Oops, I bought a new car.
Not me, but apparently, a bunch of people are doing just that. GM has found as people have started bringing in their vehicles for repair for one of the millions of recalls they’ve sent out (I hear they’re wording recall notices for cars they haven’t even built yet), a funny thing is happening on the way to the showroom: those people are realizing their old crappy car doesn’t look so hot, so they’re buying a new one.
GM is helping the effort along. In most cases, if you have a certain recalled car, they’ll give you a 500 buck chit towards a new GM vehicle. So, clutching a coupon they don’t dare let go to waste, people are hopping back into a new car by a brand they hope has learned its lesson.
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The car buying public is a tricky thing. Fickle in many respects, predictable in few, we say we want one thing and then we buy another. What do we want? We want environmentally friendly smaller cars. When do we want it? We want it now. What do we buy? Pickup trucks.
Year in, year out on both sides of the border, pickup trucks – specifically the Ford F-150 – drives away with top-seller honours. Not just in trucks; in vehicles, period. Get an hour outside any of the major cities and it makes more sense, with people needing a vehicle that will do triple duty for work, recreation and less-civilized terrain. But increasingly, these pickup trucks are just as luxurious as any leather-wombed BMW or Cadillac.
Chevy Silverado pickup trucks sit on display at a General Motors Co. dealership in Peoria, Illinois, U.S., on Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2012.
Daniel Acker, Bloomberg
I remember the oil crisis in 1972/73. More specifically, I remember my Dad freaking out he wouldn’t be able to pilot our eight-cylinder gas-sucking Rambler to the cottage. I also remember people pondering that maybe we’d have to stop driving eight-cylinder gas-sucking vehicles altogether. I’m sure the talks were earnest, until the oil started flowing again and everybody went back to buying whatever they wanted. Amnesia is awesome.
Remember when gas prices broke the signs? When station owners were scrambling to let us know that gas was now more than 99.9 cents a litre? I remember a psychologist who had nothing to do with the auto industry telling me once they’d broken that triple digit barrier, we would get accustomed to it and never look back.
Every time gas prices spike, I ask George Iny of the Automobile Protection Association if this is the time that will make everybody take a long hard look at the fuel efficiency of their purchases. Up until last year he would tell me the same thing: no. “People head to a showroom very prepared to buy that fuel-efficient subcompact, but one of two things happens. Either they look a few metres away and see a larger car for only a few thousand more, or they buy the subcompact and a year later realize they didn’t buy enough car.”
The latest figures from DesRosiers Automotive Consultants show interesting movement: while we’ve finally started buying more subcompacts, the other big gainers? Large SUVs.
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Manufacturers have crammed more luxury into even their tater tot cars, and squeezed more fuel efficiency out of the big boys. If you’re wondering what happened to all the electric cars that dominated the news and the ads for so long, you’re not alone. Sales stagnated in spite of huge government incentives, as if nobody wanted to dive off the board first and test the water. The technology in these vehicles is genius, the research and development has cost billions, we said we wanted clean cars and it will be where we end up eventually. So why don’t we buy them? “Because the public can be an ass,” says Mr. Iny.
Manufacturers are going through hoops to give us a demand list that once was a wish list, and if that electric or hybrid is sitting next to a cheaper version that gets excellent fuel efficiency, we hesitate. It’s like taking your pretty sister along on a first date and wondering why your guy feels conflicted.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s this resistance to change that is aiding GM’s bottom line now, especially in the U.S. The uptick in year-over-year sales for GM’s vehicles with the biggest profit margins is eye popping. Chevy Suburban is up 73% over 2013; Cadillac Escalade up 84%; Chevy Tahoe up 93%; and the GMC Yukon up a mind-boggling 120%.
These were supposed to be dinosaurs by now. Instead, we’re seeing heels being dug in, in an economy that keeps punishing so many. Another disturbing trend? Aftermarket smokestacks on diesel trucks that produce a blast of black smoke and use more fuel – on purpose. “Rolling coal” is a YouTube hit, a direct flip of the bird to anyone who feels any agency at all in the future of our fossil fuel consumption. Keep on frackin’, boys.
What do we want? We want it all. What will we buy? We’re still not sure. When will we buy it? We’ll let you know.
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