> The numbers say otherwise. 51% of all vehicles sold in the US in December 2008 were pickups or SUVs. [1] Average vehicle sales price is $25,000 [2], despite the existence of nice cheap fuel-efficient cars like the Yaris at $12,000.
Actually, the numbers don't say that.
If you only have one car, that car has to satisfy almost all of your car needs. The Yaris doesn't for a lot of people. (The Scion xB does for a lot more people.)
If you're going to buy an "extra" car for its mileage, it has to be cost less than the amount of money that you save by using it instead of your "all uses" car. A $12k extra car usually doesn't do that.
A 10mpg vehicle will use 10k gallons over 100k. A 15mpg vehicle uses 6.6k gallons. A 20mpg vehicle uses 5k gallons, 30mpg uses 3.3k, a 40mpg vehicle uses 2.5k, and a 50mpg vehicle uses 2k gallons.
At $4/g, the 10mpg vehicle's gas costs $40k, the 15mpg vehicle's gas costs $26.6k, the 20mpg vehicle's gas costs $20k, 30mpg costs $13k, the 40mpg vehicle's gas costs $10k, and the 50mpg vehicle's gas costs $8k.
Note that gas isn't the only cost - the "gas saver" extra car also has license/registration, insurance, maintenance, time value of money (the gas cost is over time while the purchase cost either isn't, or requires paying interest), etc.
So, if you're already getting 15mpg, the gas savings from an extra vehicle that gets 40mpg are considerably less than $12k.
If you're already getting 20mpg, it's even harder to save money by buying an extra vehicle.
In other words, the guy who wanted a $4k gas saver may have been at the upper end of economic sense - the "extra car to save gas" probably needs to be less than $3k.
Yes, the ability to "rent" big vehicles for occasional usage can let people have smaller "main" cars, but only if the rental cost is sufficiently low. I note that the zip car people seem to have gone the other direction. Hertz and the like charge a significant premium for big vehicles.
And the loss of flexibility is important. I can (and have) gone diving with 15 minutes notice. If I had to rent a car....
And, yes, many families have multiple vehicles. They still have to satisfy simultaneous users so the above analysis applies. (Yes, many can, and do, make do with a "big" and "medium", but that means that a 3rd vehicle to save gas must cost even less than the above suggests because they're already using the big vehicle less than their average.)
I want a vehicle that costs $4,000 and does moderate-good mileage with good safety. It could be a possibility with Tata Motors buying out brands like Jaguar and Land Rover. They have a vehicle that fills this criteria selling for $2,500.
I know, however, that if I'm spending $12,000 on a Yaris, $25,000 on your basic sedan or $35,000 on a Ford F-150 what am I going to choose? Well I'm going with the F-150 (or other truck) because the amount it'll cost me to do 'extra' things with a car is going to cost me more than it saves to buy a truck. I've worked in construction, which means any work on my own house is going to be done with my two hands and everything I use needs to be loaded into my truck.
If there was a car for $4,000 I'd probably get it and suffer with renting a U-Haul every time I wanted to do something, but over the run of 10 years U-Haul's will add up way past the $10,000 difference between a truck and a sedan.
Actually, the numbers don't say that.
If you only have one car, that car has to satisfy almost all of your car needs. The Yaris doesn't for a lot of people. (The Scion xB does for a lot more people.)
If you're going to buy an "extra" car for its mileage, it has to be cost less than the amount of money that you save by using it instead of your "all uses" car. A $12k extra car usually doesn't do that.
A 10mpg vehicle will use 10k gallons over 100k. A 15mpg vehicle uses 6.6k gallons. A 20mpg vehicle uses 5k gallons, 30mpg uses 3.3k, a 40mpg vehicle uses 2.5k, and a 50mpg vehicle uses 2k gallons.
At $4/g, the 10mpg vehicle's gas costs $40k, the 15mpg vehicle's gas costs $26.6k, the 20mpg vehicle's gas costs $20k, 30mpg costs $13k, the 40mpg vehicle's gas costs $10k, and the 50mpg vehicle's gas costs $8k.
Note that gas isn't the only cost - the "gas saver" extra car also has license/registration, insurance, maintenance, time value of money (the gas cost is over time while the purchase cost either isn't, or requires paying interest), etc.
So, if you're already getting 15mpg, the gas savings from an extra vehicle that gets 40mpg are considerably less than $12k.
If you're already getting 20mpg, it's even harder to save money by buying an extra vehicle.
In other words, the guy who wanted a $4k gas saver may have been at the upper end of economic sense - the "extra car to save gas" probably needs to be less than $3k.
Yes, the ability to "rent" big vehicles for occasional usage can let people have smaller "main" cars, but only if the rental cost is sufficiently low. I note that the zip car people seem to have gone the other direction. Hertz and the like charge a significant premium for big vehicles.
And the loss of flexibility is important. I can (and have) gone diving with 15 minutes notice. If I had to rent a car....
And, yes, many families have multiple vehicles. They still have to satisfy simultaneous users so the above analysis applies. (Yes, many can, and do, make do with a "big" and "medium", but that means that a 3rd vehicle to save gas must cost even less than the above suggests because they're already using the big vehicle less than their average.)