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Some may switch to small vehicles if gas hits $4 but a survey says three of four expect to maintain their lifestyles. (http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2006-08-09-4-dollar-gas-usat_x.htm)

Chris Woodyard - USA TODAY- August 9, 2006

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/4_00_gasoline_pricing.jpg
Paul Sakuma, AP - Wagoner doesn’t fear $4.00 but lost 10.6 Billion with gas at $3.00?

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - Even the prospect of $4-a-gallon gasoline doesn't faze General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner.

Despite the speculation about how high prices could run after the cutoff this week of BP's Alaskan crude, Wagoner says he thinks vehicle sales are unlikely to nose-dive.

"We have actually been a little surprised how the market has held up through ... $3-plus gas that we've had here over the past year," Wagoner said Tuesday. He commented at the dedication of a new Chevrolet dealership in this city known for oil production.

Wagoner's optimism contrasts with a domestic auto industry jarred by rising fuel costs and declining sales. While midsize SUV sales have tanked and some buyers are switching to smaller vehicles, he says he is encouraged that full-size pickup sales didn't fall as dramatically during the first half of the year. Declining sales of large, highly profitable vehicles are a reason why GM, the world's largest automaker, lost $10.6 billion last year.

He predicts some motorists may switch to smaller vehicles if gas prices hit $4 a gallon. But he pointed to a Boston Consulting Group survey released last week in which three of four Americans say they expect to maintain their lifestyle even if the economy hits a downturn. The same study found half expect gas to hit $5.50 a gallon within a year.

Oil giant BP announced Sunday that it is shutting down its Alaskan North Slope operation after finding corrosion in its pipelines.

The oil field supplies about 8% of U.S. domestic production. The shutdown could be felt most acutely on the West Coast, where Alaskan crude comprises at least 20% of the oil going into refineries.

No one knows how high prices will go, but $4 a gallon is being widely floated as the next big threshold in a state that often leads the way for high gas prices. Severin Borenstein, director of the University of California Energy Institute, says he thinks prices will increase up to 20 cents a gallon. With adequate supplies for now, prices have barely moved. The nation averaged $3.036 for a gallon of gas Tuesday, unchanged from Monday, according to motorist club AAA. And California, the nation's biggest gas-consuming state, had an average price of $3.199 a gallon, down slightly from $3.201 on Monday.

Hello! I thought GM's sales have already nose dived?

Hi Rhwinger:

___It is funny because some American consumers are still buying the behemoths but not nearly in the quantity they had in the past … What I don’t think these guys really get (Wagoner is in his glass house so far above the real world) is that he just doesn’t know what people really do nowadays. For one, all it takes is for him or any of these knuckleheads is to go sit in an Accord LX/EX, Civic LX/EX, or Camry LE/XLE and then immediately sit in a Cobalt, Impala, Focus, or whatever. The interiors, seats, and arrangements of items are so strikingly wrong in the domestics it is as if the guys designing these cars never spent the 15 minutes to walk around a Carmax and the Honda Dealership next door to do exactly what was described above.

___Then the real problem arrives, Fuel Economy. Since Dec. of 03 (a low point following 9/11/2001), gasoline has increased by 2.25 X’s here in Illinois. I have the fuel costs in any number of automobile tank data spreadsheets over the years for some ungodly reason ;) Anyway where was the resultant increase in FE from any of the domestics? Did the Aveo, Tahoe, Yukon, Suburban, Cobalt, Impala, Sierra, etc. gain even 10% over the previous years let alone 225%? Did the Focus, Taurus to Fusion, F150, Explorer, or Expedition? Ford had the FEH but who knew about that vs. the Prius II? Ford had the Focus that received less FE then an Accord or Camry to consider for those that did show up to look at the FEH … Bad moves all around.

___And what about the imports … Toyota had the HALO car in the Prius that did increase FE by 200% over the Corolla/Camry contingent and thus you had the show room traffic even if they didn’t purchase a Prius II. The Camry at 23/34 at the time was as good as the domestics much smaller compacts so they sold like gang busters. Honda had the Insight (did not sell due to its limitations) but had the HCH-I capable of 50 +. Again, maybe Honda did not sell the HCH in large quantities but at least it generated show room traffic and they sold a ton of 38 + mpg Civic’s and 34 + mpg Accord’s …

___If GM’s DualMode is worked with a DOD and Atkinson intake of some kind, GM’s larger SUV’s may just surprise us all. If they are stuck in the low to mid 20 MPG range with gasoline at $3.00 and rising over the next 5 years, down they go :( Ford has nothing on the table that I know of for the F-150 sized vehicle in terms of real FE increases other then the new 6 speed trannies so they may be in really deep trouble … the PowerStroke 6.0 was not only outrageously expensive in the ¾ ton on up P/U trucks, it had 2 years of very serious problems early on and its FE wasn’t all that hot. The newer 6.4 w/ the Piezo injectors due out soon will be far to expensive for a $20K work truck let alone it will not have a 25 mpg + rating more then likely either … Its emission will not meet Tier II/Bin5 for the lower GVWR truck either :(

___All said and done, Ford and GM increased the Focus’ and Aveo’s FE by 3 mpg over the last 4 weeks without any real design change (a whopping 10%!) yet Fuel still increased by 225% … Do you think Ford/GM get it yet? Honda and Toyota have some real whiz bang tech just waiting in the wings all the while the domestics sit in their glass houses 40 stories above the commoner waiting for their 5 + million a year retirements checks to start rolling in once they are ousted for the next CEO to take there place …

___I want to mention here as I have done again and again that I feel bad for Bill Ford as he seems to care about the environment, the FE of Ford’s vehicles (he has saved Ford’s hybrid program more then once), and his employees but with the waste of the billions of dollars in profits from previous Explorer sales earmarked to purchase the European PAG places Ford in a predicament they may never be able to arise from …

___Good Luck

___Wayne

He predicts some motorists may switch to smaller vehicles if gas prices hit $4 a gallon. But he pointed to a Boston Consulting Group survey released last week in which three of four Americans say they expect to maintain their lifestyle even if the economy hits a downturn.

I don't want to imply that Wagoner has blinders on, but if you told me that 1/4 of my customer base was going to go away I'd be worried. Then again I guess he is being optimistic in focusing on the 75% of customers who will stay around.

We're all paying attention to the secondary impacts of high gas prices, right? Oh sure, it'll cost more to fill our tanks, but the cost of food and products trucked across the country will increase also. As will mass transit and other aspects of our lives that require someone else to consume gasoline in order to provide us a service or product.

Did I just hear someone say, "so what?" Oh I'll tell ya.

It's one thing to say that we will have less money after we fill our tanks, but we'll also have less money after a visit the local grocery store and department store. Now, we all NEED food and we NEED (or at least desire) personal upkeep items at the department stores. When we add the growing price of gas with the growing prices of food and products PLUS the ever-increasing national average credit card debt load for the average American, we are on course for a HUGE melt-down.

Bradlee Fons was saying just today that there are people in the inner cities who are pumping $2.00 worth of gasoline into their vehicles because that's all they can afford. It's my opinion that eventually everyone will be making decisions between eating, living, staying healthy, and driving their vehicles.

I believe that only personal pain drives change: real pain, perceived pain, or pain avoidance. There will come a time when middle-class white-collar people will have to choose which economic outpouring gets funded this week or this month. Do we shut off the A/C, stop eating, play chicken with the debt collector, or trade in the Expedition? In my opinion, the choice is easy.

/\/\Hit it right on the head/\/\

The price of fuel plays a part in the price of just about every product and service that we depend on for basic existence, let alone the luxuries. It's really scary to think about what's going to happen if we don't make a real effort to change.

three of four expect to maintain their lifestyles.
I'll likely forever not udedersand this.

People are willing to make $ saving decisions in most every area of their lives, but expressly not in petro savings, and some even regret those who have made those changes.

But on the bright side-
Just consider the interest and changes which are leading to more and more really cool fuel efficient cars, which are opening more and more minds to want to consume less.
:Banane53:
-Steve

Well... There's a big difference between changing lifestyle and buying a smaller car. Changing lifestyle means not going on vacation, carpooling, taking public transportation, planning out one's route to combine trips, etc. I can believe that 3 out of 4 people won't do that even if gasoling hits $4/gallon.

HOWEVER, I can totally believe that people who drive a 15 MPG guzzler now will be the ones seriously considering a 28 MPG CUV next time around. I also believe that the folks driving a 24 MPG v6 sedan would consider a 38-40 MPG hybrid sedan next time around. they'll have the same "lifestyle", but will be doing it in a more efficient vehicle.

Is GM interested in catering to thhis market? Not as far as I've noticed!

I'm going to have to dig up more old articles like this...it could be part of a high-fibre diet for Mr Waggoner. :p

Some people are starting to get it - my neighbor next door sold his giant Dodge 4x4 that he used for commuting mostly, and got a Honda Element - he does haul some wood for home projects and such. That's quite a shift for him.

This is simply a slo/mo version of what we went thru in 1979 with the second Arab oil embargo.We did go to smaller vehicles,and the economy did tank.It is happening now just more slowly since the run up was slower.
1/2 ton pickup sales are tanking-Nissan is offering $5000 rebates on their Titan,and Toyota is offering $3000 on the Tundra. The Tundra is a newish vehicle-Toyota expected to be minting $$ with it.
Charlie

of course HE doesn't fear $4 pump prices. he probably has more money than god. it's us ordinary peons that pay for it. those overly compensated (monitarily) high on their throne CEOs should some day spend some time in the shoes of those who live in the real world.

of course HE doesn't fear $4 pump prices. he probably has more money than god. it's us ordinary peons that pay for it. those overly compensated (monitarily) high on their throne CEOs should some day spend some time in the shoes of those who live in the real world.Granted, he is finanically secure and will never have to worry about the lack of money like about 99% of us. What he DOES have to worry about is his legacy - after he is gone, will his name be remembered along with the captain of the Titanic?

Just a reminder from nearly two years ago.... see
$4 gas changes game fast for Big 3 (http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11826) ;)

But he pointed to a Boston Consulting Group survey released last week in which three of four Americans say they expect to maintain their lifestyle even if the economy hits a downturn.

Same folks who expected to continue making mortgage payments? And agreed that normal people will likely ever maintain the same lifestyle without making significant changes.

Edward John Smith. Hard to forget a name that bowed to pressure and used such poor judgment to accomplish selfish sort term goals at considerable cost to others. And GMs guy should have more appropriately been named Hummer, instead of Waggoner, but hey 12 mpg combined for his namesake (Jeep Wagoneer) put him in the ballpark!

Delta - bmping this is really hitting below the belt - Lutz and Wagoner are the poster boys of backward looking business leaders

Delta - bmping this is really hitting below the belt - Lutz and Wagoner are the poster boys of backward looking business leadersNothing wrong with keeping everyone aware of their past words and deeds. ;)

Delta,

sure, but with those two Putz's, it is too easy making out to be clowns. It would be funny, if only so many people's didn't depend on their leadership

Delta,

sure, but with those two Putz's, it is too easy making out to be clowns. It would be funny, if only so many people's didn't depend on their leadershipYeah, like the towns that will be devistated when GM closes those plants they refused to transition from truck/SUVs :(

Lest we forget: Edward John Smith captained 'that' Titanic:

http://www.euronet.nl/users/keesree/captain.htm

and his last words may have been

"Good-Bye Boys, I'm going to follow the ship!".

Wagoner et al might consider the same honorable conclusion?

DAS

Lest we forget: Edward John Smith captained 'that' Titanic:

http://www.euronet.nl/users/keesree/captain.htm

and his last words may have been

"Good-Bye Boys, I'm going to follow the ship!".

Wagoner et al might consider the same honorable conclusion?

DAS

So the iceberg is what we should have seen all along if only we'd given the lookouts the binoculars? (we should have seen these gas prices coming?)

And the hard-a-starboard upon finally seeing the iceberg is our desperate last minute-attempt to fix the situation?

That's actually an excellent analogy.

Interesting to note in that other article about Lutz finally driving a Volt test mule that he mentioned noticing all the gas stations selling regular for right around $4 per gallon while he was on the way to the test site.