Fuel economy slips in car-shopper priorities
If the majority of consumers don't care about fuel economy, then who is driving the energy decisions these days? Early in the year, fuel economy ranked 18th out of 56 car-buying considerations. In September, CNW Marketing Research asked the same questions and fuel economy dropped to 21st. First on the list is low monthly payment followed by quality, styling, visibility and the automaker's reputation. Also more important than gas mileage were passenger protection, front air bags, the sound systems and even cup holders. Analyst Art Spinella explains that shoppers will buy based on the future, and they think prices will stabilize or even go down. J.D. Power research came to similar conclusions. Mileage ranked eighth out of 20 considerations, two spots behind performance.[Source: Rick Popely/Chicago Tribune via thestate.com]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Howard Lee Harkness 1:08PM (11/26/2006)
"Analyst Art Spinella explains that shoppers will buy based on the future, and they think prices will stabilize or even go down. J.D. Power research came to similar conclusions."
Last week or so, the stories posted here quoted surveys that claimed that consumers were convinced that energy prices would go up soon, and the current low prices were 'temporary'.
Being a survey-taker is a lot like being a government economist; it's among the few professions in which you can have a long and successful career without ever being correct about anything.
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A.Brien 2:35PM (11/26/2006)
There is no miracle with gas because they have the
same basic technology for all the cars and trucks. So the
bigger and faster the more it consume so it give a
prestigious image if you consume a lot. The ones
with tiny little cars look like protesters and the
big one look part of the game. Me too i like to have
big horsepower and speed but with a water-hydrogen
systems. The prototypes fuel-cell cars from the differents divisions of the car compagny are too
slow. They should go for big horsepowers and a system
on-board to split water and recirculate the water exhaust so we fill just once a month or so. No need
to sacrifice performances. They can make the hydrogen cars with all the latest features so we and i will fly faster and no need to adopt a deceiving
car. We can go faster and pollute less so where is the problems? I think that manufacturers are aware
now that they sold second or third quality products for years and years and they try to say that hydrogen
car technology is complicated. They should just admit that they are owed by big credit-goverment business that rule the entire markets from the war
to the montly car-oil payments. The car compagny have no identity so they cannot decide anything.
The ad on t.v by toyota with a windmill 3 months ago
just lasted an hour. They are run by the new system
of infinite monthly payments so the car is never owed
by the customer, even some car-dealer don't have a
detail price for the car but just montly payments
packages.
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Steve 9:14PM (11/26/2006)
Americans fall right back into their high consumption status symbol lifestyles when the pain of high fuel prices goes below threshold! The car dealers, to be fair, often encourage this by offering lower and lower monthly payments to increase "affordability". Check out all these car dealer scam news headlines to see what I mean.
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Steve 9:17PM (11/26/2006)
Sorry, here is the link to the car dealer scam news headlines in the previous post: http://byownerautosales.com/modules.php?mod=Extra_Pages&pg=news_links
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Schneegz 7:29AM (11/27/2006)
It's not consumers that are driving the sale of gas-guzzling vehicles! No! The American public wants to buy fuel efficient vehicles, but the evil manufacturers, the even more evil oil companies and the suprememly evil US government are in cahoots to deny the American consumer what he or she wants!
It's not as though ours is a consumer-driven economy in which corporations must provide the consumer with the products he or she wants, at prices he or she is willing to pay, in order to survive economically!
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