If you are looking for a story angle to link to record oil prices,
try this one from The Boston Globe. Car dealer lots are filling up with big SUVs, pickups and other gas hogs:
With stocks of unwanted new SUVs and pickups piling up at dealerships across the country, automakers are offering unprecedented promotions. Incentives for large SUVs, including cash rebates, topped $4,000 in March, or more than double those offered in March 2002, according to Edmunds.com, which monitors the motor industry.
At the same time, consumers ... are flooding the market with used SUVs, trying to trade in hulking Hummers for compact Corollas, and getting thousands of dollars less than they would have just a few months ago. In April, the average used SUV took more than 66 days to sell, at a 20 percent discount from vehicle valuation books, such as Kelley Blue Book, compared to 48 days and a 7.8 percent discount a year earlier, reported CNW Marketing Research, an automotive marketing research company.
Some desperate car dealers and consumers are willing to lose thousands of dollars just to get rid of their SUVs.
Now, wait just a minute.
As BankRate.com points out, it often doesn't make financial sense to trade in a serviceable gas guzzler for a new, greener car. You are going to get a lousy deal on the trade-in, pay a lot more for the new car and then expect to make up the difference by buying less gasoline? That is not likely to work out. Look at the math first.
This just reinforces my belief that Clark Howard should be...
