Edmunds.com | Inside Line | Auto Observer Your Account | Help | Directory
You are here:
![[F]](http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com/media/townhall/webxicons/site.gif){kind=small}
Forums
Automotive News & Views How does gas at $4 and higher impact you?
2183 messages, Last post on Nov 21, 2009 at 5:13 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
|
|
|---|---|
|
Replying to: boaz47 (Feb 13, 2009 6:10 pm) Same as some might pay extra for an in-dash NAV system or HID headlights. Or a Porsche.
|
|
|
Replying to: nippononly (Feb 13, 2009 7:00 pm) The first SUVs were just pickups with a shell manufactured on the back and a walk through bulkhead. They weren't any more expensive than the Pickups they replaced and they were no more expensive comparatively than one of the old full sized station wagons they replaced. I had a early RamCharger, my friends had Broncos, and Blazers so I remember quite well how they started. ( I give up my age talking about Broncos and Travelall, and Scouts. Once it was discovered what the customer wanted they slowly made more Utes and started adding features and called them SUVs. But had they started by asking 10 percent more than a Pickup they would have never become as popular as they did. People would just have bought a base pickup and added a camper shell. And how poplar did SUVs become? Ask Porsche, MB, BMW and Lexus. But we now see the price of crude has almost nothing to do with fuel prices because oil is still dropping and the prices aren't. Even so I am planning on taking the Tahoe to Palm Springs Saturday. $2.00 doesn't hurt as much as $4.00 did.
|
|
|
|
|
Replying to: boaz47 (Feb 13, 2009 10:02 pm) But the crap reinforces the status quo, and if you want change, if you want to use your consumer dollars to put pressure on these retailers, well then you can't keep buying the same old crap. You have to insist on innovative product, quality product. Now that's the general discussion, before I was referring only to a small piece of it: fuel economy, and how we need to force some more fuel-efficient vehicles into the marketplace. The sales of the F-150 are almost down to the sales of the Camry now, ditto the Silverado. They were once three TIMES the amount. Not too many full-size pickups still being bought for personal transport out there. That's a clear hint to the automakers of where they should be focusing their future product lines, and indeed Ford seems to be heeding the call. And BTW. my memory of 25 years ago isn't that great, but I'm sure you could get a K10 pickup or a Toyota pickup and add a shell over the bed for less than they were asking for the first 4Runners and those old K10 Blazers. The price differential was at least 10%, wasn't it? The first Explorer (which came out 20 years ago this year, BTW. Can it really be that long?) cost WAY more than a Ranger with a shell on the bed would have cost. Oh, another PS, the Koreans, while consistently offering the least expensive cars in America for many years now, have plateaued in sales for at least the last 5 years, even as sales of the more expensive Japanese brands have continued to climb to a level 2-5 times as high. So I'm not sure your "price is the only indicator of sales success in the USA" model is all-encompassing. Maybe it only applies to Walmart. 
|
|
|
fuel economy I used to drive 100 miles a day. I got a big comfortable, safe, quiet, plush, Buick and managed 28 mpg commuting. Gas went from 1.69 to 3.29 while I was doing that I moved 32 miles closer to work and 6 miles closer to the stores. Now I drive 150 miles a week I don't need a Prius. 30 mpg would be a gallon a day. 20 mpg is a gallon and a half. A prius would be 2/3 of a gallon a gallon is $1.83 a day's interest on a Prius is $6.98 |
|
|
Replying to: nippononly (Feb 14, 2009 12:40 am) Maybe over 5 years but Kia and Hyundai seem to be doing "ok" in the last year. Buoyed by Hyundai Genesis Win, Korean Automaker Reports Strong January Sales Regular hit $1.89 here today. |
|
|
Replying to: nippononly (Feb 14, 2009 12:40 am) Prius was a failure of a promise made to California and the original demands of CARB. GM, Toyota and Ford were the only ones to pretend to take CARB’s demands seriously and the costs of the vehicles offered were outrageous. You even had to rent the chargers. Now some private small company, Aptera I believe, can manufacture and sell a lightweight vehicle made with airplane material starting at 25k? If I were going to drop a bit more cash on someone why in the world would I try to bribe the major manufacturers? If a small company could sell one of these space age looking things for 25k why in the world couldn’t GM or Ford sell one for 10 or 12K? Do you see my point? They already have the tooling for the biggest part of the process and they have the delivery system. The major manufacturers don’t deserve your loyalty be they Japanese or Domestic. They have absolutely no excuse for trying to foist a EV on the public that will start at 40, 50 or 60k when a small private company can manufacture, take orders and sell one for half that much. I don’t remember if Aptera is the companies name but the car looks like one. I have been by the Vista facility before. I saw it tested on news this morning but I had seen it in a commercial before. I have been researching these things for a while and I don't believe the Big 6 will move one bit faster even if you dump 40 percent more into their coffers. They already know diesel buyers will pay more for a diesel truck and yet how many diesel options have you seen in your favorite little cars in the last 30 years?
|
|
|
Replying to: boaz47 (Feb 15, 2009 12:42 pm) |
|
|
Replying to: texases (Feb 15, 2009 2:31 pm) http://www.aptera.com/aboutus.php
|
|
|
Replying to: boaz47 (Feb 15, 2009 6:49 pm) Kind of a cool vehicle. I thought about going up for a look when I saw the original news story last year. I spaced it out. They are not that far from me. And there is a great restaurant we like near there. http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/009339.html
|
|
|
"To drivers once again grimacing as they tank up, it sounds like a conspiracy. But it has more to do with an energy market turned upside-down that has left gas cut off from its usual economic moorings." Crude oil is getting cheaper, so why isn't gas? (NPR)
|
|
You are here:
Forums
Automotive News & Views How does gas at $4 and higher impact you?
New? Join Now!
Forum Tools
Search Forums
Browse by Vehicle
Browse by Board
Browse by Topic
Today's Chats
