Thirty miles per gallon. That benchmark is emerging as the defining criteria for motorists who are hoping to find relief from steadily rising gas prices. It’s more important than style, color or power.
“It’s definitely changing,” said Drew Koehnke, sales manager for Power Auto Center in Corvallis, who carries Buick, Pontiac and Cadillac autos. “Now people come in and ask what we’ve got that’s over 30 miles per gallon and go from there.”
With a gallon of regular now selling for more that $4 a gallon in half of U.S. states, Oregonians have been paying that much for weeks now. With the price of a fill-up for many SUVs now hovering around $100, fuel-efficient cars are all the rage.
Despite a general slowdown in the auto market, car sales rose by 2.4 percent in May. Nearly 60 percent of all new vehicles purchased nationally last month were cars, with the smallest, most affordable ones performing best. No surprise, when you consider that filling up smaller sedans costs about $38.
Detroit automakers felt the push worst. Long a staple of U.S. automakers, pickups, SUVs and minivans declined by 23.6 percent.
It’s those vehicles that many are trying to offload, or at least reduce their dependence. But they’re not getting good news from auto dealers.
Phil Dowd, who owns John & Phil’s Toyota in Corvallis, said his dealership is offering $7,000 to $10,000 less than blue book values for trade-ins on gas guzzlers. It doesn’t help that a good number of people looking to get out of low-mileage vehicles.
“Our advice to them is to hang on to them, right or wrong; use it for what you bought it for, but use it sparingly,” Dowd said.
Consumers are fired up about hybrid cars, such as Toyota’s Prius. Due to demand — and a calculated backlog on the part of the manufacturer — prospective buyers must wait at least 90 days for new models to become available.
So when Dowd’s used-car manager found a handful of the used Toyota hybrids at an auction, he bought one at more than full retail — a price Dowd figures he can get from someone eager to start saving at the pump.
“There are people who would pay hundreds or even thousands over retail to have one now,” he said.
He wishes he had that opportunity with other models, but such is not the case right now. Sales of Toyota’s newest Tundra, a V-8 powerhouse, are very slow, he said.
Honda has been the big winner in the race to smaller cars. The company’s Honda and Acura brands saw a combined 31.9 percent gain in car sales in May.
Ross Mangum, a salesman at University Honda in Corvallis, said his store is breaking records with sales of Civic hybrids and little four-cylinder models such as the tiny 34-mile-per-gallon Fit. Last month, University Honda sold 56 vehicles, nearly half of them Civics.
Mangum also said sales of small used commuter cars priced under $5,000 have taken off, as people opt for a third vehicle rather than take a big hit trading in their truck or SUV.
“Usually they bought them in the first place because they have a boat,” he said. “They park them, use them for what they want, but get a third vehicle to offset it.”
