After a temporary adjustment due to the gas price panic, Americans will go back to buying the vehicle style that best suits their needs and wants.
For a family of four or more, anything other than a decent-sized SUV will seem inappropriate, because it IS inappropriate. Americans have a wide selection of leisure activities at their disposal, many of which require a considerable amount of cargo space. And how can time-constrained moms and dads transport their kids in style without the occasional ability to carry some of the other kids? Three kids with soccer gear is a full load, and four is impossible without a little extra space.
We have gotten used to larger vehicles because many of us live so much of our lives on the road. In addition to our leisure needs, a larger vehicle provides at least the illusion of increased safety, acting as a measure of self-defense against all the other huge vehicles with which we are in constant close contact. Some of the happiest women I’ve seen are behind the wheels of Hummers.
The key problem for buyers should be the crushing depreciation suffered by many of these expensive vehicles. It is not unusual to lose $ 30k or more in real value in the space of two years. When we can educate buyers on where the money really goes in an auto business, we are well on our way to pulling many families out of the financial mire.
Worrying about a couple MPGs (as rated by the EPA) while happily eating tens of thousands of dollars during contract signing is just an indication that people aren’t getting the information they need to prioritize. And while it’s certainly understandable when automakers advertise that their vehicles have best-in-class fuel economy, buyers would do well to simply ignore most of this noise. ‘Best in class’ simply means that they can show a mile per gallon advantage over the nearest competitor during testing.
Anyone looking for a visual demonstration of the term “disclaimer” is invited to visit the EPA website. They have discovered an impressive variety of ways to deny their results, leaving no doubts about what they think of them. It’s not that there isn’t an impressive body of work there, there is, it’s just that the driving styles, the weather, the road conditions, the seasonal changes, etc. They all play a huge role in the actual mileage a vehicle will get.
As more automakers develop larger hybrids, any residual guilt on the environment that may be hanging around will soon dissipate. We are fortunate to have the options that we have in our country, although we certainly take them for granted, and this has made us a nation of optimists. We expect fuel prices to drop when they push us, and they usually do.
In the absence of a government decree that we are no longer allowed to drive the cars we want (not so crazy), taking a step back from something we enjoy is not an American trait.
Nor should it be.
