.

[Leanan]

And yet...we're using more gas than ever. Gas consumption keeps on growing. Are people trading in their SUVs for smaller cars, then driving more miles to make up for it??

[stepka]

Well, we did have a nice little Dodge intrepid, just right for our family of four, but an 18 wheeler decided he'd rather be in our lane and hit the rear fender of the car in a rainstorm and sent us into a spin, on a busy highway at that. After spinning wildly out of control, we shot across the median and ended up on the other side of the highway, backwards. I got it under control after that, and steered back down into the median. Miraculously, we all four were totally unhurt, not even a scratch, and the car finished taking us where we needed to go.
The trucker took off.
When we got back though, the car was falling apart, so we decided to buy my grandmothers SUV---3/4 ton, 40 gallon gas tank, because she needed to sell it, and we needed a car, and my husband is allergic to car payments. 85 dollars at the gas pump, groan. . .I saw a cartoon once--It was of a busy gas station, and there was a sign on the pump--"Free SUV with a fill up". I think of that everytime I get gas.

[I_Like_Plants]

From what I've read, that same accident in an SUV and you could have all ended up paraplegics.

SUVs ROLL. And apparently people inside them get hurt and hurt badly when that happens.

[Specop_007]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('I_Like_Plants', 'F')rom what I've read, that same accident in an SUV and you could have all ended up paraplegics.
SUVs ROLL. And apparently people inside them get hurt and hurt badly when that happens.

[Antimatter]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('I_Like_Plants', 'F')rom what I've read, that same accident in an SUV and you could have all ended up paraplegics.
SUVs ROLL. And apparently people inside them get hurt and hurt badly when that happens.

[Specop_007]

You guys crack me up. Your blaming OBJECTS for peoples problems. My god.

1) Roll over. Isnt that obvious? If someone buys an SUV then acts suprised when it rolls then really I have to wonder if their smart enough to be driving at all.
2) Seatbelts save lives! Its not just a catchy saying, its the truth. See #1. Now, if your driving a vehicle that has a higher chance of rollover, why wouldnt you wear your seatbelt?
3) Handling - Another "DUR!". Thank you Capt'n Obvious. I had no idea a vehicle weighing up to twice as much, approximately twice as tall and slightly longer would handle any worse then my car. Amazing.
So, since you know it takes longer to stop I've got an idea. Adjust your driving! But no, rather then accept personal responsibility for their actions (Including thier driving) people would rather blame the car. "It doesnt stop as fast, so i wrecked!". Funny. I see it as you were driving to close and couldnt stop in time, type of vehicle be damned.



Not meant as responses to other posts, but as a general fact. You MUST alter your driving style based upon what you drive, where your driving and the current driving conditions.
Just as I dont drive 90 MPH on icy roads, I also dont drive as close to the guy in front of me when I'm in my SUV vs my car.

Its called common sense. I dunno why, because it aint so common anymore.

[The_Toecutter]

A shame how idiots driving SUVs end up driving so wrecklessly that us sports car guys pay out the ass to subsidize their insurance costs. Many don't understand that the tires on many SUVs aren't rated for more than 90 mph, so when some idiot does 110 in one when Ponch and John aren't looking and ends up having a blow out later on down the line killing someone in a smaller vehicle, the insurance company payes it, and passes the costs onto sports car drivers and teenagers, adding a nice hefty profit margin for themselves in the meantime. The tire company gets wrongly blamed when in fact first and formost the idiot driver, then the auto company at fault for not either changing the tire to handle the SUV's top speed, or not putting a governor in the SUV to prevent it from going beyond the tire's rated speed.

Personal responsibility, both on part of asshole corporations, government officials, and individual people, is lacking in this country. If it were paramount, for every gallon of gas people burned, they would also be willing to pay for the medical and property damages associated with the pollution burning that gallon of gas generates, instead of having that come out of our tax dollars as subsidies to do a half-assed job to clean the environment and our personal paychecks in the form of medical bills for asthma attacks, lung damage, ect. Gas would be over $6/gallon if you factored those things in. Add in an oil war or two and constant funding to protect pipelines and this whole gasoline usage is getting mighty costly. Come to think of it, maybe the auto industry ought to pay for the pollution manufacturing its vehicles generates, SUVs taking more materials and generating more pollution than conventional cars over their lifespan.

I refer to SUVs as idiot wagons. You may as well drive a short yellow schoolbus around, for you would be just as high off the ground, in just as large and inherently unstable of a vehicle, just as slow, and you'd look just as retarded. General Motors execs and their ilk meanwhile are laughing their way to the bank as their companies see ever increasing debt, difference made up by Joe Taxpayer. Our hard earned tax dollars subsidizing people's ignorant choices of vehicles, again. GM is $300 billion in debt. Let them die already, and maybe Herr Bushkin should push to refund our hard-earned money while they're at it(Not bloody likely, goddamn ass-branded corporate whore).

Want to redeem yourself? If you can, ditch the SUV and switch to bicycles, buses, or rail if it is more economically prudent(In the US, it's usually not for buses and trains given the lack of meaningful mass transit here, which also happens to be overpriced. God bless the auto industry for buying out all the trolley systems and destroying them...).
Or alternatively, if you absolutely need a car, or could do without one but want one for sporting purposes(ie. racing), go electric. The automakers aren't offering, so you'll have to build it yourself out of an existing gas vehicle or pay some small company $40,000+ to hand build you one.
Don't like that option? Perhaps ditch the SUV and get an old Geo Metro. That can seat four, is relatively safe, and will get excellent gas mileage.
Choices, choices...

[I_Like_Plants]

SpecOp I'd more easily drive a car forgetting to put my clothes on than my seatbelt on, the habit's that strong. It's a good habit, seatbelts save lives!

But, SUVs are built to different, much lower, standards than coupes and sedans, you ought to look into this. They are literally not only much more dangerous to others on the road, but to their occupants.

[Specop_007]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('I_Like_Plants', 'S')pecOp I'd more easily drive a car forgetting to put my clothes on than my seatbelt on, the habit's that strong. ... They are literally not only much more dangerous to others on the road, but to their occupants.

[I_Like_Plants]

SUVs are MUCH more dangerous for other people on the road. Geez, do some research on this.

[The_Toecutter]

Simple physics.
Momentum = mass x velocity
Impulse = (mass x velocity) / time
The impulse kills. The SUV driver has an advantage in that the occupants of the SUV are subjected to less impulse than those occupants of the compact car the SUV collides with since the mass of the SUV allows the SUV to have a slower rate of change in momentum, giving the smaller car it collides with a faster change in momentum.
This also can be illustrated through Jello Biafra's song Yuppie Caddilac:
http://www.alternativetentacles.com/octopodes/876/RsknINIOetFlscTqg78/Jello_Biafra_The-Yuppie_Cadillac.mp3



Myself? I'm eventually going to keep a Sawnoff in my Triumph. Any drunk asshole pulls a hit and run and I'll blow their fucking tires out, pull them out of their idiot wagon, and beat the shit out of them.