Should be able to pick one up at a big discount fairly soon!
http://www.arts.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/10/09/wsuv09.xml
Falling sales in the US signal end of the road for the gas guzzler
By Karyn Miller in Phoenix
(Filed: 09/10/2005)
They are as much a part of American life as cable television and cheeseburgers, but the national love affair with sports utility vehicles or SUVs may be coming to an end.
The super-sized, gas-guzzling cars accounted for almost half of the 16.6 million light vehicles sold in America in 2004, but times are changing.
Last month the last Ford Excursion, a 19ft SUV, which did only 12 miles to the gallon, rolled off the production line. The decision to end production was taken after sales, which stood at 50,000 in 2000, slid to 20,000 last year.
Figures for the American car industry announced last week showed a startling drop in overall sales of SUVs - down by almost a third, compared with the same month last year. Dealers blame rising petrol prices and the end of a particularly fierce round of summer discounts, prompted by the need to shift a growing stock of SUVs.
Compared with September 2004, sales for two of Ford's top models, the Explorer and the Excursion, have dropped by 58 per cent and 61 per cent, respectively. News of their waning popularity follows President George W Bush's plea for motorists to "pitch in by being better conservers of energy" in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which caused oil stocks to dwindle. Even before the storm winds hit oil production, the United States was being forced to import 1.4 million barrels of crude each day.
The price of petrol has soared by a third over the past 12 months to around $3 a US gallon (44p a litre) - cheap compared with Europe's prices, but a fortune by American standards. It can cost $100 (£55) to fill the tank of an SUV.
Jeff Martini, a Michigan-based adviser to the car industry, said: "People feel they simply can't afford to fill their gas tanks."
The effect is being felt on garage forecourts across America. At the Honda Bell dealership in Phoenix, Arizona, Jason Shuckart, the general sales manager, said smaller cars were selling as quickly as they arrived. "We're sold out of Honda Civics," he said. "People are beginning to feel safer than they used to in the smaller cars because of all the newer safety features. At the same time, the value of our used SUVs has fallen because so many people are turning them in."
Asian car makers are picking up many of the sales being lost by their American competitors.
Nissan's total sales in America rose more than 16 per cent last month, while Honda's were up 12 per cent and Toyota's 10 per cent. Customers are looking for cars such as the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic, which do up to 30 miles to the gallon.
SUV owners are also struggling to sell their used vehicles. Roy Holder, 23, of Lenox, Michigan, decided to sell his 1993 GM Yukon SUV, which does 14 miles to the gallon, when his petrol bill soared to $100 a week. "It's a gas guzzler. I'm selling because I can't afford to drive it back and forth to work." He has spent $10,000 upgrading the vehicle, but has yet to find a buyer because, he said, "nobody wants to pay for that kind of gas".
Ana Garrett of Madison, Wisconsin, said that she had been trying to sell her 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee for three months. She had listed it twice on eBay, put up posters in grocery shops and advertised in newspapers, but no buyer had been forthcoming.
