Americans Don't Love Trucks Anymore

"By any measure, March was a lousy month for the car business.
But for Detroit, it was truly dreadful.

Pickup trucks are taking a real beating. The combination of high
fuel prices and the housing market is hammering sales of
Detroit's best-selling vehicle — the large pickup..."

Business Week article: http://www.starturl.com/Trucks

 

Hmmm. I still "love" them. I've got three. They may not be the
best business decision for some folks, but I'd have a hard time
hauling three dirt bikes around in a Prius.

Full size Chevy with a small V8 and I can get ~20 on the road if
I'm being conscious of it.

Yes, I can't wait until it gets back down around $2.00 or so, but
I'll just bag one or two long trips this year and stay a little
closer to home. Works out for everyone.

 

I just convinced two of my staff members - owning a Yukon XL and F150 - not
to trade in their 'gas guzzling' trucks for some POS subcompact
eco-unfriendly battery mobile like the prius or the volt.

 

Before you trade in your Hummer for a Prius, read this:
http://clubs.ccsu.edu/recorder/editorial/editorial_item.asp?NewsID=188

 

That is one of the most ridiculous articles I have ever read. The
numbers only work if you assume your Hummer will last 300,000 miles
and your Prius is junked after 100,000 miles.

Ed White

 

Even if you factor in the Hummmer lasting a ridiculous 100,000 miles (which
it can do in a few years easily) then the comparison is still not that bad.

Keep in mind that Toyota cars and trucks don't age well. IMO, they are the
worst of the imports when it comes to aging gracefully. They tend to look
old really quickly and tend to fall apart faster than cars from - say -
Nissan or Honda or Mercedes or that Bavarian Motor Works company.

Let's not forget the utility. How much offroad driving can you do in a
Prius? How are they at rock crawling or hauling a couple thousand pounds of
crap up into the Sierras?

 

Americans Don't Love Trucks Anymore

Not true....What your seeing now is the market starting to revert back to
the way it should be...People driving/buying truck who NEED trucks...Not the
yuppie type who lives in a townhouse or condo and wants a truck to go to
Home Depot to pick up light bulbs... The pick up sales are taking a beating
because the industry has catered to the demand of the needless people, and
now need to cut back production to what it should be for people who need
trucks...I say good!! If you don't need a truck, then please don't buy one.
If all the people who don't need trucks don't have them, they will save
money and be happy, the demand/usage will drop off and prices of gas may
come down and we'll all be happy...

IYM

 

I have a 2004 F-150 4x4 that I will be keeping. It gets fairly decent
highway mpg and isn't anywhere near as bad as large sedans of
the 60's and early 70's.

I had been looking at a 2008 F-250 4x4 turbo diesel, but after
seeing diesel going for $0.90 more than the regular that
my current truck uses, I think that I will stick with my truck
and buy travel trailers that are within its pulling range.
At $4.129, it would be a pain in the wallet to fill-up the
F-250 with diesel.

 

Count yourself lucky - Where I live, diesel is $4.499 - 87oct gas is
$3.399

IYM

 

I agree...

I used my 300M to haul lumber back and forth to our house to build a 110
foot long 6ft cedar privacy fence...boards, posts, concrete mix, pickets,
etc. Granted it took a few more trips than a truck could have done...but it
can be done with a little effort.

Mike

 

Of course I don't believe that a Hummer will last 300,000 miles. You
missed the point. One has to consider the *entire* process of making and
using an automobile. The damage caused by the mining of heavy metals
used to make the battery pack (which, incedentally, will most likely have
to be replaced before the car hits 100,000 miles), has to be figured into
the total cost of ownership, and the cost to the environment.

 

And why not? I haven't had an S-10 that didnt hit that mark, or damn close
to it.

Whitelightning

 

I guess you missed the point as well.

 

Don't forget, that expensive battery will have to be replaced in time. Is
that 100,000? The Prius sound like a good Idea, it seems like such a good
thing until you really start to think about it. Toss out that battery and
electric Motor and just have the Gas Engine and it would be cheaper to buy
by far, less polluting, and Gas Mileage won't jump up all that much. I've
driven quite a few Prius's from work and that Gas engine is almost always
running anyway. If it really got 60 miles a gallon, it might be worth it.
There are people though that are modifying them to run on ONLY batteries for
in town driving. Charging the batteries up is quite a bit cheaper then gas
these days. Of course your spending more money on more battery's, so
again, the cost and Benefit, is it worth it then?

Personally I would do what some others are doing. Buying a small used cheap
car. Yanking the Engine, and installing a used Electric Motor and
battery's. They're quick, quite, and cheap to operate. Your Limited in
Range before a recharge, but for around town driving where you get the worse
mileage, it could be a bargin. From what I hear it works out to under $1
per gallon maybe it was half that compared to a gas version or something
like that.

 

Of course I don't believe that a Hummer will last 300,000 miles. You

The mining of nickel impact is a specious argument. The Sudbury mine area
has been a nuked out zone for literally tens of decades. The nickle output
from Sudbury Operations was in excess 250,000 tons in 2006. 1000 tons
annualy is 0.4% of the output. So much for that argument. I agree that the
price of fuel and oil is due to a number of things, futures and speculators
drives the crude price. The pump price is partly due to this, but a big
influence is price fixing and monopoly tactics on the part of the oil
companies. I live in the near the biggest oil area of North America,
Alberta. Most of what we make here gets exported to the US. Combined federal
and provincial fuel tax is 91 cents per US gallon. That's the lowest in
Canada. All other provinces tax at $1.20 to $1.50 per US gallon. Right now
we pay $4.25 to $4.30 per US gallon for regular. BUT....lo and behold,
almost every gas pump in every province in this whole wide country sell the
same regular for...you guessed it...$425 to $4.30 per gallon. The only
exceptions are a few inner metro mega cities who impose a punitive fuel tax
to discourage driving in the metro area. This is price fixing pure and
simple. I was just in Arizona / Nevada and it was $3.28 to $3.35 per gallon.
$1 cheaper per gallon. End of rant.
I need my '04 Avalanche Z71...for winter driving, hunting, fishing, hauling
and towing. I just use my '02 Impala LS more for everyday driving and
commuting. Going out and buying a new hybrid or econobox to save $20 per
fill on the Impala or $40 per fill on the Avalanche is bad economics. I own
these vehicles. Paid in full. Saving $120 to $200 per month depending on the
month yields a net savings of $2500 max. How much does a decent new econobox
cost? Or a hybrid? Or a diesel? 5 years of savings nets me
what......$12,500? $15,000 if gas is up another 25-30% over the next few
years? Thanks, I'll stick to vehicles I can use and enjoy and save money at
the same time.

 

As a small note, apparently the careful power management of the
hybrids, keeping the battery between roughly 50% and 75% of full
charge, makes a huge difference in battery life -- to the point that
the batteries pretty much are lasting the life of those vehicles
(i.e. much much longer than 100K miles). Don't know if those
statistics are markedly different places like where I am (southern New
Mexico).

 

That's a expensive battery also to replace! So again how much gas do you
have to burn to make your money back on that replacement battery?Aren't
these battery's like $4,000 to replace or something? If it actually got 60
miles to the gallon, maybe it would be worth it a little more, but it's far
from that.

 

In Europe they pay a whole lot more, but it's mostly TAXES! It's just
crazy. My truck will be paid off this month. I plan to keep it for many
years to come. I don't want another Car payment, Some of that money can go
to the higher gas prices, though I'm driving a little less these days. I'm
averaging around 8,000 miles a year at most. I have a short commute, I
moved to be closer to work, and go home for lunch. In the warmer weather
I'll take my Premium Gas Guzzling jetski to the lake. When the weather is
better I'll take my Motorcycle out for a trip. Go out on a 100 or so mile
ride, a whole lot cheaper that way, and can be a lot of fun when your not
dealing with all the cars that don't see you.

 

Uh, take a look at Consumer Reports -- Toyotas age very well.

 

Yeah, I've always felt CR is on the take from Toyota. They never do poorly.
I am not an "import basher" but I cannot see why they feel Toyota does
anything well.

Other than the FJ-40, which had great styling, I don't see much from Toyota
that is worth the low-end sheet metal they spew out.

Note: If someone wants to donate a decent condition FJ-40 to me, I'd be
happy to outfit it with a Cummins 4BT.