Price still most important factor when buying car; fuel economy, not so much
A
recent poll conducted by Progressive Insurance and NADA asked participants to rank their most important new-car
attributes. 46% of the respondents stated that "price" is still the #1 concern (that constant background
noise you hear in the auto industry is another round of incentives being cranked up), where as only 3% stated that
"fuel economy" was their biggest concern. 11% went so far as to rank efficiency as their least concern.
"Vehicle make and model" was ranked second in the survey, while "performance" and
"safety" tied for third.
So, then, we need low-cost vehicles that consume a lot of fuel, but we don't necessarily want that fuel consumption to be used to enhance the performance or safety of those vehicles. I'm pretty sure the '78 K5 Blazer I had in high school would have fit those criteria.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dave in MI 5:25PM (1/30/2006)
That would change if gas prices spiked. American buyers don't seem to think in the long term.
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Robert Brodrecht 5:28PM (1/30/2006)
But I thought satisfaction sold cars!
http://www.autoblog.com/2006/01/29/satisfaction-not-sticker-price-sells-cars/
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Wrench 6:02PM (1/30/2006)
IN THE REAL WORLD
Price and Purpose are still number one. Many Americans aren't blessed with huge surplus in income. Therefore, they can't afford to spent $30,000 on a compact hybrid. They also use their vehicles for work and play. So the truck will continue to sell. Gas prices are $2.20 a gallon (most domestics run on 87 octane), that is still less than a gallon of milk. Not comparable to the $6.00-$7.00/gal in Europe.
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j-dawg 6:31PM (1/30/2006)
This is interesting. Supposing I buy an old Gran Fury in good mechanical shape for $500, reasoning that I'm going to save on the initial price, and have the extra money to spend on gas, as well as having a nice, huge car. Sure, it'll only get 10mpg, but if my motivation to buy a more frugal car is to save on gas, and I have to spend $20,000 to get it, that's $19,500 that I'd have to be saving on gas. Assuming gas were $3.00 per gallon, I'd have to buy 6,500 gallons of gas to make up the difference. Assuming 10mpg, that's just 65,000 miles I'd have to drive before I'd have paid the difference--a whopping $19,500--in gas costs alone.
If the Gran Fury were to be a daily driver, and one drove 20,000 miles per year, that would mean one would be saving money only if one stopped driving before three years and three months were up.
Wow.
Of course, that's disregarding the fact that you still have to pay for gas in a new car, but if that new car gets 30mpg you've only tacked on probably another year. It also ignores the price of insurance, which is likely to be less on an old boat like the hypothetical Gran Fury in question.
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Jim P 6:43PM (1/30/2006)
What's amazing about the people who bitch and complain about the price for a gallon of gas, is they have no problems forking over $1.25 for 20 OUNCE BOTTLE OF WATER!!!! while they're paying for their gas they just pumped.
Let's see...1 U.S. Gallon = 128 U.S. Fluid Ounces
So, if they were to buy a gallon of their favorite spring water, it would cost them about $8.00/ gallon.
(6.4 20 oz. bottles X $1.25)
Kinda makes gasoline a steal at 2-3 dollars a gallon. Not to mention it takes a lot more energy and cost to refine it. And no, I don't work for the big energy companies, LOL!! Just a different perspective.
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David C 8:01PM (1/30/2006)
I'd say price is the most important thing when people buy ANYTHING...including gas. It is so unless they have a deeper understanding of the product they buy, then they are able to seperate that cheaper price is not better value.
Only thing this survay tells me is that most people are out looking for a good deal.
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Chris W 9:11PM (1/30/2006)
j-dawg, your numbers are extreme because you use an extreme gas hog and rack up high miles. Not everyone hits that extreme. Gas savings reach diminishing returns as you look at cars with higher MPG.
Let's look at my own real-life situation. My Cheap Korean Subcompact (CKS) satisfies the I-want-cheap criteria. It's about $12K brand new (actually, I bought it used for $5K, but we'll use new car prices). It gets an unremarkable 27 MPG on my daily 20 mile rush hour commute. In practice, I throw $15-$20 every other week in gas at it. So that comes to say $10/week, 50 weeks per year (exclude 2 weeks of vacations): $500/year. This is my real life usage.
Let's say I look longingly at Prominent Japanese Hybrid (PJH), which gets infinite MPG and costs $22K. PJH costs $10K more than my beloved CKS, so to nominally make back that $10K at $500/yr would take 20 years. That's without calculating the time value of money and additional insurance ... would I ever get my money back?
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Eric Bryant 7:42AM (1/31/2006)
Jim P (#5) - interesting comparison, but it kinda falls flat simply because my truck consumes more gas than I consume water ;)
You do have a point, though - for many people, gas just isn't that expensive. To be honest, I probably spend more on food than I do on gasoline, since I don't drive much.
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Tag1 10:26AM (1/31/2006)
Buyers are Liars! Consumers are paying more Asian models than the same class domestic.
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