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I doubt it. For some insane reason most people in this country think bigger is better. They don't care that the monstrosities they drive are making our enemies in the middle east richer. They want to make up for shortcomings with a "dig me" behemoth.
I grew up an oil town. Big SUV's may have made us richer.
Our enemies are North Korea and ISIS. North Korea has no oil and ISIS has no country.
I grew up an oil town. Big SUV's may have made us richer.
Our enemies are North Korea and ISIS. North Korea has no oil and ISIS has no country.
Indeed. My Dad has always worked on seismograph boats in the Gulf of Mexico as an engineer, and that has always provided my parents with good income... same thing for my spouse who works in safety/accident prevention on oil rigs. There's always boom or bust, you just have to learn to put money away for the harder times.
In our part of the country, you go to any parking lot and see that medium to large SUV and 4 door full pickups are by far the majority of the vehicles (75% or more of in state registered vehicle). All with 4 wheel drive capability. We need vehicles that will move no matter the road conditions. To do any real shopping, it is 50 miles to where we have stores to shop. We have to go up and down hills and mountains to get there. No matter what the price of gas, that is what we drive.
My wife and I (both in our later 80s) drive a Ford-150 pickup, and a 7 passenger 2012 Explorer. We can go anywhere any time, and take people with us. At our age, and the low mileage we put on our vehicles, these will be the last vehicles we will own.
Both get us an average gas mileage of 22 miles per gallon.
In 1954 I got my first job while a freshman in High School. I got 50 cents an hour, which was well over the 30 cents an hour minimum wage rate at the time. Gas price was 22 cents a gallon regular, and 25 cents a gallon for premium.
The federal minimum wage rate today is $7.25 and up to twice that in some states and cities. Using that for a guideline, regular gas today would be over $5 per gallon if it kept up with the minimum wage increase.
Only the young think $3 to $4 gas is high priced. The older people know that in proportion to what we paid in the past, $3 and $4 gas is a bargain.
In our part of the country, such an increase would not effect the vehicles we drive. Some dinky sedan, which I cannot even sit up in as the roof is so low, and very hard for a 6'2" tall man to even crawl in to, is not something I will consider even attempting to drive.
When driving on 2 lane highways 50 or more miles between towns and little traffic, and no cell phone service I carry a long tow strap. I have used it to pull many of those little sardine can sized cars back on the road as they simply cannot handle some of our winter driving conditions. I simply cannot just let them sit off the road where they slid into a snow bank, and no way of calling for help while they freeze to death.
The Ford F-150 pickup, the Chevrolet Silverado, and the Dodge Ram pickups are the 3 biggest selling vehicles in the U.S. for a reason. The F-150 outsells the best selling auto by more than double. And the large percentage of them, are 4 door cabs to carry 5 people with lots of room for them all. Mercedes Benz just announced it is going to build a mid size pickup, for sale in Europe and South America. They also announced they would not be sold in the United States, as Americans do not buy enough smaller pickups like this to make it practical to go to the expense of qualifying their new pickups for sale in the USA.
They say "a guilty conscience needs no accuser". I didn't think the thread was about justifying SUV use. The question was "will $4.00/gal gas make people rethink SUV purchases?" We know that the large majority of people that own and use SUV's daily do not need them by the standards of the usual justifications. So let's stop kidding ourselves.
Back when gas went crazy 10 years ago, I remember seeing 4 "good ol' boys" carpooling in a Yaris to work. The previous year they all drove their own F-250s.
I think it was a bit of an overreaction, but now you can buy a 3 row seating SUV with the same gas mileage as an old roadster. The Honda S2000 only got 25mpgs with premium gas and 240hp. . A modern Dodge Durango gets the same mileage with 87 octane, and almost 300 hp and can comfortably take 7 people across country. Honestly insurance premiums increase far more than gas prices do, but nobody seems to mind. I think it's more psychological than anything.
So true.
Splashing $70K for a hybrid is foolish, I can literally buy a lifetime of gas for that money.
Yes there will be a drop. There will be those who realize the fuel cost of a vehicle they really didn't need compared to a 4 cylinder sedan or hybrid vehicle. Then there are those who tend to follow trends like fashion and they'll trad in their crossover or SUV for some sedan they've been seeing their friends getting. Those who are middle to lower income looking for a new car purchase will decide against a truck or SUV if they don't really need it and instead get a more fuel efficient sedan for budget reasons. People who need trucks and SUVs will continue to own and drive them as long as they can afford the price of gas. I know of one neighbor who does carpentry work who has a full size Chevy truck for his carpentry side job and a Chevy Sonic sedan for commuting to and from his day job.
It's wrong to compare the fuel economy of crossovers and SUVs to large and midsize V6 sedans. The most common engine sold in midsize sedans are the base 4 cylinder (usually 2.4 to 2.5L) and some midsize models offer a higher fuel economy model with a more fuel efficient powertrain (a smaller turbo 4 with special transmission turning for economy or a hybrid version). Step down to the compact class and the fuel economy numbers goes up slightly. Some compact sedans today match or exceed interior space of what passed for midsize sedans a decade or two ago. Though slower in base form than midsize sedans in base form, their acceleration is still far faster than in decades past when such numbers approached sports car numbers. What passes for subcompacts today have interior volume on par with compacts of the past decade or two. The fuel savings between subcompact and compact are nearly identical in the city but the compact sedan gets better highway economy over the subcompact. A motorcycle would be the most fuel efficient option (traditional or scooter type) for in city unless you switch to bicycle. Some companies are making hybrid crossovers that offer four cylinder midsize sedan or compact sedan type fuel economy. This could be a way to hedge their bets on a rise in gas prices while still selling high profit crossovers and SUVs.
Back to $3.00 a gallon? It's been there for at least a couple of months here and never got much below $2.60. If/when gas gets back up to $4 a gallon I doubt the demand for suvs and pickups will drop much.
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