Canadian SUV Sales Plummet

5 October 2005 - 8:00am

Soaring gas prices in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have seen a dramatic drop in SUV sales.

"Sales of the biggest SUVs tumbled as hurricanes Katrina and Rita and fears of gas shortages sent fuel prices soaring to well above $1 a litre across most of Canada and $3 (U.S.) a gallon south of the border...The slide hit large SUVs in particular. Sales in that category, which includes such behemoths as Dodge Durango, Ford Expedition, GMC Yukon and Nissan Armada, slumped 50 per cent last month in Canada from year-earlier levels, according to data released by the auto makers yesterday...The percentage declines in sales of large SUVs were similar in the U.S. market, where they represent a much larger and more important slice of the overall market than they do in Canada."

Source: The Globe and Mail, October 4, 2005
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All of that only scratches the surface of what's wrong with this study. The idea that complex urban development patterns and human behavior can be meaningfully studied according to one primary criteria — density — is wrong from the start.