Archives

Hopefully no one has done this recently...

How low do you think gas would have to go before American's return to their old driving & car buying habbits?
In case you want to select something between, I set it up so you could select multiples.

well imo i think that the majority will go back to their ways once it hits below $3 because apparantly we do not know the meaning of saving anything, look at the housing market now adays!

I'm afraid the avg. American is easily manipulated they will feel that $3.50 a gallon is cheap after a while and go back to buying suburbans and it will be @ least $5 per soon enough and they will be left wondering what happened. It happens almost every year it seems first it was $2 per, than $3 and so on.

I'm more pessimistic. I think gas could go up another dollar and in a year they will be back to their old habits.

I think under $3.00 would produce an uptick in truck and SUV sales, but $2.50 for even a little while would bring about a surge is FSP sales.

I'm pessimistic too. I think the longer we stay at any given point, the less we will have to go back down for people to return to their old ways. By now, somewhere between $3 & $3.50, and $3.50 or higher if we stay above $4 another 3/6 months.

I can't imagin how much people would backlash if gas dropped to $2 or $2.50. Buy maybe people have been in enough pain that they will keep planning ahead & saving more, or maybe they will just be happy to have a little extra cash and will do a mad spending trip on a new (maybe still cheap) SUV/Truck.

I say $3.80.

Pessimistic here as well.

I think anything below what we have now will bring back the old attitudes. If it goes down, everything must be fine, no matter that it's still 4 times as high as it was.

I remember the 70's and 80's. All it took was plentiful oil, cheap gas and creative campaigning to get American's back into huge fsp's...from land barge's to SUV's in 10 years. I think if prices stabilize at $3, we will eventually see a resurgence in ego machines. All it takes is a reestablishing of the "bigger is better" image and we are off again! Unfortunately, the American public is easily manipulated when it comes to what it "needs" to maintain or establish a certain image. Until gas prices got American's to wake up, monster SUV's were the image maker.

Pessimistic here, too.

I believe once the shell shock of high gas prices wears away at the consumer, the average American will be pondering their next status symbol FSP.

Until gas prices got American's to wake up, monster SUV's were the image maker.

How true your words are, sir! I see lots of folks who (own?) cars far more valuable than their homes - trying to make a 'statement'.

A big drop in fuel prices wouldn't really make much difference for a long time.Chevy,Ford etc are already making permanent cuts in production of large vehicles.Even if the demand went up they wouldn't retool to up production because they would be too scared to go thru this again. They would simply jack the price of the FSPs , not produce more. There wouldn't be any profit- for the manufacturers - in making larger #'s of FSPs quickly available. It would just drop their profit per unit. This is assuming that a huge drop -to $2.50 didn't happen tomorrow, but happened in 6 months once the plants are closed, workers laid off etc.

It would be hard to "go back" now. The supply of FSPs just won't be there, and the number of buyers that would be willing - and able- to pay an inflated price for a Suburban just won't be there. In 7 years there will still be Suburbans etc produced, but they will be preminum high priced vehicles , not volume vehicles. Middle class folks won't buy a Suburban -just affluent folks ,Lexus,BMW type buyers.

We can't go back - not easily.
Charlie

I think $2.99 would be hit the psychological barrier, to where they feel the drop will stick for a while.

Well, considering that worries of hitting $3 did little a year or so ago, I'd say that's the mark.

Are you kidding? I think people STILL don't get it. Granted some do, but I honestly still see people bombing down the highway at 100....mph!, yes 100+ even... Usually in cars that require premium fuel, no less...

I think it still has to go up higher until people start to really "get" the fact that wasted fuel is wasted fuel.


*huffs and puffs* :)

Are you kidding? I think people STILL don't get it. Granted some do, but I honestly still see people bombing down the highway at 100....mph!, yes 100+ even... Usually in cars that require premium fuel, no less...

I think it still has to go up higher until people start to really "get" the fact that wasted fuel is wasted fuel.


*huffs and puffs* :)

thank you. that is just about what i was going to say........

I agree w/ Minstker and Laurie, People are only mildly annoyed by the current prices.
They are still waiting on the Govt. to fix this for them. Like that's the answer.

I voted $3.50. Around here, the price has dropped to ~$3.90 after being $4.15 and over for quite some time. I just heard from the wife of a local car dealership owner that they sold 6 Suburbans; this week!:eek: Even as a dealer, the guy thought that was very strange.:confused:

My vote is $3.50 a gallon in CT. We are down to $4.129 for regular.
There is already increased traffic around here. I think the problem is credit cards.

If people had to shell out cash, they might realize how much it costs to go from A to B.

Someone wrote here, "lets cut out the middleman and build a vehicle that burns $$$".
I see that a brilliant!

The vehicle mix is changing-rapidly changing just like 1979. The 6 Suburbans sold is just whistling past the graveyard. Heck in 2000 he would have sold 6 Suburbans per day.

Big SUVs are being VERY, VERY HEAVILY DISCOUNTED. Affluent folks who can afford $3-$4 gas are buying now. In a year or so the HUGE backlog of 1/2 ton SUVs will be gone,and they will become pricy low volume vehicles. Production of big body on frame 1/2 tons has been cut and the Big 3+Toyota aren't going to ramp up production again. Pointless to ramp up production just to sell them for less per unit.

This is it-the big vehicles just won't be affordable to buy soon let alone fuel.

Speeding really isn't a good indicator of how seriously most folks take the higher fuel prices- vehicle choice is a much better indicator.
The vast majority of folks think that FE is a function of the car you are driving, not the way you drive. This is what pessimistic folks are seeing with the speeders etc. THE MAIN POINT OF THIS SITE IS TO CONVINCE FOLKS THAT THE DRIVER IS AS IMPORTANT AS THE VEHICLE.

I'm optimisitc. Folks come here and get one to two size smaller FE from their vehicle. The word is getting out there - just look at the increased traffic here.

Charlie