Sales Of SUVs Boom While Gas Prices Escalate

Oil has topped $90 barrel, electric cars are being touted, and the government is pushing fuel efficiency, but you'd never know it from auto sales - SUVs and trucks once again claim the top spot, having jumped 41% while small cars sales dropped 1.7%.

January 2, 2011, 5am PST | Irvin Dawid

"With the end of the recession, bigger vehicles have made a comeback, sales figures show, and it has come at the expense of smaller, more-efficient cars.

Sales of small cars, by contrast, remained flat despite otherwise surging demand for automobiles. Sales of the Toyota Corolla and the Honda Civic declined, and even the fuel-sipping Toyota Prius, the hybrid darling of the eco-conscious, dropped 1.7 percent."

The article points to what the government, despite successfully increasing the fuel efficiency standards to "achieve an average of 34 mpg by 2016 through annual improvements of about 4 percent" has been unable to do: affect consumer tastes for larger vehicles with more power. Yet oil prices show no sign of decreasing, with a former Shell Oil president predicting $5 gas by Nov. 2010.

Thanks to Kenyon Karl

Full Story:

SUVs lead U.S. auto sales growth despite efforts to improve fuel efficiency

Published on Wednesday, December 29, 2010 in The Washington Post