[misterno]

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2012 ... /210110356

Gas prices are around $3.05 (at least in Houston) yet the share of small car sales is almost highest ever.

This does not make sense. It should be the other way around.

[vision-master]

Small er cars with more HP!

Any car with under 250 hp is a toad..........

[vision-master]

Check this out all you Honda lovers.....

What a overrated POS........

2012 Honda Civic 4 cyl, 2.4 L, Manual 6-spd, Premium Gasoline - 31 mpg highway (200 hp).

2013 Chrysler 300S V6 8-Speed Automatic, Regual Gasoline - 31 mpg highway (283 hp).

[SamInNebraska]

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121011/AUTO01/210110356

Gas prices are around $3.05 (at least in Houston) yet the share of small car sales is almost highest ever.

This does not make sense. It should be the other way around.

Made sense in the 70's, created the entire imported car market people had been so sensitized to fuel prices. This is a good thing, as long as peak cheap oil keeps chugging along, we'll buy smaller cars, smaller cars need less fuel, use less raw materials to build, can be built from more recyclable materials, it is like a win-win all over the place.

[SamInNebraska]

Small er cars with more HP!

Any car with under 250 hp is a toad..........

With engine shutoff technology, it might be reasonable to have our horsepower and fuel mileage too! I can see a nice, V10 powered Vette in my future which, under light loads, turns off 9 cylinders and gets 35 mpg. Talk about an unexpected solution to peak cheap oil, Corvettes for everyone to save the planet!

[vision-master]

Made sense in the 70's, created the entire imported car market people had been so sensitized to fuel prices. This is a good thing, as long as peak cheap oil keeps chugging along, we'll buy smaller cars, smaller cars need less fuel

2012 Honda Fit 4 cyl, 1.5 L, Manual 5-spd, Regular Gasoline - 33 gal highway.

You mean to me me a small compact with 115 hp ONLY get's 33 gal highway.

[misterno]

Where are the people who kept saying "Americans will never adopt to small cars they love their SUVs"?

[SamInNebraska]

Where are the people who kept saying "Americans will never adopt to small cars they love their SUVs"?

They all died off?

[AgentR11]

While I don't much like cars in general to begin with; it could simply be economics. More people are in an economically challenging position, small cars cost less TO BUY, therefore, their market share increases in response to difficulty.

I'm with VM on this though, its pitiful that a "small car" is only getting 33mpg. If I were to ever buy another car, and want small, I'm gonna demand at least 60mpg. Otherwise, why bother. I think I'd be more likely to opt towards something more techy like a Nissan Leaf, and keep a pickup truck for longer distances. However, odds of me ever buying another car are pretty miniscule, so I doubt Detroit(tm) much cares about my opinion.

[EnergyUnlimited]

Those who live far from population centers (in countryside) should rather consider some fuel efficient SUV-s.
In anticipation of road maintenance collapse I am planning to buy such a beast next year (eg Suzuki Jimny, but there is also plenty of others).

Owner of small car in countryside may well find that car is not usable.

[vision-master]

The brother picked up a new 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan (Pentastar 283hp) put in a K&N air filter and the last I heard, got 27.5 mpg highway. Not bad for a full size van that will tow 3,800 lbs.

http://www.pentastars.com/

[misterno]

Maybe more small car sales explain US lowest oil usage in 17 years.

Just a guess

[AgentR11]

Those who live far from population centers (in countryside) should rather consider some fuel efficient SUV-s.
In anticipation of road maintenance collapse I am planning to buy such a beast next year (eg Suzuki Jimny, but there is also plenty of others).

Most of them have pickup's here. My old pickup gets ~20mpg and has quite high ground clearance. Its 2wd, but that's never been a problem for me. I don't see folks getting much benefit out of swapping from pickup to SUV for rural locations.

[Ibon]

I am planning to buy such a beast next year (eg Suzuki Jimny, but there is also plenty of others).

Owner of small car in countryside may well find that car is not usable.

I drove a Suzuki Jimmy which I rented and used going up 10km of 4WD road here in Panama when I first bought this place.. It worked actually really well because of the narrow wheel base allowed me to go over holes and rocks. It is just usable though for light loads. Its a bit of a loud tin can.

Once I started construction and had to bring materials up this road I got a diesel Nissan Patrol pick up truck. I only drive it short distances so the low gas milaege is not a problem but this beast hauls over a cubic meter of wet sand up that mountain no problem.

Americans changing over to smaller vehicles is a great example of what we assumed was entrenched behaviour with their apparent non negotiable love of SUV's

Wow, we can still adapt......... who would have thought. Small baby steps leading to where?

[Plantagenet]

I sold my beloved 77 Toyota Landcruiser FJ-40 last year. I bought it too many years ago for a few hundred dollars at a surplus auction where the University of Alaska was selling off leftover research equipment---we had a blizzard on the day the auction was held, and only about 5 people showed up to bid. A new FJ-40 today sells today for about 50 grand.

It took me through summer mud, winter snow and -60 temps-----in its glory days that Toyota Landcruiser was a hell of a car.


Jeez that was a great car.

[Beery1]

Where are the people who kept saying "Americans will never adopt to small cars they love their SUVs"?

They're still here, but they drive small cars now and have convinced themselves that they never really loved their SUVs.

[Tanada]

In the late 1970's and early 1980's the same thing happened, fuel cost more and people changed behavior to compensate. It isn't rocket science and marketing can only overcome certain levels of pain for the consumer, after that all the marketing in the world won't convince the consumer to buy something they don't really need because everyone else is doing it. The USA actually lost something like 2 Mbbl/d of oil consumption between 1978 and 1982 from the shift to smaller cars. Anyone remember the Ford Escort? Well pretty much the same effect is in play now.

[Pops]

People are driving less.
http://www.advisorperspectives.com/dsho ... Driven.php

Ford and chevy pickups still outsell the camry and accord - although maybe not for long. The Explorers/Cherokees etc are all increasing sales by double digits.
http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/search/lab ... -results=3

I realize this is just a troll thread but I don't think the point is or ever was that americans are too stupid to change, the point is they are marketed too by the left and right, by car companies and oil & gas companies, by politicians and preachers and told they HAVE dominion by god and that they don't need to - that they Shouldn't change, that their "lifestyle is non-negotiable", that there is a glut of oil just a drill bit away (if you vote for me) and that green shoots are just around the corner – if they'll only go out and shop. Just like the paid shills need to come up with each move of the stock market averages, every time oil prices move, there is a "reason" on the nightly news - but surprisingly its never that oil is getting harder to come by.

The evidence is pretty clear that kids are leading the change and it's a change in overall lifestyle.

The shift away from the car is part and parcel of a new way of life being embraced by young Americans, which places less emphasis on big cars or big houses as status symbols or life's essentials. In my book The Great Reset, I called it the New Normal. “Whether it’s because they don’t want them, can’t afford them, or see them as a symbol of waste and environmental abuse,” I wrote, “more and more people are ditching their cars and taking public transit or moving to more walkable neighborhoods where they can get by without them or by occasionally using a rental car or Zipcar.”

The problem isn't that people are too stupid to change, they will change but they need time to make the adjustment, time is the problem.

[TheAntiDoomer]

LMFAO @Pops. Anyone else notice ANY thread that goes against POPS peak oil doom dogma beliefs is a "Troll Thread". LMFAO.

P.S.: Isn't Misterno a pretty reliable doomer? So how again is this a troll thread?

[EnergyUnlimited]

The evidence is pretty clear that kids are leading the change and it's a change in overall lifestyle.

The same holds true in Poland to a certain degree, however the best looking females are stirring clear of these *kids*.

No boyfriend (or 25 years older boyfriend) is better than herbivore boyfriend.