After paying $75 to fill his black Dodge Ram pickup truck for the third time in a week, Douglas Chrystall couldn’t take it anymore. Feeling pinched at the pump, and guilty as well, Chrystall, a 39-year-old father from Wellesley, is putting ads online to sell the truck, and the family’s other gas-guzzler, a Jeep Grand Cherokee. He knows it will be tough to unload them because he is one of a growing number of consumers downsizing to smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. Americans are turning away from the boxy, four-wheel-drive vehicles that have for years dominated the nation’s highways. Sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks – symbols of Americans’ obsession with horsepower, size, and status – are falling out of favor as consumers rich and poor encounter sticker shock at the pump, paying upward of $80 to fill gas tanks. “The SUV craze was a bubble and now it is bursting,” said George Hoffer, an economics professor at Virginia Commonwealth University whose research focuses on the automotive industry. “It’s an irrational vehicle. It’ll never come back.”
With stocks of unwanted new SUVs and pickups piling up at dealerships across the country, automakers are offering unprecedented promotions. Incentives for large SUVs, including cash rebates, topped $4,000 in March, or more than double those offered in March 2002, according to Edmunds.com, which monitors the motor industry.
I think I’ll hang on to mine at least until the election. Besides, I may need it for shelter, until then I’ll be riding a different Hog.
It’s about fucking time.
“It’s about fucking time.”
And here i thought it was about fucking the environment.
Who could have seen it coming?
Now, a question. Why does the smart car, which should get about 100 mpg given its size, get worse gas mileage than a Prius, which is fairly large and durned heavy?
but my pig’s fartz are the only thing powering my house……..
Hey Mr Chrystall how does it feel to own both the SUV [Jeep Cherokee] and the pickup [Dodge Ram] with the worst gas millage. Guess you didn’t do your homework.
It’s as if supply and demand actually works and stuff.
He’s not Filling up more like Topping off. Dodge Ram has a 35 Gallon tank. Here is the flaw in his Plan. Unless he can get trade evenly for another car he will loose out. If he trades for a loss how much fuel would that loss buy? My Dodge Ram is paid off and Runs fine now. Lets say he gets a car that get 30 MPG Highway and Ram 20MPG. Drives 15,000 miles a year. Thats 500 Gallons for the Car and 750 for the Ram. At $3.50/Gallon of gas. $2,625 for the Ram and $1,750 for Car. A difference of $875 a year. He would have to buy a very Cheap Car. That doesn’t include if his insurance rates change.
A few years a ago I figured Gas would have to hit $5.00/Gallon to pay for the option package of a Cheap Hybrid.
I just have to remember to keep my foot off the gas pedal … I got a turbo. (ouch)
Here in Knoxville TN the SUV’s and big pickups still rule the road. I see these knuckleheads filling up and I laugh my ass off.
My theory is that about half of SUV owners are wealthy and can afford the high gas prices and the other half bought them as status symbols and are having a hard time keeping them. Everyday I see people driving huge vehicles just to go to the grocery store. Few really need these beasts but they want people to think they have money. They get what they deserve.
#6 – Thomas – It’s as if supply and demand actually works and stuff.
Yep, it works… not only when it comes to oil, but food…
The military should buy these pigs and invade the next country with Ford Explorers.
I would think 2,000 Ford Explorers swarming the terrorists would more effective than one armored personal vehicle for the same cost.
Jetfire:
“A few years a ago I figured Gas would have to hit $5.00/Gallon to pay for the option package of a Cheap Hybrid.”
You’ve got a few months.
Over on The Truth About Cars they noticed that Dodge is offering a wopping $13k off sticker now.
…Folsom Lake Dodge store selling a Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab SLT 4×2 for $19,995. That’s $12,800 off the $32,795 sticker price
Post comments indicate that is becoming the norm now.
http://tinyurl.com/5qbkb7
[Please use TinyUrl.com for overly long URLs. – ed.]
The military should buy these pigs and invade the next country with Ford Explorers.
Actually, Ford Exploders and other full sized SUVs and Pickups would make great ammo for the Navy’s Rail Guns. An SUV slamming into a target at 5640 mph will do a LOT of damage.
Read about it here:
http://tinyurl.com/ysxcjf
[Please use TinyUrl.com for overly long URLs. – ed.]
I get 20-22mpg on trip with my Grand Cherokee. I can live with that for awhile.
I often marvel at the fact that no one mentions the millions of gallons of fuel wasted in recreational boating and flying. If you drive around any body of water, they are loaded with boats, often very big boats, just driving back and forth for no productive reason.
Start cutting back on boats, recreational flying and other non-essential fuel consumption and I’ll consider a more efficient vehicle.
Janky-O, good point. Some of these cars are a fraction of the size/weight of an SUV and while they do get better gas mileage, it doesn’t seem to be proportional. Is it that SUVs’ have larger engines that don’t “work” as hard driving 65? Motorheads, feel free to jump in here.
I’ve got a ’99 Toyota Tacoma pickup with a 4 cylinder engine, 25 to 29 MPG. No worries.
I still say a Toyota Yaris a good bang for the buck. 40+MPG – half the price of a hybrid – and is a great commuter car. Good warranty. Like #7 said – the math doesn’t come anywhere near justifying a hybrid.
Also have a couple of big v-twin cruiser motorcycles. 40+mpg 1/2 the price of a comparable Harley. Paid $600 for the 5 year unlimited mileage warranty.
My new baseline is 40mpg and drive/ride them till they fall apart. With proper maint they should last a while.
#3 – Janky-O, I don’t know why the smart’s aren’t better for fuel economy, either. They aren’t as light as the size suggests, probably due to the steel roll cage for safety, but that doesn’t account for it all. I drive a smart fortwo diesel, and average 3.55 litres/100km (about 66mpg US), which is better than a Prius but should still be even more efficient than it is.
If more diesel models of passenger vehicles were available in the US, that would go a long way towards reducing oil demand. But then that would just lower the price of oil again, raising the sales of SUVs. Vicious circle.
$12,800 off the $32,795 sticker price. At $4.00 per gallon, that’s 3200 gallons of gas. If the vehicle gets 20 mpg, that’s 64,000 miles! This is great! Time to go shop for one.
i am so going to buy a big ass SUV from some sucker for cheap now! it’s a good thing i’ve been holding out.
Time to buy an SUV. I expect gas prices will go down soon. First of all there’s an election, so expect some sort of tomfoolery just like in 2006.
Also, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve should take about 7 years to fill, so those contracts will be running out this year, unless they’ve made the reserve bigger. That’s more oil coming onto the market. The only counterpoint is if Iran decides to raise prices and does some more warmongering.
On top of that, Hillary is likely to sell oil in the SPR either in 2009 or 2010 just before the midterm elections.
How does a foreigner say it, without sounding angry? It’s nice that your troops are fighting in Iraq for such a good cause.
To my surprise my neighbor just bought two navigators. She claims she saved almost $20,000 on the pair. And can buy a lot of gas for that. It works out in her head.
Mr Chrystall is just your typical/average sheeple/American, like most people in this blog.
SUVs where the “American In Thing/Way of doing business” so he buys a Jeep Cherokee and Dodge Ram. He is such the great American, it is more then worth expending America youth to die for Oil profits.
God Bless Exxon, God Bless Mobile, God Bless Texaco…. and God Bless Bush.
American Sheeple Rule!!!!!!!!!
Christ, MikeN is making sense to me. As much as I wish I were a tree-hugger, it ain’t goin’ to happen. Just like I’m not going to quit eating beef/pig/people either.
I’m thinking this is the time to buy a SUV and soon gas prices will drop; and, if not, the savings thing will equal out, no? Plus, don’t discount the comfort of driving a SUV (which heretofore I couldn’t afford) against driving a Smart TwoFor!
I mean you drive one of those in my area and you’re just waiting to have your ass kicked! (Oh yeah, with an SUV I can move to a more civilized State in less trips…imagine hauling your shitz across country in a Smart TwoFor!).
I’ve been laughing my ass off at pathetic sheep who buy these huge trucks and SUVs for years. So desperate to feel successful, they run up huge debt in a vain attempt to keep up with the Joneses.
To those of you thinking that gas is due to go down and that makes the savings on a big truck/SUV work out, it’s obvious you haven’t been paying attention to the news. China’s demand for oil is exponentially increasing, and oil has never been more expensive. It’s not going to magically go down for the election, and, if it were, it’d shoot right back up after.
Go ahead though and waste your dough on a status symbol. I’ll be the one laughing as you fill up.
#27, said, “I’ll be the one laughing as you fill up.”
Yeah, you and the Joneses [sic]. God how my wife hates the Joneses[sic]; as does Robert Downey Jr.
The bubble should have burst years ago. But Tv advertising (and a compliant Congress) kept everyone thinking that just couldn’t live without these gas hogs. Basically, they’re a combination of the 1920s carriage style cars, and 1990s pickup trucks. Years of a republican controlled congress allowed their makers to slide by on the mileage standards. Classifying a car as a truck. And relatively cheap gas, kept most from caring how awful they performed, and how dirty their exhaust was. And Al Gore never said a word about them.
#19 My ford focus 1.8 turbo diesel gets around 560miles to a 15 gallon tank(600 if I ran it dry). Diesels are definitely the way to go.