This from Fridays "USA Today" Money section:

"High fuel prices are causing the value of used SUVs to plummet, often below what's listed in the buying guides many shoppers use to negotiate with dealers.

As a result, some new-car buyers think they're getting cheated by dealers who are offering them little for their SUV trade-ins.

"The dealer is going to offer a price, and the customer is going to be ticked off," says Tom Webb, chief economist for Manheim, operators of auctions where car dealers buy their used-vehicle inventories. "The guidebooks have not caught up to the market," he says."

"A lot of folks are just abstaining from trading," says Tom Kontos of Adesa Analytical Services. It's "getting harder and harder to even sell it."

Read the entire article here:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2008-05-08-suvs-resale-value_N.htm

Also I just saw something while driving I'd never seen before. One of those transport truck carriers full of used slightly dented compact cars ALL with Texas License plates! The transport also had Texas plates.

I figure some dealer in Beaverton is SO hard up for used compacts to sell, he's willing to have them trucked in from other states! Talk about a change in the wind!

"Also I just saw something while driving I'd never seen before. One of those transport truck carriers full of used slightly dented compact cars ALL with Texas License plates! The transport also had Texas plates."


Why would you think compacts would sell better in Oregon than Texas?

More likely, they are cars that have been in the Texas floods and are being unloaded on unsuspecting buyers far from home.

The way the market is going, I would say if you own a big SUV to suck it up and pay the higher gas costs. When you consider the abysmal trade-in you will likely get, it would be cheaper to buy $5 a gallon gas than to take a $5000 hit on the trade-in value.

Hmmm....

Wonder if there won't be a market for conversions? Lots of shiny new SUV's out there that are very expensive to use.

Would they be less expensive on LP, bio-diesel, smaller engines, different trannies?

Deane, I think you are spot on.

I think the reason why is they can't afford the quantity of said $5/gallon gas it would take to get to and from their job, much less anything else; that's why they are trying to get rid of the SUVs.

This article was posted on another website I frequent--"Gas Prices Send Surge of Riders to Mass Transit":
http://biz.yahoo.com/nytimes/080510/1194773598703.html?.v=12
Also mentions that various transit districts have no clue how they're going to maintain existing service as tax revenues decrease and diesel prices skyrocket.

Most transit companies are going to a lot more LNG-powered vehicles ... better for the environment, and cheaper.

> More likely, they are cars that have been in the Texas floods and are
> being unloaded on unsuspecting buyers far from home.

After listening to Clark Howard's show on Friday, I would say that this is likely. Howard was explaining that Oregon is one of two states that has laws whereby used car dealers and services like Carfacts cannot legally tell prospective buyers whether the car they are purchasing was deemed "totalled" in another state.

By the way, I have been wondering, what kind of motor scooter does Clark Howard ride?

Yeah, I'm one of the surge of mass transit riders - - in Portland. The last time I put gas in my car was March 13, and I've still got almost 1/4 left. That includes a 2.5 hour trip to Newport. Other than a few short trips, the rest of my travel has been by bus, train, or foot.

What's interesting about mass transit is that it is a losing business. That's why it's not privately operated. TriMet for example has only about a 20% fare recovery rate (so 80% of the cost is paid for by business taxes). The irony is, the more "successful" TriMet is, the more money they will lose. If people start swarming to TriMet, they're either going to have to raise fares, business taxes, or both.

Andrew

What's interesting about mass transit is that it is a losing business.
I was just talking to someone else on Friday about this - lots of people think TriMet and the other transit districts out there have gobs of money, but the reality is the opposite.
TriMet has a factsheet on their website, and Andrew hit the farebox recovery rate right on... it's officially 20.8%. 56.9% come from the business taxes (most of that is the payroll tax), the rest comes from operating grants (13.8%) and "other sources" (8.5%).
So if someone that employs a lot of people in high-paying jobs closes up shop or leaves Portland (thinking of something like Intel, Standard or Wells Fargo), TriMet is f*cked, and businesses are going to have to figure out another way to get their employees to work (and we're assuming that driving to/from is ruled out because the employees can't afford the gas prices).

Where do you draw the line as to which public services must "cover their costs" and which should not? If you look at pure dollars and cents, then fire, police and public education are "losing businesses" also. If you look beyond the dollars, good public transportation systems provide valuable benefits to the society, just as fire, police, etc.

condemn all suburban housing, and move everyone back into the city limits.... no commuters! I envision the convienience of hi-rise cement block apartments, and maybe you can issue some kind of ID card that proves you live within the city so that you can get a city work permit.

Bring back streetcars and trolleys!

Edselehr makes a good point, but at some point the populace rails against the increased burden on their wallet from a TAX standpoint.......

I paid about $70 (@ $4.50/gal for biodiesel) last fillup, and that tank will last me for over 2 weeks/700 miles! Still cheaper on a cents-per-mile basis than my girlfriend's Yaris!

One of the bigger factors in deciding to purchase my house was it's location closer to the city and in proximity to transit. I'm beginning to think it was the right decision.

Re: converting SUVs - for many years, nearly all of the Taxis, delivery trucks and fleet vehicles in Canada have run as propane/LNG conversions. I don't know why the same couldn't be done with the land yahts, unless the computers are too sophisticated to allow it.