Cars
So Cheap, Who Cares About Gas?
Fire-sale prices on SUVs make up for the pain at the pump.
From Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, September 2008
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Steve Musser, an Atlanta restaurant executive, wasn't planning to part with his 2001 SUV -- not when he and his wife pack three sons and two dogs, plus gear, into the SUV for frequent trips to a vacation home in Florida. But he couldn't resist incentives offered by Steve Rayman Chevrolet on a 2008 Suburban LTZ. "The sticker price was $53,800, and I paid $40,000," boasts Musser.
Deals abound on these hulking vehicles, which many view as gas-guzzling white elephants. Most experts say the markdowns will continue as automakers struggle with the slowest sales in a decade.
Manufacturers' incentives are flirting with record highs, says Jesse Toprak, of Edmunds.com. Add in dealership discounts and you could recently take an average $7,200 off the sticker price of a big SUV and $3,900 off a midsize model. But with gas at $4 a gallon, are even heavily discounted SUVs a bargain?
In many cases, the answer is yes. At the end of 2007, for instance, when gas was just over $3 a gallon, you'd have paid an average $33,053 for a 2008 Dodge Durango with a V8 engine, according to J.D. Power and Associates. You would have spent an average $2,424 in gas for a year (driving 12,000 miles). In June, the negotiated price for the same SUV was $30,749. That's enough of a price break to cover the $800 more a year you would spend on gas at slightly more than $4 a gallon for almost three years. (You can figure your own fuel costs at www.fueleconomy.gov.)
By Michael Ritter
Reader Comments (3)
Posted by: hunter jacob at 08/21/2008 08:00:34 PM
I am glad that Mr Musser saved a bundle of money on the purchase of his gas guzzler, but what solution does this provide for our population's dependency for oil. Mr Musser should have considered a hybrid model that GM now provides. Glamorizing such idiotic purchases only continues the USA's oil dependency. Thanks to the author and Mr Musser for making sure the price I pay at the pump continues to rise.
Posted by: John Flynn at 08/24/2008 12:39:49 PM
First time I've posted to this site, I felt compelled to. So cheap--who cares about gas. It is yours and my generation that caused this reckless dependence on oil. This is the single biggest national security issue facing us for the next fifty years, at least. China and Russia are not curbing their thirst for oil and are posturing to go to world war over it...no one wants to go to war, but face the facts. It's a finite resource that every piece of national infrastructure and military operations depends on. Additionally, the countries that provide us oil, those countries that we send billions of our own dollars to, are using that money to kill Americans...not every country but some. That should get under the skin of every American--we are in the midst of the largest transfer of wealth in the history of the world--to countries that hate us--and we are complimenting the consumer who goes out and buys a 10 mpg SUV? At the very least he should have considered a hybrid. USA needs to rid itself of the "Because I can, I will" selfish attitude. The politicians' pockets are lined by the oil companies so they're not going to move. It's up to us, each individual American, to commit ourselves to ridding our foreign oil dependence, and to eventually rid ourselves of any oil dependence, period...I'll pay hundreds more per month for alternative energy (and so will many other Americans) to get us out of this rut and give our children and grandchildren a better world to live in...
Posted by: Jerry G. The HUN at 02/03/2009 10:54:38 PM
Get a reality check, boys, without so called global warming( actually weather variations & trends) you would be under 2 miles of ice. Try & forget the high school brainwashing you live by & check out a few facts.