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Brigitte
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« Reply #31 on: June 01, 2005, 10:11:38 pm » |
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New York Times
May 21, 2005
A Love Affair With S.U.V.'s Begins to Cool
By DANNY HAKIM
DETROIT, May 20 - To believe the commercials, sport utility vehicles can climb the most indomitable mountain, ford any stream and haul around the kids to boot.
But gas prices are a more unconquerable force of nature. With higher prices at the pump sinking in as something more than a blip on the radar, and with several new passenger car models winning back customers, America's love affair with S.U.V.'s is taking a breather.
For the first time in 14 years, the passenger car is actually taking sales back at the expense of S.U.V.'s and other trucks, according to an analysis of auto sales data. The renewed interest in cars over the first four months of the year, while modest, is a pause in what has been the trend in auto sales for the last decade and a half: the soaring growth of the sport utility vehicle as America's preferred family vehicle.
Sales of medium and large sport utility vehicles - like the Ford Explorer and Chevrolet Suburban - have stalled, and the torrid sales growth of large pickups has cooled.
While much of the slack is being taken up by smaller and less bulky S.U.V.'s known as crossovers, overall sales of S.U.V.'s are down 1.7 percent while passenger car sales are up 3.1 percent, according to Wards Automotive, which tracks auto sales.
"I just bought a Ford pickup truck and I wish I wouldn't have bought the darn thing," said Mark House, 45, who was shopping Friday at a Toyota dealership in the Toledo, Ohio, area with his daughter, Monika, 19, who said she wanted a car so she could keep the cost of fill-ups down.
"If gas prices were cheaper, then I'd look into an S.U.V.," she said. "It's the gas."
Mr. House, who owns and manages rental properties, said of his truck, "It's $60 to fill it up, and I don't even want to drive it anymore."
But John Wodarski, a manager at the dealership who has sold cars for 23 years, said talk about gas prices did not always translate into action.
"People rank it up there as one of their biggest concerns, just like losing weight," he said, "but no one ever does anything about it."
Weakness in big trucks is bad news for General Motors and Ford Motor, because they largely rely on big S.U.V.'s and pickup trucks for profits. Asian automakers like Toyota have had a stronger position in sales of cars and crossover vehicles.
G.M. executives say large S.U.V. sales, which are down 15 percent this year industrywide, are weak not because of gas prices but because G.M.'s models are nearing the end of a product cycle. G.M. will introduce redesigned versions of large S.U.V.'s like the Chevy Suburban and Cadillac Escalade next year. Ford executives, by contrast, have cited gas prices as a major factor in their diminished earnings projections. Phil Martens, Ford's vice president for product creation, said recently that "fuel economy has gone from not being in the top 10," among buyer concerns, "to being in the top 5."
Some analysts see a parade of newer car models as the predominant factor.
"Gas prices are having a much more minor effect than they did in the 80's," said Tom Libby, the senior director of industry analysis at the Power information network, a unit of the research and consulting firm J. D. Power & Associates. In fact, gas prices, adjusted for inflation, are not nearly as high as they were in the early 1980's. Mr. Libby said a wave of new midsize luxury cars from brands like Acura, Lexus, BMW and Infiniti were increasing car sales.
Hot sales of hybrid electric cars, like the Toyota Prius, have also helped, though Toyota's Lexus division and Ford are now also offering hybrid S.U.V.'s. Detroit's recent emphasis on making more credible passenger cars has been a major factor. Two notable cars with strong sales have been Ford's redesigned, Mustang and DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler 300 sedan.
"I never wanted a car before - never," said Tamika Cooks, a science teacher at Bellaire High School in Houston, in an interview Friday as she was signing the paperwork for her Chrysler 300C. "But this car has captured my attention. It speaks to me. It calls my name."
Burly and sleek, the 300C has won diverse appeal and convinced many that Detroit can make compelling cars if it is motivated; the rapper Snoop Dogg drives a black 300C. Ms. Cooks preferred satin jade.
"It's soft, it's feminine, it's classy," she said. "When you see it passing by, you have to stop and look."
For Ms. Cooks, gas prices, which are $2.09 a gallon for regular at a Shell station nearby, were not part of her decision, and she said she came close to buying a Lexus S.U.V. The 300C, equipped with a gas guzzling Hemi engine, is hardly akin to a Toyota Prius.
"Gas prices worry me with any vehicle," she said. "One day they're up, the next day they're slightly down."
Cars now account for 46.3 percent of the nation's vehicle market, up from 45.4 percent in the first four months of 2004, according to Ward's. Before this year, cars had been in decline every year since 1991, when they accounted for 67.4 percent of the market. In 1980, cars made up about four-fifths of sales. The growth of light trucks, a regulatory category that includes minivans, S.U.V.'s and pickup trucks, has had broad effects on the nation's oil consumption. The fuel economy of the average new vehicle sold fell to 20.7 miles a gallon in 2003 models from 22.1 miles a gallon in 1988 models. Regulations permit light trucks to consume significantly more gas than cars; the most recent Congressional effort to tighten the regulatory system was defeated in the Senate this week.
Will the growth of cars be sustained? Not likely. Domestic automakers have laid out production plans focusing on more small S.U.V.'s, and Asian automakers are increasing their focus on the pickup truck market, with Toyota building a new pickup truck plant in San Antonio.
"By the end of the decade, sales will be anywhere from two-thirds to three-fourths light trucks," said Haig Stoddard, the manager of industry analysis at Ward's.
Gas could be an X-factor. When prices went up in March, Yves Nau, a nightclub owner in Houston, traded in his GMC Yukon Denali for a Chrysler 300C sedan.
Between savings at the gas pump, lower car payments and insurance bills, he said he was saving $700 a month.
"I feel like I'm the smart guy," he said. "You save money like that and you can't ignore it."
Jeremy Peters, in Toledo, Ohio, and Wendy Grossman, in Houston, contributed reporting for this article. |
