I sold a lawnmower to a Young couple at a G.Sale last summer. I commented on his Nice New truck... He said it had a 5 year payoff loan of $798.00 a month!

True SUVs are quickly becoming a thing of the past. A typical SUV is a body on frame vehicle, with a north/south facing engine, rear wheel/4 wheel drive. What most people call an SUV are actually crossovers, which are typically unibody construction, an east/west engine, front wheel/all wheel drive configuration. Basically, a crossover is a vehicle with SUV styling built on a car platform. Think of the most common "SUVs"- Ford edge/explorer/escape, chevy traverse/equinox, jeep patriot/compass-they're all unibody with east/west engines and front wheel/all wheel drive.

Yep I agree IMO. They just go and go the one I have gets 40 plus on the hwy.

If you could still buy a full size car people would. These little cracker boxes are a joke. Have to buy a suv to have any room and horsepower. Just another symptom of too much government.

The sudden rise in vehicles prices ,Heck anything that had to be financed can be linked the banks extending the time you can finance. If 48 -60 months was all they would finance people couldn't afford a 50- 80 k dollar car. Same with a bass boat. In the 80's 36 months all they would do on a used boat and 48 on new. Same with cars. Heck now a person can finance a bass boat for up to 25 years !!!! (didn't say smart) Suv and pickup buyers can go as long as 96 months now !!!

We had a small car. Chev Cruze. Good car. We went for a crossover. Got a chevolet equinox. About five grand more than the Cruze, all wheel drive, selctable for better mileage, with a four cylinder turbo that gets almost as good mileage as the Cruze. Plus, I took four adults, a dog, downhill ski gear, luggage, and a bunch of other stuff to the airport and dropped them off the other day without trouble. Try that in a car. I don't use a truck for trapping, and it will haul all my toys, sleds, ATVs, boats, etc (except for the big boat) without trouble and get great mileage doing it.

If I don't need a truck, why would I buy a car? The back seats fold down to an all weather plastic rear that handles a muddy dog or a bunch of beaver in a pinch.

Also, Ford is still offering their hatchback focus as well as the mustang.

We did finance it, but at like one percent, and five years. I would never finance anything without a warranty, and when the financing is up, so is the warranty. Sell it, repeat. No shop costs. If I was a mechanic, it would be cheaper for me.to keep vehicles longer.

I like Nissan Versa hatchbacks.

I own a nice Chevy 2500 but only drive it when I need a truck....pulling boat, hauling quad, moving beehives etc. I have a beater 2004 Hyundai Accent that I drive every day. I can drive it and get 2 1/2 times the mpg, I bought 4 new tires for it for $133 delivered ( as opposed to $1000 for my truck, it only holds 3.4 quarts of oil, compared to 6 for the truck. It’s easy to park and goes well in the snow. It’s my hunting and trapping vehicle....but I make a point to drive the truck every week to keep the brakes freed up. The Accent will be retired in July, gonna replace it with a Subaru.

Gas won’t always be a bargain.

My wife and I do pretty good financially but we can not afford any brand new vehicle. I bought a 2005 chevy silverado with 133k miles and I still whince at the thought I paid 13k for it. A new truck payment is darn near equal to my mortgage payment. I refuse to pay that much for a truck but buying used can bite you too, I already put 1k into brakes and have had a starter issue and will replace my starter, I bought from a dealer to avoid thsee very issues but they have no sympathy and do not care at all after the sale.

I am madder than a wet hen over the billions these car manufacturers took from us (Ford excluded) and then they charge us the cost of a house for a new truck that has to be special ordered to get an 8 foot bed which costs even more. I do not know what we will do when my kids start to drive.

We were going to trade our 2011 Chevy Malibu in today for a Toyota, well 2 days ago on my wife’s way home from work she called my and said the car won’t move and of coarse she was at a traffic light. Transmission went out with 90000 miles on this car. My 08 Chevy cobalt has had all shocks and struts replaced at 60000 miles. The mechanic told me these cars are throwaway cars. Right on Big 3! I will never buy another made in the USA car unless they get their act together!!

Sad!!!

I'll echo what Loosegoose said, true SUV's like the old full size Ford Bronco and Chevy Blazer are things of the past. The SUV's of today are the station wagons of the 1960's and 1970's. They are a family vehicle that is easy to put kids and groceries in and out of, have good visibility, and will take your kids and the neighbors kids to soccer practice with all their gear. That's why they are so popular. Small cars are for the very young and the very old. Trucks are for men.

I think that the government should of attached Tariffs long ago on the countries that tag our US vehicles going there.

That would have slowed up the Japanese influx years ago.

Someone got bought off.

Why would you want to slow the Japanese influx? Then our options would be limited to paying big money for American-made junk and supporting mismanagement and bloated unions.

Hahahaha

Before Japanese cars hit the US market cars fell apart before reaching 100,000 miles. Some said Detroit would buy back any vehicle that went over 100K to see what they did right. If they actually did buy any back I think it was to see what they did wrong. The Japanese made American car mfgs change their ways and make quality vehicles. My wife has a `99 Rav 4 with 212K miles that still has the original shocks/struts, exhaust, rear brakes, and almost everything else. That stuff had to be replaced every 20K on American mfg vehicles until the Japanese changed the game. I remember working as an engineer in a nuclear power plant in 1980 making $8/hr but my coworkers nephew was making $18/hr in Detroit polishing hoods for GM. I have zero sympathy for the members of the American Auto Workers Union who lost their jobs to foreign completion. They would not have lost their jobs if they had not been screwing their fellow Americans.

Amen Brother!

The attitude that EDP has is ASSUMING the auto workers were /are all wrong!

Management has a tendency to get sloppy when producing anything, cars as well. Its called a BONUS in getting more out.

I worked at Oldsmobile for 30 of my 40 years. There was a more conscience there than say Flint-Buick.

I know for a fact from the people who were transferred to Lansing had a poor working attitude. As per/Oldsmobile workers.

Oh, sure there were lazy people at Oldsmobile as well who would just plug along.

Been so long since I've owned a car, I don't know if I remember how to drive one. Trucks the last 35 years. My wife doesn't even want a car since she had her first 4WD.

I think GM was wrong in getting rid of Pontiac and keeping Buick. Chevy should have kept the Trailblazer instead of that ugly thing they replaced it with. Tahoes are over priced for what you're getting, IMO.

I still see a lot of cars on the road just not USA brands.