From the National Review:
Washington Disconnect: SUV Sales Well Over 50 Percent of Market
As if to put a punctuation mark on how out-of-touch Washington is with the electorate, October vehicle sales released today reveal that SUV sales have now almost fully rebounded from their pre-recession numbers and now make up 53 percent of the market, with cars at just 47 percent. The numbers have flipped since last October as the economy recovers and customers return to bigger, more fuel-thirsty vehicles.
The figures came in the same month that the Obama administration ordered the EPA to study raising average mpg mandates to an absurd 62 mpg by 2025 (why not 100 mpg? Do I hear 150?) on top of an already fanciful 35 mpg figure by 2015. Currently, only cars like the tiny Smart two-seater make 35 mpg while the market trend is away from compacts.
To justify their mpg mandates, Washington Democrats claim that Americans are warming to hybrids. But October sales contradict these claims, as hybrid sales continued their drop to just 2.6 percent of the market - down from 2.9 percent last year (and 3.1 for 2009 as a whole)
Heh - talk about inconvenient truths. Speaking personally, my daily driver is a Ford (gotta love that the company didn't need a government bailout and is now quite profitable) F-350 full cab longbed four wheel drive diesel. I love it.
Gasoline is a tool -- you use it to do work. Sure, it would be nice if the truck got 50 MPG instead of 22 but I can afford to fill the tank and it hauls whatever I need without a peep of complaint.
Consumer reports did a writeup on the smart cars about a year ago. They are surprisingly safe in a collision but apparently you feel every grain of sand on the road surface and they are very loud. An uncomfortable ride. Give me a couple hundred horses of diesel, 4X4 and a cushy interior any day...
