Ho, Ho, Huh? High gas prices putting a damper on car sales but not holiday spirit

In one of the least surprising announcements of the season (coming in not too far behind "It's cold" in most of America), the folks over at Kelley Blue Book Marketing Research are saying that high gas prices are causing many new car shoppers to spend less. The reason, "shoppers spend less on self in order to spend more on others," KBB said in a statement. Almost half (44 percent) of "in-market new-vehicle shoppers are looking at cars they normally would not have considered due to the pain at the pump." The winners are crossovers, sedans and hatchbacks. The losers are SUVs. KBB's study found that Americans are also eating out less and buying fewer "non essential retail items" thanks to the more-than-$3-a-gallon prices. KBB conducted the study during the first week of December.

[Source: Kelley Blue Book]