calling all idiots

This is a plea to everyone that is quickly influenced by drops in gas prices. Because of my job, I am well aware of the buying habits of divers, and how those trends are affected by gas prices. I watch the sales of trucks and SUVs shift the opposite way of gas prices all the time. This year, people finally realized that the days of cheap gas are gone. I'm not saying it won't drop below $2/gallon ever again, but if it does, it ain't staying there for long. I know this is not good news for the auto makers, but if the consumers would shift their interest to fuel efficiency, then they could charge more for smaller vehicles.

For years, the American drivers have seen value in size and speed. This caused the big three (GM, Ford, and DCX) to shift their production there, and in the end, they made higher profits on those vehicles. They make very little money on cars, because of a couple factors: less economies of scale and production, and less demand on the retail side. Sorry America, but this is an area that we need to look to Europe for insight. European governments add much higher taxes to gas. Ideally, they will then lower taxes on income. Either way, it lowers the demand for gas, and causes the consumers to purchase smaller vehicles. The car manufacturers are then able to charge more for smaller vehicles, because the consumer values MPG efficiency. It might take a bankruptcy or two before they realize they have to make this shift.

They manufacturers have always claimed that they had to make big vehicles because that's what the consumer wanted. This is our chance to tell them that we are changing, and that they had better invest in something other than size, because there's going to be little or no profit in the big vehicles. Gas prices will go up, so when they shoot back up to $4/gallon, don't be stuck with your recent purchase of a gas guzzler.