This summer’s gotta-have-it item is turning out to be a 10-year-old car.
Gas prices topping $4 per gallon have droves of people searching for cars that get good gas mileage. They’re haunting used car lots, posting “wanted” ads online and keeping a vigilant eye on the classifieds.
The cars of choice: Hondas (Civic and Accord), Toyotas (Corolla and Camry) and Fords (Focus and Fusion).
Loved for their efficiency and reputation for reliability, these cars are now drawing offers far higher than their Blue Book value. Some sellers report bidding wars that would make a new car dealer envious.
But at some Lansing-area used car dealerships, the trend isn’t quite as pervasive. Prospective buyers are asking about gas mileage and looking more toward cars than gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs, but it still comes down to the price in the window, no matter the vehicle.
Lansing Auto Connection owner Mark George said despite customer concern about gas mileage, “it always comes down to the price.”
“I can still sell SUVs. It’s just they have to be cheap and they have to be nice,” he said.
But George has noticed a bit of a shift among his customers.
“The difference is most people are just looking for cars in general,” he said. “I used to sell more trucks and vans and now my market’s geared a little bit more toward cars.”
That doesn’t mean mileage doesn’t matter though. With high gas prices, it’s high on the list of buyer issues.
” ‘How many miles to the gallon will this get?’ is a much more common question now,” George said. “We’re always prepared to answer that question.
“It really didn’t used to matter. Nobody used to care about miles per gallon, but now it’s usually the first question they ask.”
Cars are about 60 percent to 70 percent of the business’ sales, while the remaining portion is made up of sport utility vehicles and trucks, said Jesse Shelton, a Lansing Auto Connection employee. The business typically sells an average of 15 vehicles per month.
