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Even Deep Discounts Can't Move SUVs
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | May 8, 2005 | Michael Taylor

Posted on 05/09/2005 6:52:14 AM PDT by MississippiMasterpiece

It's a Saturday morning on San Leandro's Marina Boulevard auto row, and the big SUVs have been sitting on the lots, waiting for someone to come in and start that dealer dollar dance that ends up with the customer slightly bewildered but paying a lot less for that vehicle than he thought he was going to.

Once in a while, there are takers, although the dealer has to discount the SUV heavily just to get it moving.

Salvador Sotello, for example, recently paid F.H. Dailey Chevrolet in San Leandro $41,000 for a new Chevy Tahoe LT (yes, with leather) SUV that had a sticker price of $58,000. The sale was an anomaly in what is otherwise a pretty dismal selling season. "It's been pretty quiet," saleswoman Crystal Gonzalez said the other day. "Been pretty slow."

At Broadway Ford in Oakland, the grilles of the Mustangs, SUVs and the lone Thunderbird smile at the passing traffic, but the showroom is empty, it appears, of customers; several salesmen are in sight. Up at Albany Ford-Subaru, salesman Myers Howard, sitting a few feet away from a big Ford pickup truck, says things on the Ford side of the showroom "are slow." That might be the understatement of the day.

Just this past week, General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. underwent the humiliation of seeing their credit ratings reduced by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services to the status of junk. The reasons are becoming clear -- the two big companies can't sell much of what they produce.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: autosales; suv
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To: DugwayDuke; brownsfan

If it were up to me, the license - much like the plate and the insurance - would be specific to the vehicle.

I can drive my manual Saturn SC1 much better than I'd be able to drive my best friend's big automatic truck.

Take the test in a certain vehicle, get licensed for that vehicle only. Wanna get licensed to drive your husband's behemoth? Then you gotta pass the test in IT, not just in your Prius.


321 posted on 05/09/2005 2:51:55 PM PDT by Xenalyte (Learn to park and drive inside the lines, and no one will get hurt.)
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To: thoughtomator

LOL. SUV's resemble passenger cars of yesteryear more so than that of modern sedans.


322 posted on 05/09/2005 2:52:19 PM PDT by chudogg (www.chudogg.blogspot.com)
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To: Hildy

Looks are worth a certain amount of money to me. There's no way an Element would save me enough in gas to overcome its powerful uncoolity.


323 posted on 05/09/2005 2:55:11 PM PDT by Xenalyte (Learn to park and drive inside the lines, and no one will get hurt.)
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To: thoughtomator; Petronski
The passenger-car-size vehicles were on the roads first; indeed the roads are built to accommodate that size vehicle. The SUVs, being newcomers, must accommodate themselves to the existing situation rather than vice versa.

And THAT right there is my primary objection: driving or parking, SUV drivers are incapable of keeping their vehicles inside the lines.
324 posted on 05/09/2005 2:56:31 PM PDT by Xenalyte (I am at Dr. Venture's lab to right that which is wrong and to repair the torn curtain of time itself)
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To: Xenalyte
If it were up to me, the license - much like the plate and the insurance - would be specific to the vehicle.

And the skill of the driver. So that if my car is tuned out for performance and handling, and I have tested and qualified at a higher level of skill, I am permitted a higher speed limit.

325 posted on 05/09/2005 2:56:38 PM PDT by Petronski (Pope Benedict XVI: A German Shepherd on the Throne of Peter)
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To: Bella_Bru
They zip around cars here on the freeways

Cuz only SUV's zip around cars on the highway. Smaller passenger vehicles would never do something like that.

326 posted on 05/09/2005 2:56:51 PM PDT by chudogg (www.chudogg.blogspot.com)
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To: Xenalyte
SUV drivers are incapable of keeping their vehicles inside the lines.

Maybe it's a regional thing. In PA, I just don't see the trouble.

327 posted on 05/09/2005 2:57:29 PM PDT by Petronski (Pope Benedict XVI: A German Shepherd on the Throne of Peter)
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To: Petronski

I'd be down with that.

However, if you're driving your teenage son's beater instead of your Corvette, and you forget and flip the thing, under my system you'll get a helluva ticket.


328 posted on 05/09/2005 2:58:12 PM PDT by Xenalyte (I am at Dr. Venture's lab to right that which is wrong and to repair the torn curtain of time itself)
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To: Petronski

All those vehicles require a different class of license to operate them. If SUVs were subject to the same license - and road - restrictions, I would have less objection.


329 posted on 05/09/2005 2:58:30 PM PDT by thoughtomator ("One cannot say that a law is right simply because it is a law.")
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To: BJungNan

see 309


330 posted on 05/09/2005 2:59:16 PM PDT by thoughtomator ("One cannot say that a law is right simply because it is a law.")
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To: Xenalyte
However, if you're driving your teenage son's beater instead of your Corvette, and you forget and flip the thing, under my system you'll get a helluva ticket.

Of course. Double or triple.

331 posted on 05/09/2005 2:59:21 PM PDT by Petronski (Pope Benedict XVI: A German Shepherd on the Throne of Peter)
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To: Petronski

C'mon down to Houston. If we see one - just one - SUV drive more than two blocks without invading someone else's space, I will eat your hat.

I am THAT sure I'll not be on the Hat Diet.


332 posted on 05/09/2005 2:59:28 PM PDT by Xenalyte (I am at Dr. Venture's lab to right that which is wrong and to repair the torn curtain of time itself)
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To: MississippiMasterpiece

The Dems must be pleased with the high gas prices. It will put a fast end to the glut of large vehicles. (sarcasm intended)

Once again, the market works better than government regulation. I love capitalism.

Now, it's time for some more nuke plants.


333 posted on 05/09/2005 2:59:40 PM PDT by Poser (Joining Belly Girl in the Pajamahadeen)
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To: Petronski

We just might be on to something here.


334 posted on 05/09/2005 2:59:59 PM PDT by Xenalyte (I am at Dr. Venture's lab to right that which is wrong and to repair the torn curtain of time itself)
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To: thoughtomator

But they still block your line of sight. Can't have that, they've got to go.


335 posted on 05/09/2005 3:00:04 PM PDT by Petronski (Pope Benedict XVI: A German Shepherd on the Throne of Peter)
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To: Petronski

I'm thinking that if you and the missus a) have all the family cars with one company and b) qualify on every family car, y'all should get a discount.


336 posted on 05/09/2005 3:00:56 PM PDT by Xenalyte (I am at Dr. Venture's lab to right that which is wrong and to repair the torn curtain of time itself)
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To: Xenalyte

In this part of PA (as I imagine in Texas), pickups and SUVs are everywhere, even the giant ones.

And yet, I have more issue with the teens in rice burners who think they're fast and furious.


337 posted on 05/09/2005 3:02:21 PM PDT by Petronski (Pope Benedict XVI: A German Shepherd on the Throne of Peter)
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To: Xenalyte

Yes, if that is the case, it should apply.

Of course the insurance companies will want the opposite: "You want to drive faster? What? PAY UP."


338 posted on 05/09/2005 3:04:01 PM PDT by Petronski (Pope Benedict XVI: A German Shepherd on the Throne of Peter)
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To: MississippiMasterpiece

It's just hillarious to me that people will go out and pay $10-20,000 for a new car... to get better gas mileage. Did you ever stop to calculate just how much gasoline you can buy with that $10 grand? I'd bet you could run your Suburban for quite a while on $10K, even at $3.00+/gal.


339 posted on 05/09/2005 3:04:16 PM PDT by TChris (Just once, we need an elected official to stand up to a clearly incorrect ruling by a court. - Ann C)
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To: KarlInOhio

they take up more space. endanger those in smaller cars. have larger blind spots, tear up the road more quickly and block the view of other drivers. bumpers are intentionallyl designed to run you over and crush you if you are in a passenger car vs. suv accident.

Might as well install an elevated custom bumper on your car, with spikes and nails on it so you can puncture their tires and penetrate their passenger compartment, just as they do cars like yours in an accident.


340 posted on 05/09/2005 3:08:17 PM PDT by Robert_Paulson2
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