Gasoline guzzlers near extinction in US?

SchroedingersCat · Intermediate Crude Joined: May 26, 2005 Posts: 533

Or more correctly, no. There are millions of these vehicles on the road. They are not going to vanish overnight. They will continue to be driven until their current owners cannot afford to drive them any longer. They will be sold cheaply to others who will drive them until they cannot afford to. Eventually they may become housing for some. The modern version of the gypsy wagon, perhaps.

It will be many years before they are gone from the world.
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dohboi · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Dec 05, 2005 Posts: 1427

They will quickly switch from a status symbol to a symbol of poverty. They will become the newest of a long line of traps for the poorest.
They will be sold at such cheap prices, the poorest will buy them.
They will then drain the already poor the little cash they have.
They will also be a main target for gas thieves (see thread on this).

I am already seeing this in my neighborhood. Have others seen similar developments?

hardtootell

they are finding a new use as sleeping accomidations for the newly homeless... Sad

Novus · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Jun 21, 2005 Posts: 1738

Gas Guzzlers RIP? I wish. Didn't you read the article or only the part you wanted to hear? GM alone is planing to produce 3.7 million light trucks and SUVs in the 2010. The only reason that will not happen is if GM fully goes bankrupt.

SILENTTODD

If you can dig a big enough hole to push or drive them into, and bury the area around them, they will probably make great root or storm cellers in the future.
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cube · Fusion Joined: Mar 12, 2005 Posts: 3775

The peak of SUV and truck sales was in 2004.

Much like crude oil; peak SUV's does not mean the end of SUV's but rather a terminal decline in production. Twisted Evil

joeltrout · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Sep 19, 2007 Posts: 1317

IanC

What about donating them to charity?

With the value of scrap metal going up, why not scrap it out?

I love that the Hummer brand is being sold off. F-ing things.

-Ian

Judgie

aahala2 · Tar Sands Joined: Mar 25, 2008 Posts: 81

The operative word here appears in the first line of the article - "may".

US car manufacturers could have built more fuel efficient vehicles
since 1985, they didn't. They went for the pickups, the SUVs
and Hummers. And so did the American public.

Should the price of gas drop 35 cents, we could quickly be
right back to where we were. Consuming what we did when
gas was $2.50, way back in about 2006.

Kingcoal

I think it will play out like this: people will quit buying new cars because they are strapped. Driving a paid off car is much cheaper than buying a new one, even if the new one is better on gas. From what I see, most owners of big vehicles have loans on them. They will default on those loans, not able to pay for both the loan and gas at the same time. There will be record repos. These repo vehicles will sit on used car lots and very soon, the used car dealers won't want them from the banks. Once again, the banks will be stuck with a load of crap - assets which are declining drastically in value and deadbeats defaulting right and left. Banks will tighten their lending for auto loans, particularly big expensive vehicles.

Just another viscus cycle to add to the rest. Peak oil is so much fun, isn't it?
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emersonbiggins

Twilight · Expert Joined: Mar 02, 2007 Posts: 3076 Location: UK

BBC: Fuel costs 'favour smaller cars'

Maybe the surge in SUVs on British roads over the last few years is drawing to a close. Rising fuel prices, particularly diesel, are beginning to hit, and the government has proposed adding hundreds of pounds of tax to the least efficient vehicles. Add another year of bad housing news, and it could all become an expensive memory.
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