Aw, Shucks - Texans Drifting Away From Big Trucks, SUVs - Bloomberg

[hatrack]

May 19 (Bloomberg) -- Soaring gasoline prices are coming between Texans and their trucks. Trucks and sport-utility vehicles account for three of every four trade-ins at Gillman Honda and Gillman Mitsubishi in San Antonio, said Mike Basham, a used-car manager. Customers want fuel-efficient cars instead, he said. ``It's staggering the impact this is having,'' Basham said. ``I'm not seeing any cars in trade.''

Many residents are buying economy cars, including gasoline- electric hybrids, as gasoline approaches the record reached last year after Hurricane Katrina. The shift in Texas, where pickup- truck ownership is the highest among the eight largest U.S. states, may hurt the country's automakers as well as dealers. ``If you look at trends with trucks, Texas sets the tone,'' said Craig Eppling, a Dallas-based spokesman for General Motors Corp., the largest U.S. automaker. \

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The price of fuel is cutting into demand, said Jerry Reynolds, a former owner of Prestige Ford in Garland, Texas. ``It's on everybody's mind,'' he said in an interview on May 11, four days before selling his stake in the dealership. Prestige was once the largest U.S. retailer of F-150 pickups. Gasoline at U.S. pumps has jumped 32 percent since Feb. 20 to an average of $2.947 a gallon in the week ended May 15, the U.S. Energy Department says. The record was $3.069, set in September after Katrina flooded Gulf Coast refineries.

In the five months after Katrina struck, full-sized SUVs sat on Texas lots for an average of 132 to 147 days before they sold, according to the Power Information Network of researcher J.D. Power & Associates. The average climbed from 89 days early last year. For all vehicles, the average has fallen to about 60 days from 70 early in the year. GM's Chevrolet, Ford and Chrysler's Dodge had declines of 6.5 percent to 13 percent in Texas truck sales last year, R.L. Polk & Co. data show. Across all nameplates, sales fell 4.3 percent even as total new-vehicle sales rose 1.5 percent.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aNc2K0nqTCp0&refer=us

[fudge stripe cookays]

1. Too bad I haven't noticed the difference on the roads here yet!

There's always one of these assholes blocking my line of sight from SOME direction. Still.

Boo Hoo, you selfish idiots. Sucks to be you.
fsc

[acmejack]

2. Sometimes I think folks forget that these selfish idiots

remain your Countrymen. Do you recall immediately after 9/11 when everyone was simply an American?

[Vogon_Glory]

3. Alas, We've Been Given Painful Gifts

Alas, many of us have been given painful gifts, the gifts we still resent. Many of us stereotype the folks who drive big pickups as the people who went out of their way to smear us for our alleged lack of patriotism and hatred of freedom because we didn't buy into Buckaroo Bush's war dance for a showdown with Iraq.

Even today I tend to notice the W '04 stickers on the backs of pickups and Cadillac Escalades.

[fudge stripe cookays]

4. Yep, I do.

Too bad these people went out of their way to destroy that goodwill we had and the feelings I felt. It's fun being in the belly of the beast where you feel waves of hatred coming off these people every day. People who applaud the destruction of our Constitution and then call me un-American.

I feel NOTHING toward these people. NOTHING.
And no Devil's Advocate discussion will change the way I feel. I've been living in hell for too long. Sorry.

[hatrack]

5. Yes, I do. Unfortunately, these people seem to have forgotten.

Sorry, my Sympa-Meter flatlined a long, long time ago for tough-talkin' Constitution-burnin' Democrat-hatin' assholes like these.