High prices don't deter gas guzzling

Everyone knows that $4 gasoline in 2008 finally led Americans to abandon their gas guzzlers and start buying gas sippers – right?

Turns out, everyone is wrong.

According to a new report released with little fanfare last week by the Environmental Protection Agency, Americans bought vehicles in 2008 that averaged only 0.4 mpg better than a year earlier, when gas cost nearly 50 cents less.

Yes, some car buyers looked for ways to drive cheaper. Some dealers ran out of highly efficient hybrids. And many gas guzzlers sat ignored on dealers’ lots.

But the price of gas – which had been increasing every year since 2002 – wasn’t enough to significantly alter the fleet-wide fuel economy of 2008 cars and light trucks. Indeed, mileage has been essentially unchanged for more than a decade.

So much for conventional wisdom (and the argument of economists and auto executives) that market forces – that is, more-expensive gasoline – will lead Americans to demand the most fuel-efficient vehicles.

Baltimore Sun