Rising gasoline prices are apparently spurring interest among car buyers in smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles. Gas prices in Michigan are hovering around $3.50 a gallon. In California, the average price for a gallon of gas is nearly $4.
George Peterson is the president of Auto-Pacific, an automotive marketing research firm. He says gas prices are helping boost interest in small cars.
“There’s a tremendous amount of interest, especially with the new small cars on the road that are very, very good. The Hyundai Elantra, the Ford Focus, the Chevrolet Volt, the Chevrolet Cruze, the upcoming Honda Civic. All of those are very fuel efficient. Very good small cars.”
Still, Peterson says SUVs remain the leading segment in the auto sales market.
“The largest segment of vehicles still selling is Sport Utility Vehicle. Now most of those are cross-over SUVs. So they’re much more fuel efficient than the old gas hog SUVs that we had before. If you think about sales, SUVs are king, followed by small cars, followed by mid-sized cars.”
Peterson says the last time gas prices spiked over $4 a gallon, many drivers traded in gas guzzling SUV’s for smaller, more fuel efficient cars. But, he says many of those drivers expressed buyers’ remorse, after missing their larger, more powerful rides.
