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 ...
Might see one here in Burbank, Ca, too. My husband wants one of those soooo bad.
I just saw headlines in Daily News here. California's freeways might be becoming Toll Roads? To curtail gridlock. Just a minute Freeways are paid for with taxpayers dollars. Who is going to collect, and is my gas tax going to go away?
This is double taxation.
Hmm, that is good. Thanks for the information. I'd rather have the Ford Explorer than the subaru quite frankly.
not quite sure about his complaint against SUV's but mine is this. While the Honda element may get 25mpg, many many others do not get that good on gas mileage and many get much less. They are not held to any minimum standard for gas mileage as a regular pickup truck, for instance. The more 8-10mpg Dodge Dakotas and GM Hummer H2's sell, the more we are dependant on Saudi Oil. from most motor companies you can get a mini-van with better mileage and more cargo space for less money. It is a status symbol, mostly. And a psychological advantage to women and men who fear being on the road against other people in bigger vehicles. They can see the road better, and feel more protected now that theirs is just as big. Status symbol, protection, etc fall as minor reasons compared to their larger gas consumption.
I don't know about the original poster, but my main complaint is that I feel like I need to have a periscope installed in my car so I can see what's past the wall of SUVs, vans, and big ass pickups surrounding me. If I have sedans around me, I can look through their windows to see what's ahead. I have the same problem in parking lots. I can't see a thing until I have pulled all the way into the aisle because I can't see through the big vehicles.
What an ugly piece of work that is.
No wonder GM is down...making Azteks that are so butt ugly they remind me of the Pacer.
I have a Suburban but only use it for farm work, hauling lumber, etc. Like you, I also don't get why people buy SUV's that can only hold as many people as a 4-door sedan. In a lot of them one couldn't haul hardly more than a regular car anyway. This causes more gas demand which results in higher prices. For my regular commuting/ driving I use my Olds or Grand Prix. Oh, well, different strokes for different folks, eh?
No you wouldn't. The Explorer is only bearable to drive. Good for an SUV but just bearable. The Subbie does really good on the curvy roads here in the moutains. I just wish I had gotten a 5-speed manual but my wife can't drive a handshaker.
If people want to buy a SUV they should be able to. Frankly, I have no idea why they would want to drive a large truck with little or no need for a truck suspension, 4-wheel drive, and get 10 MPG. Personally, I'd much rather buy a Volvo cross country if I wanted space, power, 4-wheel drive, and 25MPG. Not to mention they handle 100x better than SUV's.
I drive a SUV because I live/work in New England. Can't beat them in the snow. Also, I feel safer on the highway because I can see far ahead because I can see over all other cars on road.
I live in CO. 3 weeks ago I had 4 ft of snow in my driveway. My 4x4 Suburban was as stuck as my cars.
Anyone who purchases a new/used vehicle from a dealer needs their head examined. Most folks get kissed when they get screwed. Purchase vehicles at auction and invest the savings in oil stocks!
"The challenge the auto makers have is to match the usability and family friendly nature of the SUV in an alternative. People are buying SUV's because of the human and cargo hauling capacity, notbecuase they are sporty and have 4 wheel drive."
It's called a minivan.
My general rule of thumb: if your vehicle is going to completely block my line of sight, don't expect me to let you merge in front of me.
The church parking lot on Sunday looks like the motor pool for the Secret Service. Every sucker-mom in the 'burb has a big black hulk to drive around in.
Most people buy SUV's because it is the station wagon. Would you have had the same opinion 30 years ago when station wagons were everywhere? Products evolve, so did the station wagon.
"No wonder GM is down...making Azteks that are so butt ugly they remind me of the Pacer."
That gives GM WAY too much credit. The Pacer tried for innovation. And, the Pacer is kind of cute in the same way a dog can be so ugly it's cute, (boston terrier?).
The Aztek is uninspired. Simply a very badly executed copy of everything else out there. It's the poster child for what's wrong with much of GM's product offerings.
By the way, you can get a used Aztek for a great price. Amazingly enough, those things don't have much resale.
Actually, according to the figures, Ford and GM SUVs are down while Nissan SUVs sales are up, and they get just as bad or worse gas mileage. It's the Ford and GM products that are not selling.
They forced the end of the full-size car with CAFE.
As a result, people who want full-size cars have to buy SUVs.
I have 5 cars. Four are manual transmissions. Two Saturns, One 67 VW bug, One Delorean, and One Ford Probe (automatic). Been driving sticks since I was 17. Only had two automatics in my life.
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