Quote:
Originally Posted by testpie
From the reactions of many here it seems unexpected.
I'm glad to hear that, and clearly I only have an outsider's view into the entire situation. Out of curiosity, I'd be interested to know how many Americans/Canadians are thinking of "downgrading" their cars, or how many currently have larger capacity engines.
|
I posted a thread on another board about this, around 6-8 weeks ago when gas prices were rising but still a lot less than they are now. I said people with gas guzzling SUV's were are starting to find it difficult to sell them, and that people who owe, say $12k on their vehicle, are trading them in or selling them only to find that they can't even recover what they owe for it, thus taking a loss. People argued with me of couse.
Then just a few weeks ago someone else posted the same thing, but now had a few news links that backed it up. Well... where were the nay sayers then? But there's more. Some people actually read this and their only thought was that they could now "pick up a sweet SUV for a song", wringing their hands like idiots, when in fact they simply can't or won't see the writing on the wall... that owning such a vehicle is started to cost much more than it's worth. Fillups that used to cost $70 now cost over $100. Resale/tradein value in the shitter. People that buy them, even for "a song", are very short sighted.
Your average working class person, office workers etc, people who commute to work, are all panicking here, or starting to, and are thinking of ways of changing their gas consumption habits. Some are of course clueless and don't seem to care, that is until gas goes above $150 a litre, then they'll clue in pretty quick.
Me, I have a fairly economica V-6, I work from home, thus I only drive it maybe two or three times a week, just to go to the store, run errands, or drive out to the parent's house in the burbs for a visit. I tank up maybe once every 4-5 weeks. :D